d grace as he could, though his dark face was
flushed.

"There would be no trouble if it wasn't for Jack Ready!" he asserted. "I
can pitch all right, but the pitcher isn't the whole battery!"

"Your delivery bothers him," Merriwell explained. "I believe that you
two together are capable of good work, but it will take a lot more
practise, and just now we haven't time for practise. You can pitch,
Badger, and your best is excellent; but you are irregular. But you'll
come round all right. I was talking with Dunstan Kirk about you awhile
ago, and he agrees with me. He has been closely watching you all through
the game."

"I know it," Badger growled. "I've known it only too well! It has helped
to make my pitching wild at times. If he had stayed away, I think I
could have done all right all the time. But you'll find that Ready will
worry you. He'd worry anybody. The fellow simply can't catch."

"But he can!" Merriwell insisted. "We'll win this game yet!"

The change that came over Jack Ready's work shortly after Merriwell went
into the pitcher's box was little short of marvelous. Frank seemed to
know how to favor Ready's weak points. And this kept Ready's head steady
for other work, so that he made not another wild throw to bases.

Merriwell's nine began to feel their courage rise. It put life into them
just to see Frank in the box. Stolen bases on the part of the Hartfords
stopped. The swiftness with which Merriwell struck out three batters
made the spectators gasp.

From that on Ready was steady, and he and Frank worked together like a
battery team of long experience. Frank Merriwell won, in spite of his
handicap! And so the Yale rooters, and especially Merriwell's friends
and admirers, who were a host in themselves, were roaring wild as they
returned from the ball-ground. Merriwell joined Inza and Elsie, while
Badger took a car with Winnie.

"I knew that everything was all right, as soon as you went into the
box!" Inza declared. "But up to that minute I was nervous. I was wanting
to shake you all the time for not taking Badger's place sooner."

"I felt sorry for Badger," said Elsie. "And I felt sorry for Winnie. She
got as red as a beet when Badger left the box, but I know she didn't
blame you, Frank. She saw just how it was, and she knew you ought to
have gone in sooner, but of course she felt it."

"I was afraid Ready might begin to doubt his own abilities--though
probably there is not any danger that he will e