Page:Baseball Joe on the School Nine.djvu/86

 me?" and Tom motioned to a lot of lads in the rear of the hall.

"What is it—a rough house?" asked Peaches, and then he noticed for the first time that the athletic meeting was much better attended than usual.

"Those are new members," declared Tom in a whisper. "I'm counting on turning the balance of power away from Hiram and the crowd with him. I've been canvassing the last week, and I've got a lot of fellows to join who never took an interest in sports before."

"Oh, ho! So that's your game!" exclaimed Peaches. "Well, it's a good one all right."

"They'll all vote for Joe for pitcher," went on Tom.

"I notice that there are still two vacancies in the team," spoke Jake Weston, who had been named as shortstop. "We had such success with Luke as catcher last year, that I move that he again go behind the bat."

"Second it," sung out Harry Lauter.

"It has been moved and seconded," began Hiram, and there came a shout of "ayes" before he had finished.

"That's the way it always is," whispered Peaches. "Luke pretends he's too modest to