it was a straight ball and close to my fingers!"

He might have shouted the words and not been heard, for the Yale rooters
were getting in their work for fair. They gave one great roar of
delight, and then came the college yell, followed by the freshman cheer.
At last they were given an opportunity to use their lungs, after having
been comparatively silent for several innings.

"Whoop 'er up for 'Umpty-eight!" howled a fellow with a heavy voice.
"What's the matter with 'Umpty-eight?"

"She's all right!" went up the hoarse roar.

"What's the matter with Merriwell?"

"He's all right!" again came that roar.

When the shouting had subsided, Rattleton touched Harris on the shoulder
and laughingly asked:

"Do I win?"

"Not yet. There are two more coming."

"But I win just as hard, my boy."

"Hope you do."

The next Harvard batter came up, determined to do something, although
he was a trifle uncertain. He let the first one pass and heard a strike
called, which did not please him much. The second one was a coaxer, and
he let that ball go by. The umpire called a ball. The third was a high
one, but it looked good, and he tried for it. It proved to be a rise,
and he struck under it at least a foot.

Bob Collingwood was growing enthusiastic.

"That Merriwell is full of tricks," he declared. "Think how he secretly
coached the freshman crew up on the Oxford stroke last fall and won the
race at Saltonstall. If it hadn't been for a traitor nobody would have
known what he was doing with the crew, for he wouldn't let them practice
at the machines."

"I have had my eye on him ever since he entered Yale," confessed
Pierson. "I have seen that he is destined to come to the front."

The batter seemed angry because he had been deceived so easily, and this
gave Frank satisfaction, for an angry man can be deceived much easier
than one who keeps cool.

Merriwell held them close in on the batter, who made four fouls in
succession, getting angrier each moment. By this time an outdrop was the
thing to fool him, and it worked nicely.

"Three strikes and out!" called the umpire.

Frank had struck out two men, and the Yale crowd could not cheer loud
enough to express their delight.

Old Put was delighted beyond measure, but he was keeping pretty still,
for he knew what he was sure to hear if Yale did not pull the game out
some way. He knew everybody would be asking him why he did not put
Merriwell in the box before.

Lewis Li