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 CRIMINAL PROCEDURE:
INVESTIGATION AND RIGHT TO
COUNSEL
EDITORIAL ADVISORS
Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law
Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law
University of California, Irvine School of Law

Richard A. Epstein
Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law
New York University School of Law
Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow
The Hoover Institution
Senior Lecturer in Law
The University of Chicago

Ronald J. Gilson
Charles J. Meyers Professor of Law and Business
Stanford University
Marc and Eva Stern Professor of Law and Business
Columbia Law School

James E. Krier
Earl Warren DeLano Professor of Law
The University of Michigan Law School

Richard K. Neumann, Jr.

Professor of Law
Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University

Robert H. Sitkoff
John L. Gray Professor of Law
Harvard Law School

David Alan Sklansky

Stanley Morrison Professor of Law
Stanford Law School
Faculty Co-Director
Stanford Criminal Justice Center
 CRIMINAL PROCEDURE:
INVESTIGATION AND RIGHT TO
COUNSEL

Third Edition

Ronald Jay Allen

John Henry Wigmore Professor of Law
Northwestern University

William J. Stuntz
Henry J. Friendly Professor of Law
Harvard University

Joseph L. Hoffmann
Harry Pratter Professor of Law
Indiana University Maurer School of Law

Debra A. Livingston
United States Circuit Judge, Second Circuit
Paul J. Kellner Professor of Law
Columbia University

Andrew D. Leipold
Edwin M. Adams Professor and Director,
Program in Criminal Law & Procedure
University of Illinois

Tracey L. Meares
Walton Hale Hamilton Professor of Law
Yale Law School
Copyright © 2016 CCH Incorporated.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Allen, Ronald J. (Ronald Jay), 1948- author.

Title: Criminal procedure: investigation and right to counsel / Ronald Jay Allen, John Henry
Wigmore Professor of Law Northwestern University, William J. Stuntz, Henry J. Friendly
Professor of Law Harvard University, Joseph L. Hoffmann, Harry Pratter Professor of Law
Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Debra A. Livingston, United States Circuit Judge,
Second Circuit Paul J. Kellner Professor of Law Columbia University, Andrew D. Leipold,
Edwin M. Adams Professor and Director, Program in Criminal Law & Procedure, University of
Illinois, Tracey L. Meares, Walton Hale Hamilton Professor of Law Yale Law School.
Description: Third edition. | New York: Wolters Kluwer, 2016. | Series: Aspen casebook series
Identifiers: LCCN 2016002835 | eISBN: 978-1-4548-7735-6
Subjects: LCSH: Criminal procedure — United States — Cases. | Criminal justice,
Administration of — United States — Cases. | Criminal investigation — United States —
Cases. | Right to counsel — United States — Cases. | LCGFT: Casebooks.
Classification: LCC KF9619.C753 2016 | DDC 345.73/056 — dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016002835
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 To my family. — R.J.A.
To my wife and best friend, Mary. — J.H.
To my parents, Robert and Sarah Livingston. — D.A.L.
To my parents, Dave and Ruth. The finest people I have ever known. —
A.D.L.
In memory of my grandmother and first teacher, Velma Louise Carey. —
T.L.M
 Summary of Contents

Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments

PART ONE
THE CRIMINAL PROCESS
Chapter 1 Introduction to the Criminal Justice “System”
Chapter 2 The Idea of Due Process

PART TWO
THE RIGHT TO COUNSEL — THE LINCHPIN
OF CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION
Chapter 3 The Right to Counsel and Other Assistance

PART THREE
THE RIGHT TO BE LET ALONE — AN
EXAMINATION OF THE FOURTH AND FIFTH
AMENDMENTS AND RELATED AREAS
Chapter 4 The Rise, Fall, and Return of Boyd v. United States
Chapter 5 The Fourth Amendment
Chapter 6 Criminal Investigations in the Fourth Amendment’s Shadow
Chapter 7 The Fifth Amendment
 PART FOUR
THE ADJUDICATION PROCESS
Chapter 10 Pretrial Screening and the Grand Jury

United States Constitution (Selected Provisions)

Table of Cases
Table of Authorities
Table of Statutes and Rules
Index
 Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments

PART ONE
THE CRIMINAL PROCESS

Chapter 1
Introduction to the Criminal Justice “System”

A. Introduction
B. Readings on the Criminal Justice Process
1. Perspectives on the System as a Whole
Packer, The Courts, the Police, and the Rest of Us
Whitman, Presumption of Innocence or Presumption of
Mercy?: Weighing Two Western Modes of Justice
Garland, The Culture of Control
Muhammad, Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime and
the Making of Modern Urban America
Grano, Ascertaining the Truth
Steiker, Counter-Revolution in Constitutional Criminal
Procedure? Two Audiences, Two Answers
Amar, The Future of Constitutional Criminal Procedure
Stuntz, The Uneasy Relationship Between Criminal
Procedure and Criminal Justice
Tyler, Why People Obey the Law
2. The Distinction Between Criminal Procedure, Civil Procedure,
and Substantive Criminal Law
Stuntz, Substance, Process, and the Civil-Criminal Line
3. Plea Bargaining and Sentencing
Langbein, Torture and Plea Bargaining
Alschuler, Implementing the Criminal Defendant’s Right to
Trial: Alternatives to the Plea Bargaining System
Wright & Miller, The Screening/Bargaining Tradeoff
Bibas, The Myth of the Fully Informed Rational Actor
4. Some Distributional Consequences of the Criminal Justice System
U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, The
Ferguson Report
Fagan & Geller, Following the Script: Narratives of
Suspicion in Terry Stops and Street Policing
Chacon, Overcriminalizing Immigration
5. The Police
Packer, The Limits of the Criminal Sanction
Harmon, The Problem of Policing
Skolnick & Bayley, Community Policing: Issues and
Practices Around the World
Livingston, Police Discretion and the Quality of Life in
Public Places: Courts, Communities, and the New
Policing
6. The Lawyers and the Trial Courts
Wice, Chaos in the Courthouse: The Inner Workings of the
Urban Criminal Courts
Blumberg, The Practice of Law as Confidence Game:
Organizational Co-optation of a Profession
Uphoff, The Criminal Defense Lawyer as Effective
Negotiator: A Systemic Approach
Natapoff, Gideon Skepticism
7. The Supreme Court
Amsterdam, The Supreme Court and the Rights of Suspects
in Criminal Cases
8. The Role of State Constitutions and State Constitutional Law
Brennan, State Constitutions and the Protection of Individual
Rights
Latzer, Toward the Decentralization of Criminal Procedure:
State Constitutional Law and Selective Incorporation
 Chapter 2
The Idea of Due Process

