"Slatridge knows it all--in his mind! That feller's too tired to play
baseball. He can pitch sometimes, but he don't git woke up only when he
thinks he's likely to lose his job. Don't you take stock in ev'rything
he says."

"Fellers," said a tall, solemn-looking boy, out at knees and elbows,
"I'd give a hundred thousan' dollars to see Frank Merriwell pitch
against Rockland an' use his double-shoot on 'em."

"I'd give more'n that to see it, if I jest had the price of admission
ter git inter ther game," declared a barefooted boy.

"Why don't Moslof nail him?" fiercely demanded a freckle-faced
youngster. "If I was manager of the Camdens, I wouldn't let Frank
Merriwell go away alive if he wouldn't play ball for me! I bet Rockland
will have him if Moslof don't git him."

"If Rockland gits him, Camden might jest as well crawl right into the
smallest hole she can find, and pull the hole in after her. She won't
never win another game."

The most of this talk could be distinctly heard by Frank and his
friends, and it proved very amusing.

In the window of the drug store near the post office hung a printed
poster announcing a game of ball in Camden that afternoon between
Rockland and Camden. The bill also stated that Rockland and Camden were
tied for first place in the Knox County League, so that the result of
one game would put one or the other team at the head.

"We'll have to see that game, fellows," said Frank. "It is evident that
there is plenty of baseball excitement down in this part of the
country."

At this moment two young men came down from the rooms of the Business
Men's Association in the Opera House building, and Frank uttered an
exclamation of satisfaction.

"There are two Dartmouth men, boys," he said; "Moslof and McDornick.
Moslof is managing the Camdens and playing third. Let's go over and see
them."

They walked over to meet the Dartmouth men.

CHAPTER XI.

FALSE REPORTS.

Moslof seized Frank's hand and shook it heartily.

"That Rockland affair didn't amount to anything, after all, did it?" he
asked.

"No," said Merry; "the chap who caused my arrest skipped out when he
learned that Jack Benjamin, the man I bought the yacht of, was in
Rockland. He didn't stay to press the complaint of theft. He thought
Benjamin had gone to Alaska. It must have been a frightful shock to him.
You've met Diamond? Yes. Let me introduce Bart Hodge."

"Hodge!" cried Moslof. "You caught for Merriwell this