care a continental! I've stood him just as long as I can! If I
can give him a good square licking I'll stand expulsion, should it come
to that!"

They saw that Browning was too heated to pause for sober thought, and so
they gathered close around him and forced him to listen to reason.

It took no small amount of argument to induce the king to give over the
idea of going onto the ball field and attacking Merriwell, but he was
finally shown the folly of such a course. However, he vowed over and
over that the settlement with Merriwell should come very soon.

CHAPTER XV.

ON THE BALL FIELD.

The sophomores went in to watch the freshmen practice and incidentally
to have sport with them.

Two nines had been selected, one being the regular freshman team and the
other picked up to give them practice.

As Merriwell had been given a place on the team as reserve pitcher, his
services were not needed at first, and so he went in to twirl for the
scrub nine.

Walter Gordon went into the box for the regular team, and he expected to
fool the irregulars with ease. He was a well-built lad, with a bang, and
it was plain to see at a glance that he was stuck on himself. He had a
trick of posing in the box, and he delivered the ball with a flourish.

The scrub team did not have many batters, and so it came about that the
first three men up were disposed of in one-two-three order, not one of
them making a safe hit or reaching first.

Rattleton had vainly endeavored to get upon the regular team. He had
played pretty fast ball on a country nine, but he was somewhat out of
practice and he had not made a first-class showing, so he had failed in
his ambition.

He went into catch for Merriwell, and they had arranged a code of
signals beforehand, so that they were all prepared.

There was no affectation about Frank's delivery, but the first man on
the list of the regulars found Merriwell's slow drop was a hard ball to
hit. He went after two of them before he saw what he was getting. Then
he made up his mind that he would get under the next one and knock the
peeling off it.

He got under it all right, for instead of being a drop it was a rise,
and the batter struck at least eighteen inches below it.

"Well, say," laughed Gordon, who had been placed second on the list at
his own request. "I'll go you something he doesn't work that on me."

He was full of confidence when he walked up to the plate. The watching
sophomores were