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 Kewpie tossed five or six balls into Laurie's mitt without a wind-up and between tosses stretched and flexed the muscles of his stout arm.

"All right," said Laurie finally. He crouched and signaled under the mitten. Kewpie shook his head.

"I don't know your signals," he objected. "You tell me what you want."

"Pitch some straight ones," suggested the coach.

Kewpie obliged. His stand in the box and his wind-up were different from what they had been when Laurie had last caught him. Considering his build, Kewpie's appearance and movements were easy and smooth. He had a queer habit of bringing the pitching hand back close to the left thigh after the delivery, which, while novel, was rather impressive. Kewpie's deliveries were straight enough to please any one, but Mr. Mulford called:

"Speed them up, son. You'd never get past the batsman with those!"

Kewpie shot the ball away harder. Laurie returned it and thumped his mitt encouragingly.