"Perhaps I
may hold Ready steady. It looks like the only show to win out."
When Merriwell finally went into the box, seeing that it must be done,
Badger retired with as good grace as he could, though his dark face was
flushed.
"There would be no trouble if it wasn't for Jack Ready!" he asserted. "I
can pitch all right, but the pitcher isn't the whole battery!"
"Your delivery bothers him," Merriwell explained. "I believe that you
two together are capable of good work, but it will take a lot more
practise, and just now we haven't time for practise. You can pitch,
Badger, and your best is excellent; but you are irregular. But you'll
come round all right. I was talking with Dunstan Kirk about you awhile
ago, and he agrees with me. He has been closely watching you all through
the game."
"I know it," Badger growled. "I've known it only too well! It has helped
to make my pitching wild at times. If he had stayed away, I think I
could have done all right all the time. But you'll find that Ready will
worry you. He'd worry anybody. The fellow simply can't catch."
"But he can!" Merriwell insisted. "We'll win this game yet!"
The change that came over Jack Ready's work shortly after Merriwell went
into the pitcher's box was little short of marvelous.
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