“Then I hope you’ll be above giving me away, Frank. I’ve been a cur. I admit it, and don’t deserve to be let down easy; but I’d hate to be expelled from school, because, you know, my mother has set her heart on my graduating, and going to college. It would break her all up. I haven’t been what I ought to be, but this is going to be a lesson to me, sure it is!” Frank deep down in his heart believed the fellow was a hypocrite; but under the circumstances what could he do, now that Lef had brought his mother into the affair? Frank knew her well, and believed she was an estimable lady who certainly deserved to have a better son than fortune had given her. “I don’t know whether to believe you or not, Lef; but at any rate I guess I’ll keep my own counsel, for a while at least,” he said. And as Lef moved away, he was secretly laughing in his heart at the easy way he had tricked his rival. CHAPTER IX A STUNNING SURPRISE “Everybody report on the field this afternoon for practice!” called Lanky. It was on Friday morning, and most of the members of the nine chanced to be within hearing distance of his shout. “Bellport will be over here to-morrow, and with their teeth set to drop us down a peg,” remarked Jack Eastwick, who, while no ball player of moment, always manifested the greatest interest in the success of the team. “Hope the weather keeps on as fine as it is to-day,” said Tom Budd, as he turned a few flipflaps around the group; but the boys were so accustomed to his antics that they paid little attention to them, although a stranger would have stared with amazement to see his really wonderful stunts. “And that Frank’s arm is as full of ginger as it was last Saturday. My! but he did shoot them in. I heard some of the Bellport players talking about it after the game. They’re afraid of Frank, fellows, actually afraid!” Lef Seller, who was hanging near, turned his head away to conceal the sneer that persisted in settling upon his face when he heard Buster make this announcement. It was like gall and wormwood to Lef to hear any one say good things of Frank Allen. Every time this happened it seemed as though he were being robbed of something that by right should belong to him. When they gathered that afternoon on the diamond, Lef was around to watch and criticise as the humor seized him. And Tony Gilpin also made his appearance, although seldom seen of late on the athletic field. “No show this afternoon to get it, Lef,” he remarked, as he threw himself down near the other on the grass under a tree that grew outside the confines of the grounds. “Rotten luck! Of course he wouldn’t carry it in his baseball uniform. That means we’ll have to wait our chance. And till I get my fingers on that paper I don’t dare so much as peep for fear that he shows me up,” grunted Lef.