"If he does, the umpire will rule him out of the game, and that
would snap all of Ted's nerve. No; Ted won't guy us to-day."

"But I'll tell you just what will happen to us," Dick offered.
"The spectators who come from the South Grammar aren't under
the umpire's orders. You may be sure that Ted has posted the
fellows from his school on a lot of things that they can yell
at us. Oh, we'll get guyed from the start to the finish of the
game."

"If they go too far," hinted Dave, "we can thrash some of the
funny ones afterwards."

"I shan't feel like thrashing anyone for having a little fun with
us," remarked Reade.

"Thrashing wouldn't do any good, anyway," Dick continued. "Besides
which, we might just happen, incidentally, to be the fellows that
got the worst thrashing if we started anything like that going.
I don't object to good-natured ridicule. But the South Grammar
fellows may have some things to yell at us that will rattle our
play. That's what I want to stop."

"How can you stop it?" queried Greg.

"That's what kept me home a little later than I intended to stay
there," Dick replied. "I have been thinking, since last night,
how I could take some of the starch out of Ted Teall, and have
some way of throwing the horse laugh back on the South Grammar
boys in case they start anything funny enough to rattle us."