“I hailed, rained, or snowed from any old place. Of late I have been out into the wild and untrammeled West, hobnobbing with cowboys, redskins, and rattlesnakes. Indeed, I acquired a habit of sleeping with two or three rattlesnakes in my bed every night. That’s a handy habit to have, for it gives a chap an excuse to absorb whisky. It was a dull and uneventful day that passed without my being bitten two or three times by a rattlesnake. I am a temperance man by principle and it became extremely worrisome to me to be compelled to thus often fill my system with alcohol. I was troubled with the fear that I might acquire the habit, and outside a rattlesnake country no person has ever seen me under the influence of liquor. Down in dear old Camden, Maine, I am worthy chief of the Good Templars.” By this time every one in the car seemed interested in Wiley, and soon he was relating some of his marvelous yarns, to which they listened with amusement and wonder. He kept this up until the train whistled for Fardale. “Here we are, cap’n!” excitedly whispered Abe, seizing his sleeve and pulling him down into the seat. “We’re almost there!” As the train drew up at the station they looked out and saw on the platform a great crowd of cadets, who promptly began to cheer. The Franklin boys piled off in a hurry and were received with demonstrations of enthusiasm. In the midst of this excitement Wiley and Little Abe were unnoticed. CHAPTER XXVII. A CHANGE OF SIGNALS. Franklin had various reasons for her self-confidence. Principal among these was the fact that her team was stronger than ever before. It was also known that since Dick’s unfortunate injury of his side he had found it impossible to use the highest speed and the most difficult curves to any great extent in any game. He was compelled to depend on headwork rather than curves and speed. But that was not all. Some traitor in the Fardale camp had betrayed Dick’s signals to the enemy. With the aid of these signals Merriwell kept his whole team posted on the kind of balls he was pitching; but now the enemy would be equally well posted. The batter would know just what was coming, and Franklin felt sure she would biff the ball all over the field. Still another thing added to the confidence of the visitors. It had been secretly whispered about that Nort Madison had fixed things with the umpire. In case the game was close near the finish, Franklin would get all the favors. No wonder the visitors marched confidently to Fardale Field. No wonder those among them who had bet on their team were already planning how they would spend their winnings. Never was there a more beautiful day. The air was soft and balmy, and the sunshine was full of mellowness. All the world was fresh and green. It was just the day to bring out a great crowd of spectators to witness a baseball game, and a crowd was present at Fardale Field.