ossing bats with Guilford Academy, Springdale School and other nearby
institutions. There was great rivalry between the home team and Guilford
Academy, which had a strong team, and was much the better of the two,
except that the Tech School had acquired, through Siebold's efforts, a
very good outside pitcher who kept the Academy lads guessing much of the
time. The winning of games, therefore, during the preceding season had
been pretty even, Guilford leading by one.

And then, at the behest of older and more judicial heads, representatives
of the League of Schools had met and decided that each team must play
only with members of its student body, hiring no semi-professional
pitchers, or even coachers, thus making the contests entirely fair.

A result of this was that in the games of this season Guilford, with a
pitcher from among its fellows who had previously given his services to
other teams as well, simply ran away with Marshallton Tech, winning one
game by the score of fifteen to two and the other was a shut-out.

"Gus, I've bought a ball and I've got Sam Kerry, who says he used to
catch for his home team somewhere in the west, to agree to keep his
mouth shut and pass a few with you, off somewhere where nobody will
see."

"Righto, old Bill! Anything you say--but what's the idea?"

"Well, Gus, I don't like Guilford's swamping this team in the way it
has, and I propose to try to stop it." Bill's lips were compressed and
he had that look in his eyes that meant determination.

"But Siebold--" began Gus.

"Doesn't entirely run this school, nor its ball team, even if he is
captain and general high muck-a-muck," declared Bill.

It was with extreme satisfaction that Bill sat on a log at one side of a
path in the woods and watched little Kerry, who proved to be no mean
hand at stopping all kinds of balls, nearly knocked off his feet by the
machine-gun-like pitches of "that other fellow from Freeport," as Gus
was sometimes called.

One early afternoon the gym instructor also sat by Bill and watched the
performance. Mr. Gay had promised secrecy, but not to refrain from
comment.

"I'll say he has not only got command of his ball and three good styles,
but he also knows some tricks that ought to worry any man at the bat.
Throw that waiting ball again, Grier!" the instructor called. "I want to
watch that--oh, fine! It looks like a hard one and a fellow will strike
over it nine times out of ten. Well, I've got this to s