And you don't mind taking advice; that's what I like about
you."

"Indeed I'd be glad of any tips you could give me," responded Joe,
earnestly.

He did indeed realize that there was a hard road ahead of him, and he
was a little apprehensive of the time when he might be called on to
pitch against such a redoubtable team as the Giants.

"Most folks think," went on Boswell, "that the chief advantage a pitcher
has over a batter is his speed or his curves. Well, that isn't exactly
so. The thing of it is that the batter has to guess whether the ball
that's coming toward him is a swift straight one, or a comparatively
slow curve. You see, he's got to make up his mind mighty quickly as to
the speed of the horsehide, and he can't always do it.

"Now, if a batter knew in advance just what the pitcher was going to
deliver--whether a curve or a straight one, why that batter would have
a cinch, so to speak. You may be the best twirler in the league, but you
couldn't win your games if the batters knew what you were going to hand
them--that is, knew in advance, I mean."

"But that's what signals are for," exclaimed Joe. "I watch the catcher's
signals, and if I think he's got the right idea I sign that I'll heave
in what he's signalled for. If not, I'll make a switch."

"Exactly," said the old player, "and that's what I'm coming to. If your
signals are found out, where are you? Up in the air, so to speak. So you
want to have several sets of signals, in order to change them in the
middle of an inning if you find you're being double-crossed. There's
lots of coaches who are fiends at getting next to the battery signs, and
tipping them off to their batters. Then the batters know whether to step
out to get a curve, or lay back to wallop a straight one. The signal
business is more important than most players think."

Joe believed this, and, at his suggestion, and on the advice of Boswell,
a little later, a new signal system was devised between the pitchers and
catchers. Joe worked hard to master it, for it was rather complicated.
He wrote the system out, and studied it in his room nights.

"Well, boys, a few weeks more and we'll be going home for the opening
of the season," said Mr. Watson in the hotel lobby one day. "I see the
Boston Braves are about through training, the Phillies are said to be
all primed, and the Giants are ready to eat up all the rest of us."

"Whom do we open with?" asked Joe.

"The Cincinnati Reds," answered