s and
run as they please, for the boy who has been hit may throw from where
the ball fell, or from any corner, at any one of the side holding the
corners. If one of them is hit, he has the same privilege; but now the
men in the pen are allowed to scatter, also. Whoever misses is "out,"
and the play is resumed from the corners until all of one side is out.
When but two are left on the corners the ball is smuggled,--that is,
one hides the ball in his bosom, and the other pretends that he has it
also. The boys in the ring do not know which has it, and the two "run
the corners," throwing from any corner. If but one is left on the
corners, he is allowed, also, to run from corner to corner.

It happened that Jack's side lost on the toss-up for corners, and he got
into the ring, where his play showed better than it would have done on
the corners. As Jack was the greenhorn and the last chosen on his side,
the players on the corners expected to make light work of him; but he
was an adroit dodger, and he put out three of the boys on the corners by
his unexpected way of evading a ball. Everybody who has ever played this
fine old game knows that expertness in dodging is worth quite as much as
skill in throwing. Pewee was a famous hand with a ball, Riley could
dodge well, Ben Berry had a happy knack of dropping flat upon the ground
and letting a ball pass over him, Bob Holliday could run well in a
counter charge; but nothing could be more effective than Jack Dudley's
quiet way of stepping forward or backward, bending his lithe body or
spreading his legs to let the ball pass, according to the course which
it took from the player's hand.

King Pewee and company came back in time to see Jack dodge three balls
thrown point-blank at him from a distance of fifteen feet. It was like
witchcraft--he seemed to be charmed. Every dodge was greeted with a
shout, and when once he luckily caught the ball thrown at him, and thus
put out the thrower, there was no end of admiration of his playing. It
was now evident to all that Jack could no longer be excluded from the
game, and that, next to Pewee himself, he was already the best player on
the ground.

At recess that afternoon Pewee set his hat down in the hat-ball row, and
as Jack did not object, Riley and Ben Berry did the same. The next day
Pewee chose Jack first in bull-pen, and the game was well played.

CHAPTER VIII

THE DEFENDER

If Jack had not about this time undertaken the d