“I certainly do! Why, you struck out men the best pitchers in this league cannot make fan.”
“They’d get used to that if they had to bat against him right along,” said Jack Ready airily.
“They’d hammer him all over the lot in another game!” exclaimed the manager.
“You shall have it if you dare play!” exclaimed the manager. “We have an open date to-morrow, and we’ll play you right here at three in the afternoon. Do you dare accept?”
“I shall accept with great pleasure,” bowed Frank, smiling.
“And we’ll trim you scientifically,” added Ready.
The morning papers contained accounts of the appearance of the “jay pitcher” in the ball-game the previous day and his final unmasking as Frank Merriwell. While the papers were forced to confess that his work in the box had been surprising, still not one of the reporters seemed willing to credit him with ability to keep it up. Some of them stated that his delivery was puzzling to strange batsmen, but that almost any hard-hitting team would be sure to fall upon him heavily before a game was over.
“Why is it,” said Bart, “that these newspaper duffers always seem to think that college men are not as fast as professionals? Professionals seldom play for blood, as college men do.”
“But professionals do have the experience,” confessed Merry. “Old leaguers make the best coaches for college teams.”
“That’s all right; but all the big teams are scouting for college pitchers nowadays.”
“Pitchers are in demand always. Few college men, however, play on league teams outside the pitcher’s box. I see these papers think we’ll be easy for Minneapolis this afternoon.”
“Well, they have another think coming to them. You know the chap who tried to bribe you to throw the game yesterday?”
“Well, he’s betting all kinds of money on Minneapolis.”
“Belmont, the freshman I saved from getting a thrashing last year, took me down to one of the sporting clubs last night, and that fellow was there. His name is Dowling, and he’s a gambler. He was looking for bets, and he found lots of them. I should imagine he shoved up a thousand on the game right there.”
“If we win,” he said, “Mr. Dowling will be the sorest sport in this town.”
“We’ll win,” nodded Hodge grimly. “I wouldn’t lose the game for a thousand dollars!”