Lester Chadwick

“ Bean Perkins demanded to know in his loudest voice.
“It’s all right,” was the response, from scores of throats.
“Now for the ‘Conquer or Die’ song,” called Bean, and as Dan Woodhouse went up to the bat in the beginning of the second inning the strains of “Aut vincere aut mori,” welled out over the diamond. But the inspiring melody that, more than once had been the means of inspiring a faint-hearted team to victory, seemed to be of no effect now. ”

“ CHAPTER XVI A SERIOUS CHARGE
“Well, what do you know about that?” exclaimed Phil, turning to his sister and Miss Tyler. “If that isn’t the limit!”
“Hush!” begged Ruth. “Poor Mabel! She isn’t herself.”
“I wasn’t saying anything against Sid,” went on Phil. “I only said it was too bad something seemed to have gotten hold of him lately. Then she flies up——”
“How dare you speak about Mabel flying up?” interrupted Ruth, stamping her little foot, and shaking her finger at her brother. “She’s nervous and upset, that’s all. You’d better go to her, Madge. Perhaps she has a headache.” ”

“ So great had been the strain engendered by the dramatic departure of Sid, that both Tom and Phil felt the awkwardness of speaking of commonplace matters after it. “Guess we’ll get a new ticker,” suggested Phil, for want of something better to say.
“No,” answered Tom slowly. “Old things are best after all—even if they don’t keep just the right time. I’m attached to that clock.” ”

“ Not here!” implored Perkins. “You can’t fight here, Langridge.”
“No, that’s right,” admitted the other with a shrug of his shoulders, as he calmed himself with an effort. “And I don’t know that I care, after all, for the notoriety of fighting him.” He turned aside. Sid was about to spring forward again, his face distorted with rage, but Tom and Phil held him back.
“Come on,” whispered the pitcher in his ear. “You don’t know what you’re doing, Sid. You’re only making matters worse.”
With something like a sob in his throat, Sid allowed his chums to lead him away. ”

“ At the head of the banquet board was a stuffed figure, representing a Randall college student, with the college colors in gay ribbons pinned on one side of his caricature of a face, while the sophomore hues adorned the other side.
“Got the camera and flash powder?” asked Holly.
“Right here,” answered Sid, who, because of his knowledge in that line, had been selected for this post of honor.
“They’ll be here pretty soon now,” prophesied Tom. “Bascome has his crowd in waiting somewhere, and he just lingered around college until he saw us start. ”

“ A home run!” cried Phil, capering about, and hugging the Jersey twins, one in each arm.
Upward and outward sped the ball, away, far away over the center fielder’s head. He ran back for it, became confused and began wildly searching around in the deep grass of far outfield.
“Come on in! Come on in, everybody!” Tom was yelling, and swinging his arms like the sails of an old windmill.
Holly raced over home plate, followed by Kindlings. Bricktop was racing in from third, followed by Sid, who had made such a magnificent hit. ”

“ Sorry to leave you!” cried Tom, as he and his chums glided through the open doorway behind them, Sid taking the camera with him.
The door was hastily pulled shut, and bolted, barred and locked, just as the group of infuriated freshmen threw themselves against it.
“Trapped!” Tom heard Bascome shout from the other side of the portal. “Try the other door!”
“That’s locked, too,” came the despairing cry. “We’re caught!”
“That’s it!” cried Phil exultantly. “Ta-ta, freshies! Next time you listen to a traitor, take care to lay better plans. We’re off to our annual feed. ”

“ A score of lads were on their feet, shouting, yelling, demanding to be recognized, shaking their fists at Bascome and uttering dire threats.
“Mr. Chairman, may I spake wan wurd!” cried Bricktop Molloy, in his excitement lapsing into a rich brogue.
Tom was banging away with his gavel, but he managed to make his voice heard above the tumult.
“Mr. Bascome has the floor!” he cried. ”

“ The morning of the game did not prove very auspicious, as it had rained in the night, and was still threatening. But when the two nines went out to the diamond the sun broke through the clouds and it cleared off.
“Now, fellows,” said Coach Leighton, as he gathered the captain and his men about him, “you’ve got to play fast, snappy ball to win. We’re up against a better team than either Boxer Hall or Fairview, and I want to see what you can do.”
“If they don’t do what’s right they’ll answer to me,” said Tom, with a grim smile. ”

“ Tom’s men began to play like fiends. They seemed to be all over the field, and, though Tom was hit for a single, not another man got to first.
“Oh, if we can only hold ’em down, and bring in a few more runs we’ve got ’em!” panted Tom, as he came to the bench in the beginning of the eighth, and sat down beside Sid. “But say, old man, how did it happen that the doctor let you play at the last minute?” he asked, while the others waited for Sid’s answer.
“I’ll tell you later,” the second baseman promised. “Gee, but I had a time getting here! Trolley wasn’t running, and I had to come by train. ”

“ CHAPTER X SID IS SPIKED
“By Jove, but I’m glad we’re going out of town for a game,” remarked Tom to Phil the next morning.
“Why?” inquired the first baseman, as he critically examined his favorite mushroom bat, which he had mended with wire and tape.
“Because of Sid. It may put him on his feet again, after this business of Langridge, Miss Harrison, and the newspaper clipping. Hang it all! girls can sure mix things up when they want to, can’t they?”
“Yes, but it isn’t her fault. She merely doesn’t care for a fellow that gambles, and Sid can’t say that he doesn’t.” ”

