Page:Baseball Joe on the School Nine.djvu/79

 that he might have turned off Luke's insult with a laugh.

"For if I had done so I'd stand a better chance of getting on the nine," mused Joe.

Then a different feeling came to him.

"No, I couldn't do that either," he reflected. "I'm not built that way. I'm not going to lie down and be walked on, nine or no nine, and I'm going to find some way to play ball, at that!"

There was a determined look on Joe's face, and he squared his shoulders in a way that meant business. If Hiram and his crony could have seen our hero then they might not have been so sure of what they would do to him.

"So that's how he acted, eh?" asked the bully, when his crony had reported to him what Joe had said. "Well, he'll get his all right. He'll never play ball here as long as I am manager.

"No, nor while I'm captain," added Luke. "Nor that friend of his either, Tom Davis."

"That's right; we'll make it so hot here for both of 'em that they'll leave at the end of the term," predicted Hiram.

What a pity he did not know that Joe and Tom were not of the "leaving" kind. The hotter it was the better they liked it, for they both came of fighting stock.