A Brief History
A. Defining Due Process
Hurtado v. California
Notes on the Meaning of “Due Process of Law” in Criminal
Cases
B. Incorporation
Duncan v. Louisiana
Notes on Duncan and the Incorporation of the Bill of Rights
C. The Residual Due Process Clause
Medina v. California
Notes and Questions
Hamdi v. Rumsfeld
Notes and Questions

PART TWO
THE RIGHT TO COUNSEL — THE LINCHPIN
OF CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION

Chapter 3
The Right to Counsel and Other Assistance

A. The Constitutional Requirements

1. The Right to the Assistance of Counsel at Trial
Gideon v. Wainwright
Notes and Questions
Notes on the Gideon Right to Counsel as Applied to
Misdemeanors
Alabama v. Shelton
Notes and Questions
2. The Right to the Assistance of Counsel Before and After Trial
a. When Does the Right to Counsel Begin?
 Rothgery v. Gillespie County, Texas
Notes and Questions
Notes on the Right to Counsel at Lineups, Show-Ups, and
Photo Arrays
b. When Does the Right to Counsel End?
B. Effective Assistance of Counsel
1. The Meaning of Effective Assistance
Strickland v. Washington
Notes and Questions
Notes and Questions on the Application of Strickland
Notes on Ineffective Assistance, Habeas Corpus, and the
Death Penalty
Rompilla v. Beard
Notes and Questions
2. Multiple Representation
Cuyler v. Sullivan
Notes and Questions
Mickens v. Taylor
Notes and Questions
3. Effective Assistance of Counsel and Plea Bargaining
Missouri v. Frye
Lafler v. Cooper
Notes and Questions
4. The Right to Effective Counsel as a Basis for Systemic Reform
Litigation
Hurrell-Harring v. State of New York
Notes and Questions
Notes on Fairness, Equality, and the Right to Effective
Counsel
Westen, The Empty Idea of Equality
Burton, Comment on “Empty Ideas”: Logical Positivist
Analysis of Equality and Rules
C. Autonomy, Choice, and the Right to Counsel
1. The Right to Proceed Pro Se
Notes on Competency and Waiver
Indiana v. Edwards
Notes and Questions
2. The Right to Counsel of One’s Choice
United States v. Gonzalez-Lopez
Notes and Questions
 Notes on Forfeiture Statutes and the Right to Counsel

PART THREE
THE RIGHT TO BE LET ALONE — AN
EXAMINATION OF THE FOURTH AND FIFTH
AMENDMENTS AND RELATED AREAS

Chapter 4
The Rise, Fall, and Return of Boyd v. United States

Boyd v. United States

Notes and Questions
Schmerber v. California
Warden, Maryland Penitentiary v. Hayden
Berger v. New York
Notes and Questions
Notes and Questions on Doe, Braswell, and Hubbell
Conclusion: Notes on the Future of Boyd

