“That is so!” ejaculated the teacher. “It never struck me before. I must look into it without delay. No doubt they are guilty.” And this proved to be the fact.
With the coming of warm weather the thoughts of many of the students had turned to baseball. Several teams had already been organized, including one by Reff Ritter. Baxter had wanted to organize a team, but Ritter got ahead of him. However, the bully of the Hall was made pitcher, with Ritter as catcher, so he was content. Coulter played first-base and Paxton short-stop. They called themselves the Medals, and issued a challenge to any team in the school.
“That means us,” said Jack. “Baxter and Ritter are bound to get ahead of us if they possibly can.”
Since the previous summer there had been some changes made among the boys when playing baseball, and now a team was made up with Bart Conners, the captain of Company A, as captain and short-stop. Jack was pitcher, Dale catcher, Andy first-base, Pepper second-base, Stuffer third-base, Hogan center-field, Harry Blossom right-field, and Henry Lee left-field. Dave Kearney and two others were substitutes. This team was called the Browns, for all of the players got suits of brown. The Ritter and Baxter crowd procured suits of blue, with red stockings.
After a good deal of talk it was decided that the Medals and the Browns should play a game a week later, on a Saturday afternoon. Both teams at once began to practice vigorously.
“Baxter is taking private lessons from a professional pitcher who comes to Cedarville from Ithaca,” said Pepper one day. “I got the word from Hampden, who saw him.”
“Did Hampden say anything more?”
“He said Baxter was going to fool us on a new kind of a curved ball.”
The news was true. From a friend in the city the bully had gotten the name and address of the professional pitcher, and the latter was now giving Baxter as many lessons as the cadet’s spare time would allow.
The new curved ball was a difficult one to pitch, and had to be delivered by a certain swing of the wrist and the elbow. At first Baxter could not “get the hang” of it, as he said, but presently it came to him, and then he delivered the ball very well.