“ There was a sudden improvement on the part of Langridge, who had begun to weaken, and he struck out the next two men, the third getting out on a bingle. But the score was five to four in favor of Randall, and if Tom could hold them down, and strike out three men, the game was theirs. Could he do it?
There was a great strain on everyone as the Randall team went out to the field. From the grand stand came softly the “Conquer or Die” song, and Tom felt a sense of moisture in his eyes. ”

“ If we lose the Fairview game, and Boxer beats Fairview we will still have a show, by beating Boxer ourselves, but if it goes the other way we’re out of it. Our only hope is to do up both Fairview and Boxer, in succession, and how we are going to do it is more than I can tell.”
“Oh, we’ll do it—somehow,” declared Phil.
Matters, as regarded the baseball nine, did not improve much in the next few days, and Tom was filled with gloomy thoughts and dire forebodings. Though he was on hand at every practice the lads missed his sure arm in the pitching box, though Evert did fairly well. ”

“ From a glass tube extending from the flask there poured out volumes of the pungent odor, and, as the puffs came, Tom and Phil could hear the air pump being worked. It was a “studentless smoker,” the air pump, attached to a rubber hose which exhausted the air from the flask, producing exactly the effect of some one puffing a pipe. The room was blue with the haze of tobacco, and as the astonished professor stood and gazed at the strange sight more smoke arose from the flask. Then, from somewhere in the dark recesses of the corridor came a voice. ”

“ Sid was rather an odd character, somewhat quiet, much given to study, and to delving after the odd and unusual. One of his fads was biology, and another, allied to it, nature study. He would tramp all day for a sight of some comparatively rare bird, nesting; or walk many miles to get a picture of a fox, or a ground-hog, just as it darted into its burrow. ”

“ But though Tom, Phil, Sid and their chums lived a strenuous life when sports were in the ascendency, that does not mean that they had no time for the lighter side of life. There were girls at Fairview—pretty girls and many of them. One, in particular—Madge Tyler—seemed to fit Tom’s fancy, and he and she grew to be very friendly. Perhaps that was because Tom had rather supplanted Langridge in the eyes of Miss Tyler, who had been to many affairs with him, before she knew his true character. Then there was Ruth Clinton, Phil’s sister. ”

“ They listened. Out in the corridor there were shuffling noises, as if several persons were trying to walk quietly. There was a brushing against the door, and a cautious whisper.
Suddenly the knob of the portal was tried, and a voice in the hall cried:
“Give up, sophs! We’ve got you!”
Several bodies flung themselves against the door, and to the surprise of the freshmen, who were headed by Bascome and Delfield, they found that the portal was not locked. It opened easily—so easily, in fact, that several of the lads fell to the floor, and the others rushed over them. ”

“ They’re hard as nails, too, I hear, but maybe it will do our fellows good to get a few more drubbings. It may wake them up, for there’s no denying that the fellows are not playing up to the mark.”
“I’m sure it’s not my fault,” began Tom, a bit aggressively.
“I didn’t say it was,” retorted Mr. Leighton, and there was a sharp tone in his words. “Only we’ve got to play better if we want to win.”
Tom, with a fierce feeling in his heart, put his men through a hard practice previous to a game with the scrub team, and the men seemed to wake up. ”

“ To-day Guy went with me to Dr. Churchill, made a clean breast of it, told what I had done, and why, and before the assembled members of the faculty, proved my innocence. It was just in time to allow the lifting of the expulsion ban, and [305] permit me to play—only I had a task to get here in time——”
“But you did, old man!” cried Tom, seizing his chum’s hand—only one, however, for, somehow Mabel Harrison had the other. “You were in time to help us bat to win! Sid, can you forgive us?”
“Forgive? There’s nothing to forgive,” declared Sid, and his eyes were moist. ”

“ With the exception of Pete Backus in place of Sid, the Randall team was the same that had played the ’varsity games all season, though the batting order was different, Holly Cross leading off, he having improved greatly in stick work. There was no change in the Boxer team, from when she had last played Tom’s men.
The gong rang sharply. The buzzing talk and laughter on the grand stands ceased, as the umpire announced the batteries. There was a moment of consultation among the two nines, and then Stoddard, who was Boxer’s captain that year, motioned to his players to take the field. ”

“ Tom on the night after the game. He was nervous and irritated, for his hand pained him, though it was nearly healed, and he was going to pitch in practice on Monday.
“What can be done?” inquired Phil, who was critically examining a new glove he had purchased.
“Sid, we might as well have it out,” went on Tom, and he squared his shoulders as if for a fight, as he confronted the deposed second baseman. “Are you or are you not going to play with us again this season? You know we need you. We want you to help us to bat to win. Are you going to do it?” ”

“ Therefore it was with no small jubilation that the news was received, a week later, that Boxer had downed Fairview.
“Now for our chance to win!” cried Tom, brightening up a little. “All we have to do is to wallop Boxer, and the loving cup is ours. But Oh, Phil! if we only had Sid!” ”

“ Churchill made a thrilling speech, and even Professor Tines condescended to smile. The loving cup was carried at the head of a triumphant procession, the light from many gala-fires glinting from its polished surface.
[307]
“Well, it’s all over,” remarked Tom, several hours later when he, Phil and Sid were together in their room. “My, but it has been a baseball season, though!”
“A great one,” commented Phil. “We’ve got a corking good team. I only hope we have as good a one when it comes time to kick the pigskin.” ”