d Ken, laughing.

"Say, I wish you'd have a balloon ascension, and have it quick. It ain't
natural, Peg, for you not to get a case of rattles. It's comin' to you,
and I don't want it in any of the big games."

"I don't want it either. But Worry, pitching is all a matter of control,
you say so often. I don't believe I could get wild and lose my control if
I tried."

"Peg, you sure have the best control of any pitcher I ever coached. It's
your success. It'll make a great pitcher out of you. All you've got to
learn is where to pitch 'em to Herne and Place."

"How am I to learn that?"

"Listen!" Worry whispered. "I'm goin' to send you to Washington next week
to see Place and Herne play Georgetown. You'll pay your little money and
sit in the grand-stand right behind the catcher. You'll have a pencil and a
score card, and you'll be enjoyin' the game. But, Peg, you'll also be usin'
your head, and when you see one of 'em players pull away on a curve, or hit
weak on a drop, or miss a high fast one, or slug a low ball, you will jot
it down on your card. You'll watch Place's hard hitters with hawk eyes,
my boy, and a pitcher's memory. And when they come along to Grant Field
you'll have 'em pretty well sized up."

"That's fine, Worry, but is it fair?" queried Ken.

"Fair? Why, of course. They all do it. We saw Place's captain in the
grand-stand here last spring."

The coach made no secret of his pride and faith in Ken. It was this,
perhaps, as much as anything, which kept Ken keyed up. For Ken was
really pitching better ball than he knew how to pitch. He would have
broken his arm for Worry; he believed absolutely in what the coach
told him; he did not think of himself at all.

Worry, however, had plenty of enthusiasm for his other players. Every
evening after dinner he would call them all about him and talk for an
hour. Sometimes he would tell funny baseball stories; again, he told of
famous Wayne-Place games, and how they had been won or lost; then at other
times he dwelt on the merits and faults of his own team. In speaking of
the swift development of this year's varsity he said it was as remarkable
as it had been unforeseen. He claimed it would be a bewildering surprise
to Wayne students and to the big college teams. He was working toward
the perfection of a fast run-getting machine. In the five games already
played and won a good idea could be gotten of Wayne's team, individually
and collectively. Homans was a scienti