They packed up his things and sent them to his home, and if they were ever called upon by Crossley’s father to explain anything about the matter will probably never be known. Nothing was ever said about it one way or the other at Lowell. The college people sent out the news that the medal had been found, leaving anyone to guess whether it had really been stolen or mislaid. President Lawrence sent for Hal and thanked him for the courage he had shown while under the cloud, again expressed his sorrow that he had been forced by circumstances to put him under suspicion, and Hal went home feeling more relieved than he had ever felt in his life. As for Hans he was jubilant. Hal felt particularly grateful to him for his clever work in clearing up the mystery and wanted to tell the story at the training table in order that Hans should have full credit, but Hans objected in his modest way and so they kept the story absolutely to themselves and were happy. CHAPTER XII HAL IS DISCOVERED The season was coming along rapidly. The first big game of the year with Armour was only a week off and the Varsity was hardly prepared for it. Baseball in the big colleges had come to be almost as scientific as in the professional leagues, which by the way were full of college men--they having been rapidly replacing the old-time every-man-for-himself sluggers who learned their baseball on the back lots, and who while “Kings of the game” in their days were no match for the scientific brainy players of inside baseball which had been developed in the colleges. Also the fact that college-trained men were taking positions in the professional leagues, took a good deal of the rowdyism out of the game and increased its popularity with the “fans” all over the country. Lowell University had been the first to develop the clever “inside ball” as it had come to be called and the other colleges had taken it up. A big part of “inside ball” is made possible by the “signals” which each of the players had to know and remember. They had signals for every combination that could be imagined, some of the players, as, for instance, the shortstop, the key to the infield, had fifteen signals, all of which he had to keep in mind, and any one of which he might have to use at any moment. The other players had their own signals, too, and every player on the team must be familiar with every other player’s signals, while at bat. Otherwise if two men used the same signals the opposing players would soon catch on to what was going to be tried. And so before this first big game with Armour, Hughie spent most of the practice hours training the men in the use and understanding of the signals, so that each man on the bases could tell by watching just what the batter would try to do, and if the opposing team was at bat, the Lowell boys in the field signaled to each other how to play if the ball went here or there.