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 "No, not next week, but I'll tell you one thing. He will be pitching for this team before the season's over!"

"What!" It was a chorus of blank incredulity. Then there was laughter, through which struggled Nate's voice saying, "Nod, you're as crazy as a coot!" The burst of merriment acted on Laurie somewhat like a wet sponge on the face of a sleeper. He awoke suddenly to the enormity of his assertion, and caution urged him to prompt retraction, or, at least, compromise. But there was Elk Thurston grinning and sneering, his very attitude a challenge. Laurie swallowed hard and summoned a smile of careless ease to his countenance.

"You heard what I said," he remarked calmly.

Then Coach Mulford came in, and the die was cast. Laurie waved a nonchalant hand to Dave Brewster. In appearance he looked as care-free and untroubled as any person there, but to himself he was saying bitterly, "There, you poor fish, you've been and gone and done it again!"