“You can get off enough in ten days so you will be able to play ball all right. I want you for your batting. Batters count. You are a good hitter, and the team is weak at the bat. It’s no use, Bruce; I want you, and am going to have you. You must quit drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. You must go into training to-morrow, and you must work hard to get off superfluous flesh. One week from Saturday you go on the nine.” It was useless for Browning to beg; Merry had decided, and the big fellow could not get out of it. “I wouldn’t do it for any other man living,” declared the lazy student; “but I suppose I’ll have to for you. You are a perfect tyrant, anyway. What you say goes.” “And what he says is right,” declared the confident Hodge. “Then I will say right here,” spoke Frank, with quiet assurance, “that Yale will have a nine that will be the surprise of the season. We are going after that pennant, and Princeton and Harvard will have to hustle to win.” Hodge nodded. He was thinking of Merriwell’s marvelous double-shoot. “They can’t touch it,” he muttered. “Eh?” said Browning. “What’s that? Touch what?” “You’ll see,” said Hodge, his eyes gleaming. “Frank says the Yale team will be a surprise, but I know what will be a still greater surprise.” CHAPTER XXIII. PRINCETON’S STARTER. The opening game of the college league was on. Yale and Princeton were drawn up for the first struggle on the grounds of the latter nine. Yale was in the field, with “Stew” Walbert in the box. The preliminary practice was all over, and the umpire was opening a box to extract a brand new ball. Haggerty and Merriwell were on the bench in uniform. Browning was on the bench in citizen’s clothes. Merriwell showed no signs of nervousness. Browning was placid as a spring morning. Haggerty fidgeted. Yale was not well represented by “rooters” from New Haven. There was one lonesome little knot huddled on the bleachers, trying to look happy and confident, but making a sad failure of it. Yale men had stayed away. They felt that their team had no show at all, and they did not have the heart to go down to Princeton and root against a sure thing. But there was plenty of blue in the grand stand. The young ladies there showed that they admired the boys from Connecticut, and they were not afraid to show their colors. But the orange and black predominated even there. It seemed to be everywhere. Princeton had a strong team, and men of good judgment were confident she would start off a winner, flukes not taken into consideration. Walbert was pale as he faced the first Princeton batter. He had seen long Joe Varney before, and he knew the “gangling” left fielder of the “Tigers” was a “lacer.” Walbert took a little time to look over the ground near his feet. He planted his toe on the rubber plate, and then wound up with an eccentric movement of the arm, and shot in a “twister.” Varney went after the very first one, and got it!