y, please be
sensible. Go home and make it up with Mr. Lawrence--and you may hope.
And," she added in a low tone, "beware of that girl."

She hurried after her uncle, who had stopped and turned impatiently,
leaving McCarthy staring after her and frowning. After all, he thought
bitterly, his uncle was right. All she cared for was the money and not
for him. He had quarreled with his uncle, his best friend, who had
taken care of him since his childhood and who had made him his heir--on
account of her. He was free. Yes, he was free.

He found himself wondering that he was happy instead of bitter over the
loss of Helen Baldwin. He knew now he never had loved her. With a
thrill of gladness came the thought of Betty Tabor. His jaw set, the
fighting look came into his blue eyes and he saw his way clearly. He
was not free. His duty was to the Bears.

CHAPTER VIII

_In the Deeper Waters_

Two defeats at the hands of the Maroons sent the Bears into the final
game of the series desperately determined to win. Their pitching staff
was exhausted from the effort to stop the team which they had expected
to beat easily.

The game was a brilliant exhibition of defensive playing on the part of
the Bears, who were driven back by the hard hitting of the Maroons. In
spite of the fierce batting of the Maroons the magnificent defensive
work of the Bears held their rivals to two runs, while by their
brilliant and resourceful attack and skilful inside work they had
scored three runs on five scattered hits, and at the start of the
eighth inning were holding grimly to their lead of one run.

McCarthy, spurred by determination to redeem himself for the errors of
the preceding games, was giving a wonderful exhibition of third-base
play. The knowledge that Helen Baldwin, her uncle and a group of
friends were sitting in one of the field boxes directly behind him
urged him to greater efforts. It was his long hit in the sixth inning,
followed by a clever steal of third, that had enabled the Bears to gain
the lead which they were holding by their fast work on the infield.

The Bears failed to score in their half of the eighth, and the Maroons
opened with a fierce assault upon Klinker that threatened to break down
the Bears' inner wall of defense. Swanson's brilliant stop and throw
of a vicious drive checked the bombardment, but a safe drive and a
two-base hit went whizzing through beyond the finger tips of the diving
infiel