“Look here, man!” cried Ben Halliday, turning sharply on Pink, “what is the matter with you? You talk as if anxious for Princeton to beat Yale.” “That’s so,” nodded Jones, giving Pooler a sour look. “You ought to know better than that,” said Pink, protestingly; “but I have got eyes, and I do know something about baseball. When Yale has a struggle to beat little Williams in a practice game, she is not going to stand much of a show in the college league.” Browning grunted. “Huah! Yale has a way of starting out weak at the beginning of the season and making a rattling finish. You forget that, Pooler.” “No, but that does not happen every time.” “Pretty near it.” “There was a time, not so many moons agone,” began Dismal Jones, in his queer way, “when it was thought that Yale’s one weak point was behind the bat.” “That’s been settled,” said Browning. “Oh, I don’t know,” grinned Pooler. “What’s the matter with Hodge?” quickly asked Halliday. “It was his pretty work that saved the game with Williams,” declared Parker. “That’s once,” said Pooler, meaningly. “Merriwell says he can do it right along.” “Merriwell says many things.” “And you can bet your life that what he says goes!” came with unusual warmth from Browning. “I’ve seen Hodge work before, and he’s all right.” “They say he has a nasty temper,” said Pink. “Sometimes he gets mad and sulks.” “Merriwell can handle him any time.” “It’s always Merriwell, Merriwell, Merriwell!” sneered Pooler. “He is a good man, but most of the fellows seem to think he’s a phenom. It makes me tired!” “He has done some phenomenal work,” said Parker. “Take the football game with----” “Oh, that’s ancient history! You fellows don’t seem to get over that football game.” “He did some fine twirling last season.” “And spoiled his arm in the last hard game he pitched.” “It didn’t look that way when he pitched for the ‘scrub’ against the regulars, and made a draw game of it. It struck me that he was in fine trim.” “He worked for all there was in him that day,” declared Pooler, “and I have it straight that he has been tending his arm since then as if it were a sick baby. He does it up in arnica and witch hazel, and keeps it bandaged all the time. He wasn’t in condition to go in and save the Williams game.” “He didn’t have to,” grunted Browning. “He was needed badly enough. It was Hodge’s three-bagger in the ninth that brought in two scores when two men were out, and saved the game. I claim that hit was an accident. That being the case, it was an accident that beat Williams. If Merriwell could have gone in and saved the game, why didn’t they put him in?” “I’ll tell you why,” said Parker. “They were saving him and they wanted to test the stuff in Haggerty and Walbert.” “You know Haggerty said he knew the weak points of almost all the Williams men,” said Halliday. “That was why he was kept in so long.”