I have got Jack Ready for catcher!"

Bart gasped, while his dark face seemed to get redder and hotter.

"Why, he can't catch!"

"Much better than you think. He is a pretty fair catcher."

"And if he falls down?"

"I'll put some one else in. I have two or three in mind, and have spoken
to two of them."

Hodge seemed stunned.

"I'm willing to catch!" he said.

"You may, Bart, if I see that Ready can't do the work. If the game seems
about to be lost I'll go into the pitcher's box and you behind the bat,
and we'll pull the nine out of the hole! Eh?"

Hodge's eyes brightened strangely.

"We can do it, Merry! I'll be as steady as a clock. Only I'm sorry
things went the way they did and that I showed how mean I can be. I only
proved what my enemies say of me. It's too late now, but I'm ready to do
what I can to make it right."

Merriwell came over and put a hand on Bart's shoulder.

"I understand you, Bart, and few do. I know that your friendship for me
is true blue, and that your heart is where it should be, even if your
head runs away with you. Now we'll get to bed. To-morrow we play ball,
and I want to be in condition."

But Bart Hodge was not in condition to play ball, nor in condition for
anything the next day. When morning came he had a high fever, and the
doctor whom Merriwell summoned looked grave.

"He has lost sleep and been exposing himself and caught cold," he said.
"It looks like a case of pneumonia. Better send him to the hospital."

"Will he be better off at the hospital than here, if there is some one
here to take care of him?"

"No, I don't know that he will. And I was going to say that it is really
too bad to move him in his condition."

"Then he will stay right here. I'll get the best nurse to be had, and
look after him all I can myself!"

And Hodge, under the best of care, remained in his room, while
Merriwell's nine, with Jack Ready as catcher and Badger as pitcher, went
out to meet the team from Hartford that forenoon.

A big crowd of rooters had come over from Hartford to whoop things up
for Abernathy's men. They were enthusiastic fellows, and they made a
great deal of noise. Some of them were betting men, and they flourished
their money with as much confidence as if the game were already won and
they were certain of raking in their winnings.

But Yale had turned out a big crowd, too, for Merriwell was immensely
popular, and, of course, the Yale and New Haven crowd would naturall