me for it all. No, not Grant; he himself was to blame.
Had he not been such a blind fool he might have foreseen what would
happen, for had not Rodney Grant displayed beyond doubt since appearing
in Oakdale the natural qualifications of mind and body which would make
him a leader at anything he might undertake with unbridled vim and
enthusiasm? The fellow who had been so completely misjudged by almost
everyone during his early days at the academy, had demonstrated later
that he was a thoroughbred, with nerve, brains, courage and the will to
step into the front ranks wherever he might be. His one great fault, a
fiery and unreasoning temper, he was fighting hard to master, and in
this, as in other things, he had already shown that he was destined to
succeed.

"I was a Jack!" growled Phil, walking the floor of his room and
savagely kicking an inoffensive chair out of his way. "I should have
known. If I had taken Hooker in hand and coached him, instead of
Grant---- But I never did like Roy very much, and somehow Rod Grant
got on my sus-soft side."

His mother, hearing him prowling around, called up the stairs and was
somewhat surprised to find him home.

At supper he tried to hide the disturbed state of his mind, but his
father, who seldom took any interest at all in such matters
unexpectedly attempted to joke him a bit.

"Got beat to-day, I see," said Mr. Springer. "Did you up pretty bad,
didn't they?"

"How did you get that idea?" asked Phil evasively.

"Oh, I can tell by the way you act. You're broke up, though you're
making a bluff not to show it. Let's see, played Clearport, didn't ye?
I s'pose they give you an awful hammering? Oakdale'll have to get
another pitcher after this."

"They didn't beat us; we won."

"Whew! Is that a fact? Well, what's the matter with you, then? I
thought by your looks that you'd been done up brown. What went wrong
with the game, anyhow? Didn't you get good backing up?"

"I didn't pitch."

"So _that's_ it, eh? How did it happen? The way you've been blowing
around the house every time you could get anybody to listen, I thought
you were the whole thing in that particular department."

Phil's cheeks burned and his hands shook nervously, although he fought
hard to appear unconcerned and indifferent. In replying the slight
impediment in his speech became more pronounced.

"The gug-game only went fuf-five innings; it commenced to rur-rain
then, so they didn't finis