With a smile Mr. Maxwell nodded to Phil, and the boy walked to the platform, then turned and faced his former team-mates.
“I’m sorry that I must resign, fellows, but I must, so there’s no use talking about it. We have the best nine at Parker that we have had for years, and if you all give your new captain the same kind of support you have given me, there is no reason why the pennant should not hang on the wall of this gym.”
Again cheers rang through the room, and as they subsided Mr. Maxwell announced:
“The voting has resulted as follows: Sydney Thomas, 14; Bertram Peters, 7; Jenkins, 1. Thomas is, therefore, elected captain to succeed Porter.”
“Good boy, Syd!” cried his friends, gathering around him, excitedly. But Thomas broke from them and walked to where Phil stood.
“Whatever I know about baseball I have learned from Phil, and for his sake I want you all to work hard with me to bring the pennant to Parker,” he exclaimed.
When the cheers subsided, the former captain said:
“I only wish I had taught Syd. There is no need to tell you fellows that it is hard to leave my—I mean the—team. But Syd knows more inside baseball than I do, and he can lead you to the championship, as I said before, if you will only give him the support you have given me. Though I shall be far away, I want some of you to write to me and tell me how things are going, but if you don’t win the pennant, you needn’t expect to receive any replies from me. If I can get out to practise this afternoon, I shall, but as I start in the morning, I haven’t much time to get ready. And now, just to please me, let’s cheer old Parker and Syd.”
Willing was the response to this request, but instead of cheering their new captain, the boys shouted for their old one, surging about him and wringing his hands; even Jenkins and Whitten, who had returned, speaking with him, grateful for his intervention in their behalf.