rooters! How they hammered on the railing and yelled! Their
satisfaction was unlimited, for they had not dreamed there could be such
a happy termination of the Camden's half of the first inning.

"Sorry for you, Pop," grinned Dayguild.

"It's a good thing for you there was a man like Smithers on second,"
returned Williamson. "It was a clean case of luck."

At this Dayguild laughed derisively, walking in to the bench.

Camden took the field. Woods stripped off his sweater and went into the
box. He was a clean, fine-looking fellow in his suit. He had warmed up a
little, and now he tossed a few to Williamson, who was on first.

Smithers, the captain of the Rocklands, was the first man to go to the
plate. He was known to be a most remarkable little hitter, without a
weak point that any pitcher had been able to discover.

Woods looked Smithers over, and then sent in a swift one that the little
man let pass.

The umpire called a ball.

"Whew!" exclaimed Diamond. "That's what I call speed."

"You don'd peen aple to seen dot pall ad all, eh?" cried Hans.

"Merry," said Bart, "Woods is the first fellow I ever saw who reminded
me of you in the box."

Smithers went after the next ball, but fouled it over the fence, and a
new ball was put into play. Again and again he fouled.

"You are finding him," cried the Rockland rooters.

At last Smithers hit it fairly on the trade mark, and sent it out into
right field for a single.

The Rockland crowd was delighted.

"Why, Woods is easy!" they roared.

Woods was not ruffled in the least. When the ball was thrown in, he
entered the box with it immediately, and then suddenly snapped his left
foot out and shot the ball over to first.

Smithers saved himself by a hair's breadth. It was a close decision on
the part of the umpire.

"Did you get onto that motion with his foot?" came eagerly from Hodge.
"It's Merriwell exactly! Why, the fellow appears more and more like you,
Frank!"

"That's so," grunted Browning.

Edwards, Rockland's shortstop, followed Smithers at bat. He was a large,
stocky, red-headed fellow, inclined to swagger and make more or less
unnecessary talk, but a good ball player and a hard hitter.

"Don't let him catch you, Smithers," he cried. "I'll land you on third."

Woods smiled. He was feeling first rate, and he did not believe Edwards
could keep his word. While standing carelessly in the box, he gave a
hitch at his pants with both hands, the right