Jack Winters' Baseball Team Or, The Rivals of the Diamond   By: Mark Overton

Or,

The Rivals of the Diamond

by

MARK OVERTON

[Illustration: Jack tried to keep the boy's head above water ]

Made in U.S.A. M. A. Donohue & Company Chicago New York

Copyright 1919, by American Authors Publishing Co.

Made in U.S.A.

CONTENTS

I. Three Boys of Chester 11 II. A Weak Link in the Chain 19 III. The Last Practice Game 28 IV. When Chester Awakened 37 V. Tied in the Ninth Inning 46 VI. Fred Put to the Test 55 VII. The Game Called by Darkness 64 VIII. The Puzzle Grows 73 IX. A Fairy in the Badger Home 81 X. The Warning 89 XI. Sitting on the Lid 98 XII. One Trouble After Another 107 XIII. When the Cramp Seized Joel 116 XIV. A Night Alarm 124 XV. What Happened at the Fire 133 XVI. A Startling Disclosure 142 XVII. Fred Renews His Pledge 150 XVIII. Hendrix Again in the Box 159 XIX. The Lucky Seventh 168 XX. After the Great Victory Conclusion 177

JACK WINTERS' BASEBALL TEAM

CHAPTER I

THREE BOYS OF CHESTER

"No use talking, Toby, there's something on Jack's mind of late, and it's beginning to bother him a lot, I think!"

"Well, Steve, you certainly give me the creeps, that's what you do, with your mysterious hints of all sorts of trouble hanging over our heads, just as they say the famous sword of that old worthy, Damocles, used to hang by a single hair, ready to fall. Look here, do you realize, Steve, what it would mean if Jack went and got himself rattled just now ?"

"Huh! guess I do that, Toby, when, for one thing, we're scheduled to go up against that terrible Harmony nine day after tomorrow."

"And if Jack is getting cold feet already, on account of something or other, I can see our finish now, Steve."

"Still, we beat them in that first great game, don't let's forget that, Toby, and take what consolation we can from the fact."

"Oh! rats! we know how that came about. They'd never been beaten the entire season by any team in the county, and had grown a bit careless. Because they had a clean record they believed they could just about wipe up the ground with poor old Chester, a slow town that up to this year had never done anything worth while in connection with boys' outdoor sports."

"That's right, Toby. Never will I forget how humiliated I felt when they struck town on that glorious day. They came in a lot of cars and motor trucks, with the Harmony Band playing, 'Lo, the Conquering Hero Comes,' and with whoops and toots galore from the crowds of faithful rooters. Why, bless you, they felt so confident of winning that they even left their star battery at home to rest up, and used the second string slab team. But, oh! my eye! it was a saddened lot of Harmony fellows that wended their way back home, everybody trying to explain what had struck them to the tune of eleven to five. Wow!"

"Great Cæsar! Steve, but didn't old Chester go crazy that same night, though, with the bonfires making the sky look red, and the boys yelling through the main streets in a serpentine procession, carrying Jack on their shoulders? The campus in front of the high school was packed solid when Professor Yardley made a speech, and congratulated our gallant team because we had that same day put Chester once for all on the map!"