I need."
"Three innings?" Magill haggled. "You know I wouldn't
ask you if it wasn't important. The thing is, the owner's
uncle is watching today."
Boley pursed his lips. He shrugged. "One inning."
"Bless you, Boley!" cried the coach. "One inning it is!"
Andy Andalusia was catching for the regulars when
Boley turned up on the field. He turned white as a sheet.
"Not the fast ball, Boley! Please, Boley," he begged. "I
only been catching a week and I have not hardened up
yet."
Boleslaw turned the rosin bag around in his hands and
looked around the field. There was action going on at all
six diamonds, but the spectators, including the owner's
uncle, were watching the regulars.
"I tell you what I'll do," said Boley thoughtfully. "Let's
see. For the first man, I pitch only curves. For the second
man, the screwball. And for the third manlet's see. Yes.
For the third man, I pitch the sinker."
"Fine!" cried the catcher gratefully, and trotted back
to home plate.
"He's a very spirited player," the owner's uncle com-
mented to Manager Fogarty.
"That he is," said Fogarty, remembering how the pieces
of the fifth contract had felt as they hit him on the side
of the head.
"He must be a morale problem for you, though. Doesn't
he upset the discipline of the rest of the team?"
Fogarty looked at him, but he only said.) "He win thirty-
one games for us last year. If he had lost thirty-one he
would have upset us a lot more."
The owner's uncle nodded, but there was a look in his
eye all the same. He watched without saying anything
more, while Boley struck out the first man with three
sizzling curves, right on schedule, and then turned around
and yelled something at the outfield.
"That crazy By heaven," shouted the manager, "he's
chasing them back into the dugout. I told that"
The owner's uncle clutched at Manager Fogarty as he
was getting up to head for the field. "Wait a minute.
What's Boleslaw doing?"
"Don't you see? He's chasing the outfield off the field.
He wants to face the next two men without any outfield!
That's Satchell Paige's old trick, only he never did it
except in exhibitions where who cares? But that Boley"
"This is only an exhibition, isn't it?" remarked the
owner's uncle mildly.
Fogarty looked longingly at the field, looked back at
the owner's uncle, and shrugged.
"All right." He sat down, remembering that it was the
