“He probably did it when we were splashing each other in the water and making a lot of noise,” was the opinion of Georgie Pennington. “He might have grabbed up Tommy’s clothes, hid back in the bushes until he had the knots in ’em, and then he tossed ’em over here. He took the shoes farther off with him.”
This was about the only way the boys could figure out that the trick had been played, and, as they walked toward the town, they talked over what they would like to do to the bully if they could catch him while they were all together. Alone, none of them would have been strong enough to engage in a tussle with Jakie.
It was rather an unpleasant ending to the day’s fun, but it might have been much worse, as Tommy said, if he had not found his shoes.
“Well, how is the baseball nine coming on?” asked Tommy’s father of him one evening about a week after the swimming fun just mentioned. “Have you challenged any other teams yet?”
“No, but I expect to soon. We had a meeting up in my room, and I’m captain of the nine.”
“I should think you would be, you got it up all alone,” said Nellie. “Don’t you own the nine, Tommy?”
“Of course not, and, just because a fellow gets up a nine, that doesn’t say he is going to be captain. The captain has to be the best player,” explained the lad. “Of course I don’t say I am the best,” he hastened to add, “but the fellows said I was good, and they hadn’t ever had a nine before, so that’s why they wanted me to be captain.”
“But when are you going to play games, Tommy?” asked his mother.
“Oh, pretty soon now. We’ve got the grounds nearly fixed, and we’ve had a lot of practice. We’ve got to build a back-stop next, and the catcher needs a mask. We’ve got enough balls and bats and a few gloves,” he went on. “Some of the fellows took a pair of their father’s old gloves, cut off the finger-tops and stuffed the inside with cotton. I wish I had an old pair to fix up.”
“I guess I can find some,” said Mr. Tiptop.