Page:The Rival Pitchers.djvu/264

250 "Hope it doesn't knock you out from pitching, old man," spoke Sid sympathetically.

"It would if I had a chance to pitch," responded Tom, "but, as it is, I guess it isn't going to make much difference."

Several other freshmen who had been caught by the sophomores, but who managed to escape, came straggling in, filled with excitement, and the dinner was soon under way, with many a toast imbibed in cider, ginger ale or water, to the confusion of the sophomores and the success of the freshmen.

"We fooled 'em good and proper!" cried Sid, who had been elected toastmaster. "We put 'em to rout, and now let us eat, drink and make a big noise!"

Which they proceeded to do, undisturbed by any further attack of their traditional enemies.

Tom's arm pained him so before the dinner was over that he whispered to Phil that he was going to leave. The big center fielder agreed to accompany Tom back to college, and without saying anything to the others to break up the fun, they slipped quietly away. Dr. Marshall, of the faculty, who was a physician as well as an instructor in physics and chemistry, looked critically at Tom's arm when Phil insisted that his chum get medical aid.

"You say you got that in a fall?" asked Dr. Marshall, examining Tom's elbow, which was red and much swollen.