Fast Nine Part 14

"What's wrong with my signals, tell me, Jasper? I don't suppose you could understand what we were doing most of the time; and even if you did, a Hickory Ridge Scout would never think of betraying a secret belonging to his troop. What about my signals?"

"Didn't you see him?" asked Jasper, eagerly.

"Well, now, I have seen a few dozen fellows this same morning, so I don't know which one you mean," replied Elmer, shaking his head in the negative.

"Lon Braddock!" almost whispered Jasper, looking after the group of fellows just starting away on their wheels.

Elmer shook his head and smiled.

"You've got me this time, Jasper," he remarked; "because, you see, I don't know that I ever heard that name before. Is he a new boy in Hickory Ridge; and does he say my work is off color?"

"But--he don't live in Hickory Ridge at all, Elmer," expostulated the other; "that's the trouble, you see."

"Oh, is it? Well, I don't see, and you'll sure have to explain what you mean. If he doesn't live in our town, perhaps he's visiting here"; and Elmer waited to see how Jasper took this.

"I think he came over to see Bob Harris, because they were together pretty much all the time," Jasper went on, nodding his head with almost every word in his eagerness to be emphatic. "You see, he is a Fairfield fellow, Elmer!"

"What?" exclaimed the other, suddenly stiffening up, as a consciousness of what tremendous possibilities there might be in this morning visit of a Fairfield boy dawned upon his mind.

"And when I was over there a few days ago I heard Felix Wagner, the second baseman of the Fairfield team, say that they had made a good find in Lon Braddock, who promised to be an even better pitcher than Matt himself."

Elmer was showing considerable eagerness now.

"Hold on there, Jasper," he said, in his quiet, but impressive, way; "go slow, boy, and let me understand just what you mean. This fellow is named Lon Braddock, you tell me; and he's a newcomer at Fairfield. That accounts for the fact that none of our fellows recognized him as he sat there watching me. And now, more than that, you say he's an extra pitcher of the Fairfield Scout team. Have I got that all O. K., Jasper?"

"Yes, that's all to the good, Elmer," declared the smaller lad, earnestly. "And honest, now, I believe that fellow came over here this morning just on purpose to get some points about your pitching. He knows what signal work does in a game, and he wants to knock you out. Why, Elmer, I tell you, before three hours every fellow on the Fairfield team will know that code of signals you and Mark have been practicing."

"Now you're not just guessing, are you, Jasper? Because I'm the last one in the wide world to want to condemn a fellow on general principles. He might have had a genuine errand over here, and just dropped around to take my size."

"Perhaps he did, Elmer, perhaps he did; but was there any need for him to put it all down in a little notebook he carried, and waiting till he thought n.o.body was watching him?" demanded Jasper.

"Say, did you see him do that?" asked the other, sternly.

"At least three times, Elmer," came the quick reply. "And every time after he had made some note he'd nod his head and grin like he was just tickled to death over something."

Elmer whistled, and Mark, turning, saw him wave a hand. Apparently the catcher must have said a hasty good-by to the pretty little miss in the pony cart, for she whipped up her steed and Mark started toward his chum.

"Oh, what can you do, Elmer?" exclaimed Jasper. "He's gone off now with Bob Harris, and pretty soon it'll be too late."

"Too late for what, Jasper?" asked the pitcher.

"Why, I thought, you see, that perhaps a lot of us might get hold of him and make him give up that notebook," explained Jasper.

"You don't say!" laughed Elmer. "What particular good would that do us, tell me, when he's sure got everything down pat in his mind, just the same? And we can't lock a Fairfield fellow up, even for stealing signs."

"Then he'll get away with it!" burst forth Jasper, with almost a wail.

"I reckon he will, my boy; but that isn't saying the knowledge he's stolen will do him, or any of his mates, any good," chuckled Elmer.

"But how can you help it?" demanded the smaller boy, dubiously observing the face of his comrade and wondering why he did not seem to detect any uneasiness there.

"How? Oh, by switching the signals, I suppose. I'll put it up to Mark, here. We can mix things around so that every sign stands for something different than it did just now. And if the Fairfield fellows expect to gain anything from thinking they're onto our signals, they're going to be badly surprised. You'll see some bally old batting until they understand that fact."