Chapter 5
The Fourth Amendment

Text and History

Remedy and Right
A. Remedies
1. The Exclusionary Rule
Mapp v. Ohio
Notes and Questions
2. Other Remedies
a. Damages
b. Injunctions
c. Criminal Prosecution
d. Administrative and Political Remedies
B. The Scope of the Fourth Amendment
1. The Meaning of “Searches”
a. The Relationship Between Privacy and Property
Katz v. United States
Notes and Questions
Florida v. Riley
Notes and Questions
Florida v. Jardines
Notes and Questions
b. “Knowingly Expose[d] to the Public”
United States v. White
Notes and Questions
California v. Greenwood
Notes and Questions
c. Information, Privacy, and the Fourth Amendment
Kyllo v. United States
Notes and Questions
United States v. Jones
Notes and Questions
2. The Meaning of “Seizures”
United States v. Drayton
Notes and Questions
California v. Hodari D.
Notes and Questions
C. Justifying Searches and Seizures
The Text (Again)
1. Investigative Warrants
The Oath or Affirmation Requirement
The Magistrate
The Particularity Requirement
The Execution of Warrants
Notes on Warrant Execution
2. The Probable Cause Standard
Illinois v. Gates
Notes and Questions
3. Justifying Searches and Seizures Without Warrants
a. Exigent Circumstances
Mincey v. Arizona
Notes on Exigent Circumstances
Kentucky v. King
 Notes and Questions
Brigham City v. Stuart
Notes on Exigency and Community Caretaking
b. Plain View
Arizona v. Hicks
Notes on “Plain View” Doctrine
c. Automobiles
California v. Acevedo
Notes and Questions
Wyoming v. Houghton
Notes and Questions
d. Arrests
Notes on the Scope of the Arrest Power
4. Justifying Searches and Seizures Without Probable Cause or a
Warrant: “Consent”
Schneckloth v. Bustamonte
Notes and Questions
Georgia v. Randolph
Notes and Questions
5. Reasonableness and Its Relationship with the Probable Cause and
Warrant Clause
a. Administrative Warrants: A Case Study on the Meaning of
“Reasonableness”
Camara v. Municipal Court of the City & County of San
Francisco
Notes and Questions
b. Stops and Frisks
Terry v. Ohio
Notes and Questions
Notes on the Refinement of “Stop and Frisk”
Notes on the Meaning of Reasonable Suspicion
Florida v. J.L.
Notes and Questions
Navarette v. California
Notes and Questions
Illinois v. Wardlow
Notes and Questions
c. Police Discretion and Street Policing
Kennedy, Race, Crime and the Law
 Tyler & Wakslak, Profiling and Police Legitimacy:
Procedural Justice, Attributions of Motive, and the
Acceptance of Social Authority
U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Guidance
For Federal Law Enforcement Agencies Regarding the
Use of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, National Origin,
Religion, Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity
Whren v. United States
Notes and Questions
Atwater v. Lago Vista
Notes and Questions
Notes on Police Discretion and Substantive Criminal Law
Chicago v. Morales
Notes and Questions
6. Evaluating Individualized Suspicion
a. Searches Incident to Arrest
Chimel v. California
Notes and Questions
Arizona v. Gant
Notes and Questions
Riley v. California
Notes and Questions
b. Checkpoints
Indianapolis v. Edmond
Notes and Questions
c. “Special Needs,” Regulatory, and Administrative Searches
Maryland v. King
Notes and Questions
City of Los Angeles v. Patel
Notes and Questions
D. Reasonableness and Police Use of Force
Tennessee v. Garner
Notes and Questions
Graham v. Connor
Notes and Questions
E. The Scope of the Exclusionary Rule
1. The “Good Faith” Exception
United States v. Leon
Notes and Questions
Herring v. United States
 Notes and Questions
Davis v. United States
Notes and Questions
2. Standing
Minnesota v. Carter
Notes and Questions
3. “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree” Doctrine
Wong Sun v. United States
Notes and Questions
Notes on “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree” Doctrine
Murray v. United States
Notes on the “Independent Source” and “Inevitable
Discovery” Doctrines
Hudson v. Michigan
Notes and Questions
4. Impeachment
United States v. Havens
Notes and Questions

Chapter 6
Criminal Investigations in the Fourth Amendment’s
Shadow

A. Electronic Surveillance and the Search of Digital Information

1. Wiretapping and Related Electronic Surveillance
Title III Notes and Questions
2. The Search of Stored Electronic Communications and Other
Digital Information
United States v. Warshak
Notes and Questions
United States v. Graham
Notes and Questions
B. Undercover Agents and Entrapment
Jacobson v. United States
Notes and Questions
 Chapter 7
The Fifth Amendment

Text and History

A. The Fifth Amendment Privilege Against Self-Incrimination and Its
Justifications
Counselman v. Hitchcock
Kastigar v. United States
Notes and Questions
B. The Contours of the Privilege Against Self-Incrimination
1. “No Person . . . Shall Be Compelled”: The Meaning of
Compulsion
2. “In Any Criminal Case”: The Meaning of Incrimination
United States v. Ward
Notes on the Meaning of Incrimination
3. “To Be a Witness Against Himself”: The Meaning of Testimony
4. The Rule that the Fifth Amendment Privilege Must Be Asserted
Salinas v. Texas
Notes and Questions
C. Limiting, or Expanding, the Fifth Amendment Privilege?
Baltimore City Department of Social Services v. Bouknight
Notes and Questions
D. Police Interrogation
1. The Miranda Revolution
Notes on the Due Process Voluntariness Test
Watts v. Indiana
Massiah v. United States
Escobedo v. Illinois
Miranda v. Arizona
Notes and Questions
2. The Scope of Miranda
a. “Custody”
J. D. B. v. North Carolina
Notes and Questions
b. “Interrogation”
Rhode Island v. Innis
Notes and Questions
Illinois v. Perkins
 Notes and Questions
c. Warnings
d. Invocations
Michigan v. Mosley
Edwards v. Arizona
Notes and Questions
e. Waivers
Moran v. Burbine
Notes and Questions
Berghuis v. Thompkins
Notes and Questions
Note on Miranda’s Practical Effects
3. The Consequences of a Miranda Violation
Dickerson v. United States
Notes and Questions
Missouri v. Seibert
United States v. Patane
Notes and Questions
4. The Right to Counsel Reconsidered
Brewer v. Williams
Notes and Questions

PART FOUR
THE ADJUDICATION PROCESS

Chapter 10
Pretrial Screening and the Grand Jury

A. Background and Current Practice

B. Grand Jury Secrecy
1. The Scope of the Secrecy Rule
In Re Sealed Case No. 99-3091
Notes and Questions
2. Exceptions to the Secrecy Rule
C. Investigative Power
1. The Subpoena Power
 United States v. Dionisio
Notes and Questions
United States v. R. Enterprises, Inc.
Notes and Questions
2. Limits on the Investigative Powers
a. Immunizing Testimony
Notes and Questions
b. Documents and the Act of Production
United States v. Hubbell
Notes and Questions

