| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
|---|---|---|
| I. | [A Chance Encounter] | 1 |
| II. | [The Boy from Out West] | 12 |
| III. | [Monty Crail Changes His Mind] | 25 |
| IV. | [“Out for Grafton!”] | 36 |
| V. | [A Room and a Roommate] | 48 |
| VI. | [Battle Royal] | 63 |
| VII. | [Monty Shakes Hands] | 77 |
| VIII. | [The New Chum] | 88 |
| IX. | [Soap and Water] | 103 |
| X. | [Some Victories and a Defeat] | 121 |
| XI. | [Monty is Bored] | 135 |
| XII. | [Keys: Piano and Others] | 144 |
| XIII. | [Standart Gets Advice] | 155 |
| XIV. | [The Middleton Game] | 168 |
| XV. | [Monty Goes Over] | 178 |
| XVI. | [Coach Bonner Talks] | 190 |
| XVII. | [Back of the Line] | 203 |
| XVIII. | [What’s in a Name?] | 216 |
| XIX. | [“Bull Run”] | 229 |
| XX. | [Tackled] | 240 |
| XXI. | [Standart Plays the Piccolo] | 250 |
| XXII. | [Hollywood Springs a Surprise] | 262 |
| XXIII. | [Monty Finds a Soft Place] | 275 |
| XXIV. | [The “Blue”] | 288 |
| XXV. | [“Fire!”] | 300 |
| XXVI. | [Monty Receives Callers] | 313 |
| XXVII. | [Hitting the Line] | 323 |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
HITTING THE LINE
CHAPTER I
A CHANCE ENCOUNTER
Two boys alighted from a surface car in front of the big Terminal in New York and dodged their way between dashing taxicabs, honking motor cars and plunging horses to the safety of the broad sidewalk. Each boy carried a suitcase, and each suitcase held, amongst the more or less obliterated labels adorning it, a lozenge-shaped paster of gray paper, bearing, in scarlet, the letters “G. S.,” cunningly angulated to fit the space of the rhombus.
If I were Mr. Sherlock Holmes I should write, as a companion work to the famous monograph on tobacco ashes, a Treatise on the Deduction of Evidence from Hand Luggage. For one can learn a great deal from a careful scrutiny of, say, a suitcase or kit bag. As for example. Here is one bearing the initials “D. H. B.” on its end. It is quite an ordinary affair, costing when new in the neighborhood of six dollars perhaps. Its color has deepened to a light shade of mahogany, from which we deduce that its age is about three years. While it is still in good usable condition, it is not a bit “swagger,” and we reach the conclusion that its owner is in moderate circumstances. There are no signs of abuse and so it is apparent that the boy is of a careful as well as a frugal turn of mind. A baggage tag tied to the handle presumably bears name and address. Therefore he possesses forethought. The letters “D. H. B.” probably stand for David H. Brown. Or possibly Daniel may be the first name. We select David as being more common. As to the last name, we frankly own that we may be mistaken, but Brown is as likely as any other. The letters “G. S.” on the label indicate that he belongs to some Society, but the G puzzles us. It might stand for Gaelic or Gallic—or Garlic—but we’ll let that go for the moment and look at the other bag.
This bears the initials “J. T. L.,” not in plain block letters but in Old English characters. It is of approximately the same age as the first one, but cost nearly twice as much, and has seen twice as much use and more than twice as much abuse. The handle is nearly off and those spots suggest rain. There is no tag on it. The initials probably stand for John T. Long. The gray label with the scarlet letters indicate that the owner of the suitcase is also a member of the mysterious Society. Other facts show that he is wealthy, careless, not over-neat, fond of show and lacks forethought. There!
And just at this moment “J. T. L.” lays a detaining hand on his companion’s arm and exclaims: “Wait a shake, Dud!” And we begin to lose faith in our powers of deduction and to fear that we will never rival Mr. Holmes after all!