Page:Baseball Joe on the School Nine.djvu/123

Rh naught. Jake was on second, but he only got one bag farther, stealing to third as Joe struck out the next man.

The school nine members were now whispering uneasily among themselves. Never before, at the opening of the season had they had a scrub pitcher who did such things to them. They realized that they had to play the game for all it was worth.

Luke and Hiram were whispering earnestly together and when Harry Lauter, whom Joe had struck out walked to the bench, Luke stepped up to the plate.

"Hold on!" cried Ward Gerard quickly. "You are out of your turn, Luke."

"How's that?" indignantly demanded the school captain.

"George Bland is up next, according to the batting order you gave me."

"Well, we've changed the batting order," put in Hiram quickly.

The truth of the matter was that George was not a very good hitter, while Luke was, and both the latter and the manager had seen the necessity of making at least one run the first inning in order to inspire confidence in the school team. They had hoped to change the batting order unobserved, and bring up a good hitter when he was most