United States Constitution (Selected Provisions)

Table of Cases
Table of Authorities
Table of Statutes and Rules
Index
 Preface to the Fourth Edition of
Comprehensive Criminal
Procedure

Comprehensive Criminal Procedure is a casebook for all introductory

courses in criminal procedure law, including both investigation and
adjudication courses as well as comprehensive and survey courses. The
casebook focuses primarily on constitutional criminal procedure law, but
also covers relevant statutes and court rules. The casebook is deliberately
challenging — it is designed for those who wish to explore deeply not
only the contemporary state of the law, but also its historical roots and
theoretical foundations. The casebook incorporates a particular emphasis
on empirical knowledge about the real-world impacts of law-in-action;
the significance of race and class; the close relationship between criminal
procedure law and substantive criminal law; the cold reality that hard
choices sometimes must be made in a world of limited criminal justice
resources; and, finally, the recognition that criminal procedure law
always should strive to achieve both fairness to the accused and justice
for society as a whole.
The casebook opens with a wide-ranging set of readings about the
criminal justice system, combining hard data with expert commentary.
The nature of due process adjudication is then introduced, because so
much of criminal procedure law either has been constitutionalized or
operates within the shadow of the Constitution. With one major
exception, the casebook then follows the processing of a criminal case
more or less chronologically, from initial investigation through appeal
and habeas corpus. The major exception is Chapter 3, which contains a
thorough examination of the right to counsel. Counsel is the linchpin of
criminal procedure, obviously so with respect to its constitutional aspects
but even more critically so with respect to its statutory and common law
aspects. Without adequate counsel, a suspect or defendant is, with rare
exceptions, lost. The most elaborate procedural protections are of little
value to one who knows neither what those protections are nor how they
can be used to best advantage.
Following the right to counsel chapter is a chapter chronicling the
history of Boyd v. United States. We think it fair to say that the U.S.
Supreme Court has been reacting to the Boyd case for more than a
century, and that the present law of search and seizure (as regulated by
the Fourth Amendment) and the right to be free from compelled self-
incrimination (pursuant to the Fifth Amendment) simply cannot be
understood without a grounding in Boyd and its aftermath. Moreover,
within the past three years, the Court has explicitly revived at least some
aspects of Boyd, and it is also becoming increasingly clear that Boyd has
great relevance for contemporary controversies over government
searches of cell phones, computer files (encrypted or otherwise), DNA
and other databases, and many other kinds of digital data. This casebook
encourages thoughtful reflection upon Boyd and an awareness of its
significance to the thoroughly modern dilemma of privacy versus
security.
In this fourth edition of the casebook, we welcome to our author team
Tracey L. Meares of Yale University, whose nationally recognized
expertise in the law and policy of police investigations has enriched the
casebook tremendously. This new edition reflects our continuing
commitment to keeping the casebook fresh and up-to-date, with an
emphasis on the criminal procedure issues that are important in
contemporary American law and society. Specific revisions in the fourth
edition include: the Introduction chapter has been updated with new
scholarly writings that provide an overview of important aspects of
criminal procedure; the Right to Counsel chapter incorporates the new
wave of structural reform litigation over the often-crushing caseloads
and frequently inadequate resources of public defender offices; the
Fourth and Fifth Amendment chapters have been completely rewritten to
reflect the latest legal, social, and empirical developments in such areas
as police discretion (including stop-and-frisk and police use of force) and
data searches; the chapter on the Jury and the Criminal Trial has been
revised to include the latest twists and turns of Crawford doctrine; the
Sentencing chapter has been updated to include the most recent evolution
of Apprendi doctrine; and all chapters have been updated, re-edited, and
streamlined to improve their clarity and teachability.
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 CHAPTER XX
THE TRY-OUT

