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 CHAPTER XL

PINWHEEL MURTEL

The great Bancroft crowd laughed. They had come to Kingsbridge to see their new southpaw show the Kinks something about pitching. Incidentally they had made arrangements to take home with them various sums of money which the foolish Kingsbridgers had wagered on their team.

Bangs whipped the ball back, and Craddock again went through with that remarkable delivery, looking, as one man expressed it, "as though he was all arms 'n' legs." Again the ball bit a corner off the plate, and Labelle, fascinated by the pitcher's gyrations, swung too late.

The only delay was that caused by the movements of Craddock preliminary to pitching, and he did not waste a single "teaser" on the Kinks' first hitter. The third one was high, with a sharp slant on it, and the little Canadian whiffed out.

"There's pitchin' fur ye!" yelled a Bancrofter. "What d'ye think o' that?"

"Nom de tonnerre!" said Labelle again, as he