At sight of this person Merriwell and several of his companions uttered exclamations of surprise.
“Do my eyes deceive me?” cried Frank. “That fellow looks as natural as life! I must be dreaming!”
The newcomer hastened across back of the home plate, his face wreathed in smiles.
“Once more,” he cried, “once more I feast my optics on the only and original Frank Merriwell, my old college chump and side partner. The spectacle causes my throbbing heart to swell with emotions too turgid for utterance. Allow me to grasp your dainty digits, Frank.”
“Cap’n Wiley, as I live!” laughed Frank, as he shook hands with the person who had made his appearance in this spectacular manner. “Why, cap’n, I fancied you had faded from this terrestrial sphere.”
“Nay, nay, Pauline! I am here—very much here, as you will find to your sorrow before the game of to-day has passed into history.”
“You are playing with the Outcasts?”
“Am I? Ask me! I am their mainstay and support. My fielding is about nine hundred and ninety-nine per cent. and my batting a trifle better than five hundred per cent. I was too fast for the Concord team of the New England League, and so they had to let me go. You see the other players didn’t have any chance to shine with me in the game. I played all round them. Not only did I fill my own field at shortstop, but I often gamboled out into the extreme gardens and picked flies and line drives right out of the fingers of the fielders. I covered all the sacks from the initial corner round to the home plate, and often I backed up the catcher. The populace stood aghast at my strenuosity, and the players became jealous and pea-green with envy.
“These envious individuals formed a combine against me. They put their caputs together—caput is French for head—they put their caputs together and formed a combine. They decided to quit in a body unless I was released. The manager had no alternative. He pleaded with them with tears in his eyes and his fists doubled up, but they would not hearken unto reason, and so he was compelled to release me with honors. I immediately received offers from Boston, New York, Washington, Chicago, and Oshkosh. But I decided to throw my fortunes in with the noble Outcasts, and here I am.
“I’m sorry for you, Merry, old boy, but you haven’t a show with me in the game against you. Your double-shoot will not save you on this salubrious afternoon. You will remember that I acquired a spasm of the double-shoot myself, and I have had the boys batting against it for the past four days. Every man on the team can hit the double-shoot with his eyes shut. Just hand it up to them and regret it to the end of your tempestuous career.”