B y the first of June Hillman’s baseball team had settled into its
stride. Four successive victories had restored the confidence of
players and adherents alike, and the final test of the season, the
game with Farview Academy, played this year at Orstead, was being
viewed in prospect with less apprehension. Laurie had somewhat
solved the science of throwing to bases from the plate and was
running a very even race with Elk Thurston, a fact that did nothing to
increase the entente cordiale between those two. Elk seldom missed
an opportunity to make himself disagreeable to his rival, and since
Elk was both older and bigger, and possessed also the prestige of
being a member of the upper-middle class, Laurie had to keep his
temper many times when he didn’t want to. After all, though, Elk’s
offenses weren’t important enough to have excused serious
reprisals. He made fun of the younger boy and “ragged” him when
he was at work. Sometimes he got a laugh from his audience, but
more often he didn’t, for his humor was a bit heavy. His antagonism
was largely personal, for he did not accept Laurie seriously as a
rival.
He liked best of all to tease the other on the score of the latter’s
failure to make good his boast of transforming the impossible Kewpie
Proudtree into a pitcher. Elk, like about every one else, had
concluded that Laurie had given up that task in despair. But whereas
the others had virtually forgotten the amusing episode, Elk
remembered and dwelled on it whenever opportunity presented.
That Laurie failed to react as Elk expected him to annoyed him
considerably. Laurie always looked cheerfully untroubled by gibes on
that subject. Any one but Elk would have recognized failure and
switched to a more certain method, but Elk was not very quick of
perception.
 On a Saturday soon after the beginning of the month the Blue met
Loring in a game remarkable for coincidences. Each team made
eleven hits and eleven runs in the eleven innings that were played—
errors and brilliant plays alternating. George Pemberton started for
Hillman’s but gave way to Nate Beedle in the second. Elk caught the
final two innings in creditable style, and Laurie again looked on from
the bench.
On the following Monday afternoon Laurie laid in wait for Mr.
Mulford on the gymnasium steps. “We’re ready for that try-out
whenever you are, sir,” he announced.
“Eh? What try-out is that?” asked the coach.
“Proudtree’s, sir. You know you said you’d give him one.”
“Proudtree? Why I understood he’d quit long ago!”
“No, sir, he didn’t quit. He’s been practising at least an hour every
day, except Sundays, for more than two months.”
“He has? Well, well! And you think he can pitch some, do you?”
“Yes, sir,” answered Laurie firmly.
“All right. Now, let’s see. I don’t believe I’ll have time to look at him
to-day, Turner. How about to-morrow morning?”
“Tuesday? He hasn’t anything from eleven fifteen to twelve, sir.”
“Good. Tell him to be over at the field at eleven twenty. You’ll catch
for him? I hope this isn’t just a flivver, my boy, for from present
indications we’re going to need pitchers next year.”
“Wouldn’t we be able to use another this year, if we had him?”
asked Laurie, grinning. Mr. Mulford smiled responsively.
“Hm, we might, and that’s a fact,” he acknowledged. “Well, have
your champion on hand to-morrow morning, Turner.” He hurried on
into the gymnasium, and, after a thoughtful stare into space, Laurie
followed him.
“Next year!” scoffed Kewpie when, after practice, Laurie reported
the gist of his talk with the coach. “He’s crazy! What’s the matter with
this year? I’ll bet you I can pitch as good ball as Orville Croft right
now.”
“And that wouldn’t be saying much, either,” assented Laurie.
“Well, they’ve got him on the team,” grumbled Kewpie. “Pinky’s got
a nerve if he thinks I’m going to wait around for a whole year after
the way I’ve been working all spring!”
“Yes, he ain’t so well in his nerve,” mused Laurie. “Ought to see a
doctor about—”
“Well, didn’t you tell him I wanted to play this year?” demanded
Kewpie impatiently. Laurie shook his head.
“No, you see, dear old lad, I didn’t want to overtax his brain. You
know how these baseball coaches are. They can wrestle with one
idea, but when it comes to two at the same time—” Laurie shrugged
eloquently. Kewpie viewed him doubtfully.
“Oh, shut up,” he said, grinning. “Well, anyway, he’s got to give me
a chance with the team this year. If he doesn’t he won’t get me next.”
“I’ll mention that to him to-morrow,” replied the other soberly. “I
dare say if we take a firm attitude with him he will come around.
Well, eleven twenty, then. I’ll wait for you in front.”
“In front” at Hillman’s meant the steps of School Hall or their
immediate vicinity, and on the steps the two met the next forenoon.
Laurie had brought his mitten, and Kewpie had his glove and a ball
in his pockets. On the way along Summit Street to the athletic field,
which was a quarter of a mile to the south, Kewpie was plainly
nervous. He didn’t have much to say, but at intervals he took the ball
from his pocket, curved his heavy fingers about it, frowned, sighed
and put it away again.
