"It's just another phase of the mystery that seems to have been enveloping poor old Sid, of late," went on Tom. "I only hope one thing, and that is, that whatever it is that it doesn't interfere with baseball. We've got to depend a lot on Sid this season, as the other fellows aren't batting as I hoped they would, and this includes myself, but I never was much as a hitter. I never could get above two sixty-eight, but Sid won't have any trouble getting to four hundred, and he can bat both ways, placing a ball in either right or left field. But if this thing is going to keep up," and Tom shook his head dolefully, "I don't know what to do."
"Losing that game to Fairview didn't do our standing any good," remarked Phil.
"I should say not! But we play Dodville Prep school Saturday, and they're easy fruit."
"That will help pull our average up some," admitted Phil.
They made the rest of the trip back to Randall almost in silence, Tom making an occasional remark about baseball, and Phil replying, but the thoughts of both were more on the events of the day than on the great game.
Sid was not in the room when Phil and Tom entered. The latter took off his cherished blue tie, and placed it carefully away, probably in a place he would forget the next time he wanted it, while Phil made a point of sticking his garnet sleeve links in a box that contained everything from fish hooks to waxed ends for sewing ripped baseball covers.
"Well, I'm glad to-day's over," remarked Tom, as he threw himself in the old armchair, with a sigh of relief, "but it was lots of fun while it lasted. Still I didn't exactly know what to do when that fellow showed up."
"Same here, yet the girls got through all right. Trust them for a thing like that? Girls are queer creatures, anyhow."
"You laughed at me when I said that last term," remarked Tom, as Phil stretched out on the ancient sofa, raising a cloud of dust. "Well, to-day is done. I wonder what will happen to-morrow?"
"Same old grind. I've got to brush up a bit if I want to pass with honors. Guess I'll do some boning to-night."
"Yes, and I've got to arrange for some more baseball practice," went on Tom. "I wonder where Sid is? I didn't like the looks of that chap. And did you hear what he said about playing poker?"