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 "Give me time—all I ask is a few days—and I can answer positively whether or not he ever wrote to me."

"That don't make no diff'runce, if you didn't answer it. He'll find he's barkin' up the wrong tree when he tries to bluff me outer a pitcher that fashion."

"I presume there will be more or less publicity over this contention, and that'll be unfortunate—-for me."

"Yes, I'm worried over that. Riley'll be sure to let ev'rybody know that you're Hazelton, of Princeton, though mebbe it won't git outside the Northern League to bother ye when you go back to college."

"Maybe not, but the chances are that it will, if Riley makes much of a roar over it."

"But you won't quit?" cried Cope, in sudden panic. "If he tries to frighten ye out by threatenin' to blow the matter broadcast, you won't let him drive ye that way? Great Scott! That would fix us! It would be almost as bad as havin' to give ye up to them."

"I am not much of a quitter," answered the other man, with a smile. "It will be a mighty bad thing to have the facts made public; but, once I've set my hand to anything, I seldom turn