Mr. Mulford was awaiting them, and Kewpie, for one, was glad to
see that he was alone. After greetings the boys laid aside their coats,
and Kewpie rolled his shirt-sleeves up. Mr. Mulford seated himself on
a bench near the batting-net, crossed his knees and waited. His
attitude and general demeanor told Laurie that he was there to fulfill
a promise rather than in the expectation of being thrilled.
 “Start easy,” counseled Laurie. “Don’t try to pitch until you’ve
tossed a few, Kewpie.”
Kewpie nodded, plainly very conscious of the silent figure on the
bench. He wound up slowly, caught sight of Laurie’s mitten held
palm outward in protest, and dropped his arms, frowning.
“Yes,” said Mr. Mulford, “better start slow, Proudtree.”
Kewpie tossed five or six balls into Laurie’s mitt without a wind-up
and between tosses stretched and flexed the muscles of his stout
arm.
“All right,” said Laurie finally. He crouched and signaled under the
mitten. Kewpie shook his head.
“I don’t know your signals,” he objected. “You tell me what you
want.”
“Pitch some straight ones,” suggested the coach.
Kewpie obliged. His stand in the box and his wind-up were
different from what they had been when Laurie had last caught him.
Considering his build, Kewpie’s appearance and movements were
easy and smooth. He had a queer habit of bringing the pitching hand
back close to the left thigh after the delivery, which, while novel, was
rather impressive. Kewpie’s deliveries were straight enough to
please any one, but Mr. Mulford called:
“Speed them up, son. You’d never get past the batsman with
those!”
Kewpie shot the ball away harder. Laurie returned it and thumped
his mitt encouragingly. “That’s the stuff, Kewpie! Steam ’em up! Now
then!”
Kewpie pitched again and once more. Mr. Mulford spoke. “You
haven’t any speed, Proudtree,” he said regretfully. “The weakest
batter on the scrub could whang those out for home runs. Got
anything else?”
Kewpie had recovered his assurance now. “Sure,” he answered
untroubledly. “What do you want?”
 Mr. Mulford replied a trifle tartly. “I want to see anything you’ve got
that looks like pitching. I certainly haven’t seen anything yet!”
“Curve some,” said Laurie.
Kewpie fondled the ball very carefully, wound up, and pitched. The
result was a nice out-shoot that surprised even Laurie, who nearly let
it get past him into the net. “That’s pitching,” he called. “Let’s have
another.”
Kewpie sent another. Mr. Mulford arose from the bench and took
up a position behind the net. “Let’s have that out-curve again,” he
commanded. Kewpie obeyed. “All right,” said the coach. “Not bad.
Try a drop.”
Kewpie’s first attempt went wrong, but the next one sailed to the
plate a little more than knee-high and then sought to bury itself in the
dust. Laurie heard the coach grunt. A third attempt attained a similar
result. “What else have you got?” asked Mr. Mulford. Laurie detected
a note of interest at last.
“Got an in-shoot,” replied Kewpie with all of his accustomed
assurance, “and a sort of floater.”
“Show me,” answered the coach.
The in-shoot was just what its name implied, and Kewpie
presented two samples of it. The “floater,” however, was less
impressive, although Laurie thought to himself that it might prove a
hard ball to hit if offered after a curve. Mr. Mulford grunted again.
“Now pitch six balls, Proudtree,” he said, “and mix ’em up.”
Kewpie pitched an out, a straight drop, an out-drop, a straight ball,
an in, and a “floater.”
“That’s enough,” said Mr. Mulford to Laurie. “Come over to the
bench.” Laurie dropped the ball in his pocket, signaled to Kewpie,
and followed the coach. Kewpie ambled up inquiringly. “Sit down,
son,” said Mr. Mulford. Then, “Where’d you learn that stuff?” he
asked.
With Laurie’s assistance, Kewpie told him.
 “Wilkins,” mused the coach. “Must have been the year before I
took hold here. I don’t remember any game with High School in
which we got licked that badly. He must be all he says he is, though,
if he can teach any one else to pitch that stuff. Well, I’m not going to
tell you you’re a Christy Mathewson, Proudtree, for you’ve got a long
way to go yet before you’ll be getting any medals. I guess I don’t
have to tell you that you aren’t built quite right for baseball, eh?”
“Oh, I’m down to a hundred and fifty-four,” answered Kewpie
calmly, “and I’m not so slow as I look.”
“I don’t mean your weight,” said the coach, suppressing a smile. “I
mean your build. You’ll have to work just about twice as hard as
Beedle would, for instance, to get the same result. You’re—well,
you’re just a little bit too close-coupled, son!”
“I’ve seen fellows like me play mighty good baseball,” said Kewpie.
“I dare say. If you have, you’ve seen them work mighty hard at it!
Well, I’m not trying to discourage you. I’m only telling you this to
impress you with the fact—and it is a fact, Proudtree—that you’ll
have to buckle down and work mighty earnestly if you want to be a
really capable pitcher next year.”
“Well, what about—” Kewpie glanced fittingly at Laurie—“what
about this year, sir?”
Laurie saw the coach’s gaze waver. “This year?” he echoed. “Why,
I don’t know. We’re fixed pretty well this year, you see. Of course I’m
