Page:Baseball Joe on the School Nine.djvu/190

176 the two regular nines with whom they were to cross bats during the week? When the scrubs got another run, Joe knocking a three bagger, and coming home on Tommy Barton's sacrifice, there was even a graver look on the face of the coach. As for Luke and Hiram, they held a consultation.

"We'll have to make a shift somewhere," declared Hiram.

"I'll just let Akers go in the box in place of Frank Brown," decided the captain.

"No, that's not enough," insisted the manager. "You don't know how to play your own men."

"I know as much as you do about it!" fired back Luke. Of late the bully and his crony had not agreed overwell.

"No, you don't!" reaffirmed Hiram. "I tell you what you ought to do. You ought to get rid of Peaches, Teeter and George Bland."

"Why, they're three of the best players on the nine."

"No, they're not, and besides they're too friendly with Joe Matson and Sister Davis. They don't half play. They make errors on purpose, just to make the school team have a bad reputation."

"Why should they do that?"