to entirely
forget that impulsive flare-up of his so many months ago. For a long
time, to be sure, there had been few signs of active animosity from
the blond chap. It would be well-nigh impossible for any boy to long
maintain that excessive coldness toward a fellow with whom he was so
often and so intimately thrown. Especially since the beginning of
baseball practice there had been a good deal of intercourse between
them, but always Dale was conscious of a deep reserve looming up between
them like some invisible, insurmountable barrier. And there were times
when he would have given the world to break that barrier down.

Parker sniffed. "Then why does he do it? It only gets the fellows raw
without doing a scrap of good. You're a great one to stand up for him,
Tommy! He's treated you mean as dirt. Didn't he promise to let you pitch
in some of the games?"

"Why, n-o; it wasn't exactly a promise."

"It was the same thing. He made you think he was going to put you in, and
all spring you've worked your arm nearly off, pitching to the bunch.
Then when a regular game came along he stepped into the box himself and
hogged the whole thing nine innings. It's been the same ever since,
except last week when you went in for one miserable inning after we'd won
the game. I call that a--a--an insult. It looked as if he thought you
weren't any good."

Dale shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe he does," he returned quietly. "He's
a lot better pitcher than I am."

"Is he? Humph! He's nowhere near as steady, let me tell you. Wait till
he gets up against a real team, and I shouldn't wonder a bit if he blew
up. He did last year, and we mighty near lost the series. He can't stand
being joshed, and Troop One is just the bunch to do it."

Dale laughed a little and set down his companion's disparaging remarks
to temper rather than to any real belief in what he was saying. He had
never seen Ranny pitch before this season, but he could not imagine him
losing his superb control and "blowing up." He would have given anything
for a chance to pitch against Troop One, but he had long ago given up
hoping, Ranny made it only too clear that he meant to keep that honor
for himself, just as he had monopolized the pitching in all the other
games. Dale couldn't quite make up his mind whether this was from a
deliberate desire to shut him out, or because the team captain really
lacked faith in his ability and was afraid to trust him. Feeling as
he did toward t