[Illustration: HE THRUST OUT HIS HAND FOR OSGOOD TO TAKE.] THE NEW BOYS AT OAKDALE By MORGAN SCOTT Author of “Ben Stone at Oakdale,” “Boys of Oakdale Academy,” “Rival Pitchers of Oakdale,” “Oakdale Boys in Camp,” “The Great Oakdale Mystery,” etc. A. L. BURT COMPANY Publishers—New York Printed in U. S. A. Copyright, 1913 BY HURST & COMPANY Printed in U. S. A. CONTENTS CHAPTER I—AN ORDER DISOBEYED. CHAPTER II—THE SCORE TIED. CHAPTER III—BENCHED. CHAPTER IV—WYNDHAM’S LAST DESPERATE STAND. CHAPTER V—THE DIPLOMACY OF OSGOOD. CHAPTER VI—THE SUSPICIONS OF SLEUTH. CHAPTER VII—YOUNG SPORTS. CHAPTER VIII—A HOT GAME. CHAPTER IX—THE BLOW AND AFTERWARDS. CHAPTER X—THE LIE. CHAPTER XI—PIPER SURPRISES HIS FRIENDS. CHAPTER XII—DREAD. CHAPTER XIII—THE PROFESSOR’S APPEAL. CHAPTER XIV—PIPER PUTS IT UP TO SHULTZ. CHAPTER XV—STILL SILENT. CHAPTER XVI—THE FACE AT THE WINDOW. CHAPTER XVII—THE GREAT FEAR. CHAPTER XVIII—FLIGHT. CHAPTER XIX—THE APPARITION IN THE WOODS. CHAPTER XX—THE SEARCH. CHAPTER XXI—THE CAMP ON THE ISLAND. CHAPTER XXII—A SURPRISING CONFESSION. CHAPTER XXIII—ANOTHER SURPRISE. CHAPTER XXIV—SHULTZ SEES A LIGHT. CHAPTER XXV—INTO THE OLD QUARRY. CHAPTER XXVI—THE CONFESSION. CHAPTER XXVII—LIKE A MIRACLE. CHAPTER XXVIII—COMRADES ALL. THE NEW BOYS AT OAKDALE CHAPTER I AN ORDER DISOBEYED. Oakdale started the game by hammering Ollie Leach, the Wyndham pitcher, for three runs in the first inning. Indeed, it seemed that they would drive the schoolboy twirler from the slab in short order, and they might have done so only for a snappy, clean-cut double play which put an abrupt end to the fusillade of hits. When the Wyndham captain declined to make a change and sent Leach back to the mound in the second inning, the wondering Oakdalers told one another that they would finish the foolhardy southpaw then and there. Leach, however, had steadied down a great deal, and the best the visitors could do was to squeeze in one more run, which they practically secured through a rank error by Pelty, the shortstop. At this point the successful batting of the visitors seemed to come to an abrupt end, for during the succeeding four innings Ben Stone was the only man who could hit the left-hander safely. Meanwhile, Rodney Grant was doing some steady, clever pitching for Oakdale, which, with perfect support, would have prevented the locals from gathering a single tally. Ned Osgood committed the first costly blunder. Covering third for Oakdale, he attempted to make a fancy play on a grounder, and let it get through him, enabling a Wyndham runner to score from second after two were out. In the fifth, with two Wyndhamites gone, Charley Shultz, in the middle garden, tried to pull down a fly with one hand when he could have easily reached it with both hands, and his muff gave the locals another valuable mark in the scorer’s book.