perfectly willing to let you work with the crowd for the rest of the
season. Pitching to the net will teach you a whole lot, for you can’t
judge your stuff until you’ve got some ambitious chap swinging at it.
Some of that stuff you’ve just showed me would be candy for a good
hitter. You’ve got one weakness, Proudtree, and it’s an important
one. You haven’t speed, and I don’t believe you’ll have it. That’s your
build; no fault of yours, of course.”
“I know that,” agreed Kewpie, “but Brose Wilkins says I don’t need
speed. He says I’ve got enough without it. He says there are heaps
of mighty good pitchers in the Big League that can’t pitch a real fast
ball to save their lives!”
 “Maybe, but you’re not a candidate for the Big League yet. If
you’ve ever watched school-boy baseball, you’ve seen that what
they can’t hit, five times out of seven, is a really fast ball. They like to
say they can, and I guess they believe it, but they can’t. Maybe one
reason is that they don’t often get fast ones, for there aren’t many
youngsters of your age who can stand the strain of pitching them.
Mind, I don’t say that you won’t be able to get by without more speed
than you’ve got, but I do say that not having speed is a weakness.
I’m emphasizing this because I want you to realize that you’ve got to
make your curves mighty good to make up for that shortcoming.”
“Yes, sir,” replied Kewpie almost humbly. “I understand.”
“Good. Now, then, let’s see. Oh, yes, about that ball you call a
‘floater.’ Did Wilkins teach you that?”
“No, sir, I—I got that out of a book. It—it isn’t as good as it might
be, I guess, but I’m getting the hang of it, sir.”
“Well, I wouldn’t monkey with it just now. It’s a hard ball to pitch—
hard on the muscles. You don’t want too many things. If I were you,
son, I’d stick to the curves and drops. That out-drop of yours isn’t so
bad right now, and I guess you can make it even better. If you have
five things to offer the batter, say, an in, an out, a drop, a drop-curve,
and a slow ball, you’ve got plenty. If you’ve got control and can
change your pace without giving yourself away you’ve got as much
as the most successful pitcher ever did have. It’s control, son, that
counts. All the fancy stunts ever known aren’t worth a cent unless
you can put the ball where you want it to go. And that’s that.”
There was a moment of silence. Then Kewpie said: “Mr. Mulford, if
I work hard and pitch to the net and all that couldn’t I get into a game
some time? I mean some game this spring?”
“Why, I don’t know,” said the coach slowly. “What’s the idea? Want
to get your letter?”
“No, sir, but I’d—why, I’d just like to, sir, awfully.”
“There are only four games left before the Farview game,” was the
answer, “and I don’t want to promise anything like that, Proudtree.
But I will agree to put you in if the chance comes. Look here, you
chaps, why don’t you work together and get to know each other?
There’s a lot in the pitcher and catcher being used to each other’s
ways. Then, perhaps, I can give you both a whack at a couple of
innings some day. I’d do that, I think. You look after Proudtree,
Turner. Make him work. Keep his nose to the grindstone. Remember
that there’s another year coming, eh?”
“I’ll make him work,” laughed Laurie.
“Then do I—do I get on the team?” asked Kewpie anxiously.
“You get on the squad,” was the answer. “Report to-morrow
afternoon. There’s a game on, and you won’t get much work, but you
can pitch to Turner a while and learn the ropes. Let’s get back now.”
Coach Mulford arose. “Turner, I suspected that you were going to
waste my time this morning, but I was wrong. Your dark horse looks
to me well worth the grooming!”
He set off across the field toward the gridiron on a short cut to the
village, and the two boys walked back to school. For the first dozen
paces nothing was said. Then Kewpie laughed and turned to his
companion. “Told you I’d do it!” he exclaimed triumphantly. “Told you
I could pitch ball as well as the rest of them! Didn’t I, now?”
“You told me a lot of things, you poor cheese,” answered Laurie
crushingly, “but where’d you be if Ned and I hadn’t managed you? I’ll
tell you. You’d still be lying on your window-seat, like a fat seal,
reading ‘How to Pitch’!”
“Huh, is that so? I guess if it comes to that, you fat-head, Brose
Wilkins is the guy—”
“He sure is,” agreed Laurie, “he sure is! And, prithee, you half-
baked portion of nothing at all, who discovered Brose? Who
persuaded him to waste his time on a big, fut lummox like you?”
“Well, anyway,” replied Kewpie, quite unaffected by the insults,
“neither you nor Ned nor Brose Wilkins could have made a pitcher
out of me if I hadn’t had the—the ability!”
“You ain’t so well in your ability,” said Laurie scathingly. “All you’ve
got is a start, old son, and so don’t get to thinking that you’re a Big
Leaguer! Maybe with prayer and hard work I’ll make you amount to
something by next year, but right now you’re nothing but a whispered
promise!”
“Oh, is that so?” said Kewpie, and again, “Is that so?” He wasn’t
quick at repartee, and just then that was the best he could do.
 CHAPTER XXI
THE DEAD LETTER

