it up again, which wouldn’t count for an out. Nat and his side all say he held it tight. So we’re up against a hard proposition, because neither side will give in.”

“Oh! I think I can settle that dispute easily enough,” said Mr. Holwell, with a cheery smile. “You see, I was taking home this pair of opera glasses for my wife, after having had them repaired. As I came along I chanced to be testing them, and as luck would have it, I followed Alonzo as he ran forward to take that liner.”

“Yes, sir!” said Dick, eagerly. “And if anybody could know just what happened at the time he rolled over you should, I guess.”

“Alonzo did drop the ball, though he snatched it up instantly,” said Mr. Holwell. “I saw him do it distinctly. Of course he is just trying to have some fun out of the occurrence. Isn’t that so, Alonzo?”

The boy in question turned fiery red, and his eyes fell under the steady gaze of the minister.

[Pg 6]

[Pg 6]

“That’s what I was doing, Mr. Holwell,” he finally managed to say, with a nervous little laugh. “I knew there was a fine chance to have some fun teasing the other side, and I tried it. But I dropped the ball, all right. I did my best to hold on to the crazy old thing, though.”

Dick and Leslie exchanged glances. They felt pretty certain that only for the opportune arrival of Mr. Holwell, Alonzo would have stuck to his story through thick and thin. Nat shrugged his broad shoulders, and looked disgusted at such signs of what he would call weakness.

“Oh! well, if he owns up, of course the play goes,” he remarked, with a sneer, and an ugly glance at Alonzo. “Get back in your places, fellers; and Peg’s run goes. Andy, take second, and count yourself mighty lucky. Anyhow, the rest of us really believed he held it tight.”

Mr. Holwell presently left the scene of action and walked on, with a serious expression on his face. Some time before he and the young man who served as leader to the town Y. M. C. A. had organized a Boys’ Department, which gave promise of doing a vast amount of good among the younger element in Cliffwood.

There had been more or less trouble with Nat Silmore and several of his 

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