Joe's face shone as he ripped off his sweater, grabbed up a ball and his mitt, and started for the practice stretch. His heart was in a tumult, but he calmed himself and began his work.

But it was too much to expect to pull the contest out of the fire by such desperate and late-day methods. In the part of the game he pitched Joe allowed but one hit, and with howls of delight his friends watched him mow down the Cornell batters. Not another run came in, but the lead of the visitors was too big, and Yale could not overcome it, though her sons did n.o.bly, rising to the support of Joe in great style.

"Well, it's over," remarked Spike gleefully as he caught Joe's arm at the close of the contest.

"You seem glad that Yale lost," said the pitcher.

"Never! But I'm glad you showed 'em what you could do when you had the chance. If you'd gone in first Yale would have won!"

"Oh, you think so--do you?" sneered a voice behind them. They turned quickly, to see Ford Weston, scowling with rage.

"Yes, I do," declared Spike boldly.

"Then you've got another think coming!" was the retort. "I'm the 'varsity pitcher, and I'm going to hold on to the job!"

CHAPTER XXII

THE CRIMSON SPOT

"What do you think of him, anyhow?" asked Spike of his room-mate, as Weston pa.s.sed on. "Isn't he the limit!"

"He certainly doesn't seem to care much for me," replied Joe, with a grim smile. "But I suppose it's natural. Almost anyone would feel that way at the prospect of being replaced."

"Oh, he makes me tired!" exclaimed Spike. "He ought to stand for Yale--not for Ford Weston. It's the first time in a good many years that any player has placed himself above the team."

"But Weston hasn't done that yet."

"No, but that's what he's scheming for. He as good as said that he'll pitch for the 'varsity no matter what happens."

"Who's that? What's up?" asked another voice, and, turning, the two chums saw Ricky Hanover. "Oh, you're talking about Weston," he added, as he noted the defeated pitcher walking away. "What's he been saying?"

They told him, and Ricky, making a wry face, went on:

"So that's how things are; eh? Well, if Weston tries that sort of game, I can see the finish of the Yale nine. It'll be the tail end of the kite, and the championship will be in the soup. In fact it's beginning to gravitate that way now, with the loss of this Cornell game."

"But where does Weston get his pull?" demanded Spike. "How is it that they put him in to-day, when it was almost known that he couldn't make good. And here was Joe all ready to go on the mound. You saw what he did when he got there and yet----"

"Spare my blushes! I'm a modest youth!" laughed Joe.

"That's all right, there's something back of all this," continued Spike, vigorous in defence of his chum. "Why should the coaches put Weston in, and then, when he slumped, call on Avondale before they did you, Joe? It isn't right, and I think Horsehide should have made a better fight for you. You claim he's a friend of yours, Joe."

"Well, yes, in a way. And yet if I had to depend on his friendship to get on the mound I'd never go there. I want to stand on my own feet and have the right to pitch because I can do better than some other fellow.

That's all I ask--a fair show. I don't want any favors, and Mr. Hasbrook isn't the man to give them to me, if I'd take them."

"I guess you're right there," commented Ricky.

"But what I can't understand," went on Spike, "is how Horsehide seemed to give in to the other two coaches. It was as plain as a flagpole that he didn't want to pitch Weston to-day, and yet he had to in spite of himself. Why was it?"

"Do you really want to know?" asked Ricky, and his voice was lowered, while he glanced around as if to make sure that no one would hear him save his two friends. "Do you really want to know?"

"Certainly," declared Spike, and Joe wondered what was coming.

"Well, it's because Weston is a member of the Anvil Club," said Ricky.

"It's a cla.s.s secret society, and it has a lot of influence--more so than even some of the big Senior clubs. Weston belongs and so do Horsehide and the other two coaches. They were in college, and they still keep up their affiliations. Now you know why they pitched Weston to-day--because he demanded it as a part of his right as a member of the Anvil Club."

"Do you mean to tell me," asked Spike, "that the secret society is bigger than Yale--that it could make her lose a ball game?"

"No, not exactly," replied Ricky. "But it is powerful, and a member has an unwritten right to demand almost anything in reason of the other members, and by their promises made they are obliged to help him."

"But this wasn't anything in reason," said Spike. "Joe should have pitched the game, and then we'd have won. It was unreasonable to let Weston go in."

"Look here!" exclaimed Ricky. "I don't mean to say that Yale men would do any underhand work to make any athletic contest go by the board. But you can't say, right off the bat, that Weston's demand was unreasonable.

He thought he could pitch to a victory, and he probably said as much, very forcibly. It was a chance that he might, and, when he appealed for a try, on the ground that he was an Anvil man--they had to give it to him, that's all. It was all they could do, though I guess Horsehide didn't want to."

"But there's Avondale," went on Ricky. "What about him?"

"He's an Anvil man, too."

"And I'm not," broke in Joe. "Say," he asked with a laugh, "how do you join this society?"

"You don't," spoke Ricky solemnly. "You have to be asked, or tapped for it, just as for Wolf's Head, or Skull and Bones. Oh, it's an exclusive society all right, and as secret as a dark cellar."

"And you really know this to be so?" asked Spike, almost incredulously.

"Well, no one says so out and out, but I've heard rumors before, and to-day they were strong enough to hear without a megaphone. Oh, Weston's got the thing cinched all right."

"Then I haven't a chance," sighed Joe, and more than ever he regretted coming to Yale. Yet, deep in his heart, was a fierce desire to pitch the college to a championship.

"Haven't a chance!" cried Spike, indignantly. "Do you mean to say, Ricky, that they'll let Weston go on losing games the way he did to-day?"

"No, not exactly. But they'll pitch him because he will appeal to their society side, and bamboozle 'em into thinking that he has come back strong, and can sure win."

"And if he doesn't--if he slumps as he did to-day?"

"Then they'll put in Avondale or McAnish."

"And Joe won't get a show until last?" asked Spike.

"That's about the size of it."

"I don't believe so."

"All right. Just watch," said Ricky, with a shrug of his shoulders. "Of course," he went on, "the coaches may wake up to the fact before it's too late, or there may be such a howl made that they'll have to can the society plea. But it's a queer situation. Come on down to Glory's and we'll feed our faces."