Made in the United States of America

Copyright, 1924, by

GROSSET & DUNLAP

CONTENTS
I[Suspense]
II[A Visitor]
III[The Doctor’s Orders]
IV[The Unseen Triumph]
V[A Promise]
VI[The Lone Figure]
VII[An Odd Number]
VIII[The Light Under the Bushel]
IX[The Emblem of the Single Eye]
X[Before Camp-fire]
XI[Friendly Enemies]
XII[Archie Dennison]
XIII[Gray Wolf]
XIV[Under a Cloud]
XV[Tom’s Advice]
XVI[Old Acquaintance]
XVII[Tom Acts]
XVIII[Pastures New]
XIX[Advance]
XX[Another Promise]
XXI[A Bargain]
XXII[Shattered Dreams]
XXIII[The Lowest Ebb]
XXIV[Strike Two]
XXV[New Quarters]
XXVI[July Twenty-fifth]
XXVII[Strike Three]
XXVIII[Voices]
XXIX[When It Turns Red]
XXX[Jaws Unseen]
XXXI[The Home Run]
XXXII[Tom’s Big Day]
XXXIII[It Runs in the Family]

TOM SLADE PICKS A WINNER

CHAPTER I
SUSPENSE

The boy lay in a large, thickly upholstered Morris chair in the living room. His mother had lowered the back of this chair so that he could recline upon it, and she kneeled beside him holding his hand in one of hers while she gently bathed his forehead with the other. She watched his face intently, now and again averting her gaze to observe a young girl, her daughter, who had lifted aside the curtain in the front door and was gazing expectantly out into the quiet street.

“Is that he?” Mrs. Cowell asked anxiously.

“No, it’s a grocery car,” the girl answered.

Her mother sighed in impatience and despair. “Hadn’t you better ’phone again?” she asked.