"What's all this row about?" asked Mark, coming up just then in time to overhear Elmer's last few words, which, of course, mystified him considerably.

"Why, we've just learned that all the time you and I were practicing our signals a spy from Fairfield was watching us," said Elmer.

"Is that straight, or are you just kidding me?" demanded the catcher of the nine.

"Which his name is Lon Braddock; and he's a newcomer, who can pitch as well as Matt Tubbs himself. Of course, he must be a scout, or else he couldn't play in this match game; but how a fellow can be a scout and do such a ratty thing as that, beats me all hollow," Elmer went on.

"Tell me the whole story, that's a good fellow," remarked the other.

"Where did you get it--from Jasper, here?"

"Yes, I've been watching him," replied the smallest scout, nodding. "I heard of him over in Fairfield, and he was pointed out to me as the man Matt depended on to fool the Hickory Ridge nine in case he got knocked out of the box himself. Besides, I saw him write something down in a notebook as many as three or four times, and always chuckling to himself to beat the band."

"Well, that's a nice surprise to have thrown at your head just after we were saying we had those signs all down pat. This means another turn at it"; and Mark threw his coat on the gra.s.s with an expression of disgust.

"Hold on till that bunch of fellows gets out of sight, Mark, which will be in a few minutes," remarked Elmer, who failed to look at the thing with the same shade of annoyance that marked the countenance of his friend; "but in the end this may turn out to be in our favor, you know."

"Perhaps it may," replied the catcher; "but it's a nuisance, all the same. Now we've just got to go and unlearn all we fixed up."

"Easy job, Mark; just push 'em ahead one point and everything's altered.

Makes me laugh to think how those fellows will tumble into the trap.

Why, I can see one or two strike-outs every inning till they get wise.

And say, perhaps our new pitcher, Lon Braddock, will feel like kicking himself because he was such a fool as to believe all he saw."

"Now they're around the bend of the road, Elmer, with that strange boy alongside Bob Harris, plying him with questions by the dozen, I reckon.

Luckily, Bob doesn't know very much about our nine, for his application to be a scout was turned down, you remember, Elmer."

"So it was," mused the pitcher; "which makes me suspect that perhaps Bob knew why the man from Fairfield was over here. It's pretty hard to find that there are traitors in your own camp. But let them keep it up; we're going to take their number to-day, as sure as you're born, Mark. I just feel it in my bones. I only hope Matt Tubbs didn't know about this trick. I'd hate to think he had a hand in it; and after seeing what a change has come over the former bully of Fairfield and Cramertown I won't believe it, either."

So they once more started in, pa.s.sing the ball. A few of the small boys had remained to continue their scrub ball game. They wondered what the battery of the regular nine could be doing and stopped playing to watch; but as Jasper had been particularly cautioned not to breathe a word of the valuable discovery he had made, they were none the wiser for their survey and soon went back to their happy-go-lucky game.

It did not take the two boys long to get familiar with the new version of the sign code. Even Mark allowed that he had it down just as pat as the older style.

"And just as you said, Elmer," he admitted, "if those fellows over at Fairfield believe they're onto our signs, they're going to make a heap of trouble for themselves, believe me. I can see a fellow whacking away at a wide bender that he expects is going to be a swift one over the rubber. The only trouble will be for me to keep a straight face through the circus."

"Oh, it won't last long," replied the other. "When a few of them have made a show of themselves they'll talk it over and conclude the spy got the signals mixed. But by that time the mischief may have been done.

Remember, Mark, we owe a lot to little wide-awake Jasper, here. He's always on the watch for chances to build up the credit of Hickory Ridge troop."

Each of them gravely shook hands with Jasper, who turned very rosy in the face at hearing himself spoken of in terms of praise, for there had been times when the boy had begun to despair of ever accomplis.h.i.+ng anything worth while in the organization, his size seeming to be so much of a handicap against him.

But now hope was taking on new life within him, for he had found that size really counts for little in many of the things a scout may do to bring credit on himself and honor to his troop.

It was nearly noon when Elmer and Mark turned their faces homeward.

Earlier in the day the former had walked over to Colonel Hitchins's to get his wheel and ride it home, after putting a plug in the puncture.

He was considerably surprised, and pleased as well, to see Phil Lally working in the garden as he pa.s.sed.