"He certainly is. You can't seem to do it, Sam. I'm sorry, but we can't afford to lose. We're near the tail end of the league now."

Sam shot a look at the captain. Rankin nodded his head to confirm what the manager had said. Then the deposed pitcher strode over to where the score keepers sat. Taking up a piece of paper and a pencil he rapidly wrote something and handed it to Darrell.

"What's this?" asked the manager.

"My resignation from the Silver Star Baseball Club," snapped Sam. "I'm done pitching for you. It was all a put-up job to get me out, and that Matson lad in. I'm through," and he turned aside.

"Very well," a.s.sented Darrell quietly. "If you feel that way about it perhaps it is better that you quit. But I'm sorry."

"Play ball!" yelled the umpire.

"Joe, bat for Sam and then take the box," said the manager, and there was a little subdued applause from the other Star players on the bench.

It was their way of congratulating Joe.

CHAPTER XXVII

BAD NEWS

Joe was plainly nervous. Being called on so suddenly had its effect as did the unexpected action of Sam in resigning because Joe had supplanted him. But the young pitcher knew that he must pull himself together.

The game was slipping away from the Stars and the crowd of shouters that accompanied the Blues would redouble their efforts to get Joe's "goat"

as soon as he got in the box.

He had a foretaste of what they would do when he got up to bat in Sam's place and struck out. It was no discredit to Joe, for the Blues had a fine pitcher, still it added to his nervousness.

"If that's a sample of what your new pitcher can do we'll take a few more runs!" yelled a Blue sympathizer.

"Oh, he only did that for fun!" yelled Rodney.

"Yes," added Tom Davis. "He's saving his arm to strike you fellows out.

Go to it, Joe! Don't let 'em rattle you."

The Stars took a brace, whether it was the knowledge that Joe was to pitch or not, but they certainly braced, and in that inning got enough runs to make the score six to eight in favor of the visiting team.

"Now, Joe, hold 'em down!" pleaded Darrell, "and we can do the rest, I think."

"I'll try," answered our hero.

It would be too much to expect Joe to do wonders, but he did very well.

He only allowed two hits in the inning when he first pitched and only one run came in, chiefly through an error on the part of the third baseman.

"I guess we've got their number now," exulted Darrell, when it came the turn of the Stars to bat. "Keep up the good work, boys. We've got 'em going."

The Stars managed to knock out two runs in their half of the third inning and that made the score eight to nine--one extra tally only against them.

And then began what was really a remarkable game for one played between amateur nines. For the next four innings neither side got a run. Talk of a "pitchers' battle" began to be whispered, and for the credit of the visitors be it said that they no longer tried to get Joe's "goat."

Both pitchers were on their mettle. Of course they were not perfect and probably some deliveries that the umpire called strikes were b.a.l.l.s, just as some that he designated as b.a.l.l.s were good strikes. But it was all in the game. Joe was doing good work. There were only a few scattered hits off him and these were easily taken care of by the in or out fielders.

In this the Blues rather excelled, however, there being more errors charged up against the home team than to them.

But the Stars had this in their favor; that, while there were a number of good stick men among the visitors, they were not speedy base-runners and thus a number of men were nabbed on the sacks, through playing off too far, or not connecting in time, who otherwise might have brought in runs.

"Oh, fellows, we've got to do something!" cried the captain at the close of the usual lucky seventh, when no runs had been registered for either side. "Can't some of you pull off a run?"

But it was the Blue team who scored first, getting one run on a ball hit by the first man up. It was manifestly a foul, but the umpire called it fair and the man held his base. Then Joe's arm gave him a twinge and he was. .h.i.t for a three bagger by the next man up, scoring the player preceding him. But that was all.

With grimly tightened lips Joe faced his next opponent and after that not a man got to first, and the player on third dared not steal home, so keenly was he watched.

With the score eight to ten against them the Stars came in more confidently than might have been expected. And when they had hammered out two runs, tieing the score, there was wild enthusiasm.

"Here's where we walk away from them!" yelled Rodney, as the second run came in, and with only one man out. But there came a slump and the opposing pitcher braced up, striking out two men in succession.

The ninth inning saw a single run tallied up for the visitors, and in this connection Joe did some great work, pulling down a fly that was well over his head and receiving a round of applause for his pluck, for it was a "hot" one.

The unexpected happened in the ending of the ninth, when the visitors were one ahead. Seth Potter, never reckoned as a heavy hitter brought in a home run, and the score was once more a tie for no one else crossed home plate.

"Ten innings!" was the cry and the spectators began "sitting up and taking notice" as Rodney Burke said.

"Now, Joe, it's up to you to shut them out," advised the captain. The young pitcher nodded and then he cut loose.

His arm was paining him very much for by a sudden twist he had wrenched the muscles injured in saving the lad from the trolley car. But Joe would not give up, and he struck out three men neatly, only one, the second up, getting any kind of a hit, and that only good for the initial bag.

"A goose egg!" yelled Rodney Burke. "Now one run will do the trick!"

"Snow 'em under!" cried Darrell.

And the Stars did, for they rapped out the necessary run amid a jubilant riot of cheers, making the final score twelve to eleven.

"Oh, I knew you could do it! I knew you could!" cried the captain, trying to embrace all his lads at once. They had won handily though at one time it looked like defeat.

"Good work, Joe," complimented Darrell. "You're the regular pitcher from now on."

"But if Sam reconsiders his resignation?"

"He can't," rejoined the manager. "He's out for good."

Joe could hardly wait to get home and tell the good news. He fairly raced into the house, but he stopped short at the sight of his father and mother in the dining room. They were seated at the table and a look of anxiety was on their faces.

"What's the matter?" gasped Joe, all his joy in the victory and his new position leaving him as he looked at his parents. On the table between them lay a number of papers.

"I've been served with a summons from the court," said Mr. Matson slowly. "It's a move on the part of Benjamin and Holdney. The court has taken my patent models and doc.u.ments away from me, and I may lose everything. It's hard, just as I was about to succeed--very hard."

"And you may lose everything, dad?" asked Joe huskily.