ever does to be too positive that a fellow is a duffer,"
mused Prescott grimly, as he gripped the leather.

Just when little Hutchins seemed on the point of going to pieces
he misjudged one of Dick's puts so completely that he struck it,
by accident, a fearful crack. A cloud of dust marked the limits
of the diamond, while the air was filled with yells and howls.
When the dust cleared and the howls had subsided it was found
that Dalzell had loped in across the home plate, Darrin had come
along more swiftly and was in, while Hutchins touched the second
base an instant after the ball had nestled in Greg Holmes's Army
mitt.

It mattered little that Earl, who came next to bat, struck out.
The Navy had pulled in two runs---the only runs scored so far!

In the other half the Army nine secured nothing.

In the fifth neither team scored. In the sixth the Navy scored
one more run. In the sixth Lanton, of the Army, got home with
a single run.

Thus, at the beginning of the seventh, the score stood at three
to one with the grin on the Naval face.

During the seventh inning nothing was scored. Now, the sailor
boys came to bat for the first half of the eighth, with a din
of Navy yells on the air. West Point's men came back with a sturdy
assortment of good old Military Academy yells, but the life was
gone out. The Army was proud of such men as Durville, Prescott,
Holmes, but admitted silently that Darrin and Dalzell appeared
to belong to a slightly better class of ball.

"It's our fault, too," muttered the Army coach, Lieutenant Lawrence,
to a couple of brother officers. "Darrin and Dalzell have been
training with the Navy nine for two years, while Prescott and
Holmes came in late this season. Even if they wouldn't play last
year, these two men of ours should have reported for the very
first day's work last February."

"Prescott couldn't do it," remarked Lieutenant Denton, who had just
joined the group.

"Why not, Denton?" asked Lieutenant Lawrence.

"He was in Coventry."

"Pshaw!"

"Didn't you know that?" asked Denton.

"Not a word of it, though Durville once hinted to me that there
was some sort of reason why Prescott couldn't come in."

"There was---the Coventry," Denton replied. "But that trouble
blew over when the first classmen found themselves wrong in something
of which Jordan had accused Prescott."

"Humph!" growled Lieutenant Lawrence, in keen displeasure. "Then,
if we lose to-day, the first c