Then, to his surprise, the mysterious woman, still wearing the heavy veil, stepped quickly from the house and placed a hand on his arm.
“Accept the challenge, Mr. Merriwell,” exclaimed the lips hidden behind the veil. “Play him for my sake—and defeat him! You can do it!”
“Do you realize, miss, the manner in which we shall be handicapped? We are in a strange town, and a place where there is little chance that we’ll be given a fair show. Even the umpire would be against us.”
“To satisfy you on that point,” cried Cameron, “I’ll permit you to select your own umpire. How is that? If you have a man with you who can umpire the game, I’ll accept him. You can’t squeal—if you have the nerve.”
“Play him!” again urged the mysterious woman. “For my sake!”
“With the understanding that I am to furnish the umpire——” began Merry.
“It’s a go!” cried Cameron, in satisfaction. “With the team I shall put onto the field, it will be an easy matter to defeat you. There’ll be no need of anything but straight and legitimate baseball to do that.”
“Very well,” said Merry. “We’ll play you, Mr. Cameron.”
As Cameron departed the strange woman spoke excitedly to Frank.
“You will win!” she declared. “I feel it! I know it! He is confident there is no need to resort to crooked methods to defeat you. He’ll try to get bets on the game. I hope he loses heavily. I’ll back you! I have money. You shall take it and cover his bets.”