he snowball fight they
wanted.

There was one heavy-set but athletic looking chap who appeared to be the
ringleader of the assailants. His name was Felix Wagner, and in times
gone by he had given the Riverport boys many a hard tussle to subdue him;
though he had a reputation for square dealing second to none.

Seeing that his side had given up the fight, since he was the only one
still hurling missiles, at the advancing enemy, Felix knew it was folly
to try to keep it up any longer.

"Hi! hold your horses, you Riverside tigers!" he called, laughingly, as
well as his almost exhausted condition allowed; "guess we've had about
all we want of this sort of thing for once. My cheek stings like fun,
and I think I'll have something of a black eye to-morrow. I only hope I
gave as good as I took, that's all."

"Do you own up beaten, then, Wagner?" demanded the pugnacious Bristles,
"because we're still as fresh as daisies, and bound to put it over on
you, now that you've started the fight?"

"Oh sure! With such a crippled army, what else can a fellow do?" replied
the leader of the other crowd. "We throw up the sponge, and wave the
white rag. You're too much for us, that's what. I reckoned it'd be that
way when I saw Fred Fenton was along. He put you up to that game of
dividing your forces, and getting us under a cross-fire, I'll be bound.
And that rattled us more'n anything else you did; for when you get a
crack on the back of the head, it sort of knocks your calculations silly,
and you can't pay attention to what you're doing. We surrender, all
right."

Besides Wagner there were some of the other baseball stars in the
defeated set---Dolan, who guarded the middle garden, Sherley whose domain
was away off in right, Boggs, the energetic shortstop, Hennessy the
catcher, who had taunted Fred and his chums So persistently whenever they
came to bat, in hopes of making them nervous, and Gould the agile second
baseman.

A number were rubbing their heads, or their faces, where red marks told
of a "strike," and while one here and there grumbled, wanting to know if
the Riverport boys put stones in their snowballs, the majority took their
punishment in good part.

"It was a lively scrimmage while it lasted, let me tell you," Fred
remarked, as he rubbed his icy hands together in order to induce
circulation.

"As fierce as any I've been in this year," admitted the big Hennessy,
whose favorite feat of throwing out runners at