hit to left. It was a low, twisting ball--half fly,
half liner--and a difficult one to field. Gilbat ran
with great bounds, and though he might have got
two hands on the ball he did not try, but this time
caught it in his right, retiring the side.

The Stars trotted in, Scott and Healy and Kane,
all veterans, looking like thunderclouds. Red
ambled in the last and he seemed very nonchalant.

``By Gosh, I'd 'a' ketched that one I muffed
if I'd had time to change hands,'' he said with a
grin, and he exposed a handful of peanuts. He
had refused to drop the peanuts to make the
catch with two hands. That explained the
mystery. It was funny, yet nobody laughed. There
was that run chalked up against the Stars, and
this game had to be won.

``Red, I--I want to take the team home in the
lead,'' said Delaney, and it was plain that he
suppressed strong feeling. ``You didn't play the
game, you know.''

Red appeared mightily ashamed.

``Del, I'll git that run back,'' he said.

Then he strode to the plate, swinging his wagon-
tongue bat. For all his awkward position in the