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 hold it for that floater of yours, will you?" he said.

Pemberton took the ball good-naturedly enough. "What are you trying to do, Nod?" he asked. "Get my job away from me? Well, here's the way I hold it." He placed his long fingers about the ball with careful regard for the seams. "But holding it isn't more than half of it, Nod. You see, you've got to flip it away just right. Your thumb puts the drag on it, see? When you let go of it it starts away like this." Pemberton swung his arm through slowly and let the ball trickle from his hand. Laurie recovered it from a few paces away and stared at it in puzzled fashion. He guessed he wouldn't be able to learn much about pitching that way. Pemberton continued his explanation carelessly. "You see, you've got to start it off with the right spin. That's what keeps it up after a straight ball would begin to drop. Now you take the 'fade-away.' I can't pitch it, but I know how it's done. You start it like this."

Laurie listened and looked on with only perfunctory interest. It wasn't any use, he decided. Learning Pemberton's stuff and teaching it to