A lthough Kewpie made no secret of his acceptance on the

baseball team, in fact gave a certain amount of publicity to the
fact, his appearance on the diamond the next afternoon created a
distinct sensation. Aware of the sensation, Kewpie became suddenly
taciturn, and when he did speak he clothed his words in mystery.
Laurie, seeing an opportunity to render Kewpie’s advent more
spectacular, seized it. During Craigskill’s practice on the diamond the
Hillman’s pitchers warmed up in front of the first base stand. Beedle
and Pemberton pitched to Cas Bennett and Elk Thurston. As Croft
was not to be used, Laurie’s services were not required, and he sat
on the bench. But when the opportunity was glimpsed he arose,
picked a ball from the old water-bucket, drew on his mitten, and
signaled to Kewpie. Then he took his place beyond Cas, and Kewpie
ambled to a station beside Nate Beedle, and a ripple of incredulous
delight ran the length of the bench. Kewpie tossed a ball into Laurie’s
mitten, and the bench applauded with a note of hysteria. Not until
then did Coach Mulford, who had been talking to the manager,
become aware of the fact that something of interest was taking
place. He looked, saw, stared. Then the ends of his mouth went up a
little, tiny puckers appeared at the corners of his eyes, and he
chuckled softly. Around him the players and substitutes were
laughing uproariously. They had reason, it seemed. The sight of the
short and rotund Kewpie in juxtaposition to the tall and slender
Beedle might have brought a smile to the face of a wooden statue.
But Kewpie seemed unaware of the amusement he was causing. He
pitched his slow balls into Laurie’s mitt gravely enough, finishing his
delivery with his hand close to his left side, as though, as one
facetious observer put it, a mosquito demanded attention.
Laurie laughed inwardly, but outwardly his expression and
demeanor were as sober and as earnest as Kewpie’s. Mr. Mulford’s
countenance showed him that that gentleman appreciated the humor
of the incident and that he was to be allowed to “get away with it.”
Beside him, Elk Thurston’s face was angry and sneering.
“Some pitcher you’ve got,” he said, speaking from the corner of his
mouth. “You and he make a swell battery, Turner.” Then, as he sped
the ball back to Nate, he called: “Guess it’s all up with you, Nate.
See what the cat brought in!”
Nate smiled but made no answer.
Then Hillman’s trotted out on the diamond, and the pitchers retired
to the bench. Laurie chose a seat well removed from Mr. Mulford,
and Kewpie sank down beside him. Kewpie was chuckling almost
soundlessly. “Did you see Elk’s face?” he murmured. “Gee!”
Laurie nodded. “He’s awfully sore. He thought we’d given up, you
know, and when he caught sight of you coming out of the gym his
eyes almost popped out of his head. There’s Ned over there in the
stand, and George and the girls. Say, Kewpie, you’ve just got to get
into a game before the season’s over or I’ll be eternally disgraced!”
“I’ll make it,” answered Kewpie comfortably. “You heard what he
said.”
“Yes, but he didn’t make any promise. That’s what’s worrying me.
Wonder how it would be to drop poison in Nate’s milk some day. Or
invite him to ride in Mr. Wells’s roadster and run him into a telegraph-
pole!” It was the sight of Mr. Wells coming around the corner of the
stand that had put the latter plan into his head. “Got to manage it
somehow,” he ended.
“That’s all right,” said Kewpie. “Don’t you worry about it. He’ll give
me a chance soon. He didn’t say much yesterday, Nod, but I could
see that he was impressed.”
“You could, eh?” Laurie viewed the other admiringly. “Say, you just
hate yourself, don’t you?”
Craigskill Military College took a three-run lead in the first inning
and maintained it throughout the remaining eight innings. The game
was mainly a pitchers’ battle, with the enemy twirler having rather the
better of the argument, and, from the point of view of the onlooker,
was decidedly slow and uninteresting. Kewpie’s presence on the
bench supplied a welcome diversion at such times as Hillman’s was
at bat. Almost every one liked Kewpie, and his performance as
center of the football team had commanded respect, but he came in
for a whole lot of good-natured raillery that afternoon. So, too, did
Laurie. And neither of them minded it. Elk glowered and slid in
sarcastic comments when chance afforded, but they could afford to
disregard him.
When the game was over the substitutes held practice, and the
few spectators who remained were rewarded for their loyalty if only
by the spectacle of Kewpie Proudtree sliding to first during base-
running practice! Kewpie at bat was another interesting spectacle,
for there was a very great deal he didn’t know about batting despite
having played scrub ball to some extent. But Kewpie believed firmly
in Kewpie, laughed with the others at his own expense, and stored
up knowledge. He was, however, heartily glad when the brief session
came to an end, for some of the requirements had been extremely
novel to him.
Saturday’s game, played down the river at Melrose Ferry, resulted
in a ten-inning victory for Hillman’s. To his surprise and chagrin,
Kewpie was not taken with the team, but he went along nevertheless
and viewed the contest with ironical gaze from a seat in the stand. It
is probable that he felt no consuming grief when, in the fifth inning,
Nate Beedle was forced to give way to Pemberton. It is equally likely
that he would have managed to dissemble his sorrow had
Pemberton been knocked out of the box and a despairing coach had
called loudly for “Proudtree! Find Proudtree! We must have him! He
alone can avert defeat!” Nothing of that sort happened, though.
George Pemberton finished the game nicely, even bringing in one of
Hillman’s four runs with a safe hit to the left in the eighth. It remained
to Captain Dave himself, however to secure the victory in the tenth
inning with a home run. Returning to Orstead, Kewpie attached
himself to Laurie and was very critical of the team’s performance.
Laurie, who had pinch-hit for Murdock in the eighth and had popped
up a weak in-field fly, was gloomy enough to relish the conversation
until Kewpie became too caustic. Then Laurie sat on him cruelly and
informed him that instead of “panning” the team he had better be
thinking up some way of persuading Pinky to let him pitch a couple
of innings in one or other of the two games that remained before the
Farview contest. Thereupon Kewpie subsided and gazed glumly
from the car window. His chance of pitching for the team that season
didn’t appear so bright to him to-day.
Sunday afternoon they took their accustomed walk, Polly, Mae,
Ned, Laurie, and Bob, and as usual they stopped for a while at the
Pequot Queen. The afternoon was fair and warm, and the Pequot
Queen—or the Lydia W. Frye, if you prefer—made a very attractive
picture. The new white paint and the golden yellow trim were still
fresh, the gay red and white awning stretched above the upper deck,
the flower-boxes were green and promising—there was even one
pink geranium bloom in sight—and the beds that Brose Wilkins had
made at each side of the gangway were filled with plants. Miss
Comfort wore an almost frivolous dress of blue with white figures and
her best cameo pin, the one nearly as large as a butter-chip, that
showed a cheerful design of weeping willow-tree and a tombstone. A
yellow and white cat sat sunning itself on the railing and submitted
indifferently to the caresses of the visitors. The cat was a gift from
Brose, and Miss Comfort who had lived some sixty-odd years
without such a thing, had not had sufficient courage to decline it. She
had however, much to her surprise, grown very much attached to the
animal as she frequently stated. She had named it Hector.
To-day Miss Comfort had news for them. The letter she had written
to her brother-in-law in Sioux City had returned. She handed it
around the circle. It had been opened, and its envelope bore an
amazing number of inscriptions, many undecipherable, the gist of
them being that Mr. A. G. Goupil had not been found. The missive
had now been sent back by the Dead Letter Office in Washington. It
was, Miss Comfort declared, very perplexing. Of course, she had
always written to her sister at her home address but the firm name
was just as she had told it.
“He might have moved away,” suggested Bob, “after your sister
died.”
 Miss Comfort agreed that that was possible, but Laurie said that in
that case he would certainly have left an address behind him,
adding, “Well, if he didn’t get that letter he probably didn’t get our
telegram, either!”
“Why, that’s so,” said Polly. “But wouldn’t they send that back, too,
if it wasn’t delivered?”
“I reckon so. I’ll ask about it to-morrow at the office. Maybe you
should have put the street and number on your letter, Miss Comfort.”
“Why, I never knew it. That’s the address my sister sent me. I
supposed it was all that was necessary.”
“It ought to be enough,” said Bob. “How big’s this Sioux City place,
anyway? Seems to me they ought to have been able to find the
Goupil Machinery Company, even if they didn’t have the street
address.”
“Well,” said Miss Comfort, “I’m relieved to get it back. I thought it
was strange that Mr. Goupil didn’t take any notice of it. Now I know it
was because he never received it. You see.”
“Tell you what we might do,” offered Laurie. “We might find out Mr.
Goupil’s address from the lawyers who wrote you about it and then
you could write to him again, ma’am.”
“Oh I shouldn’t care to do that,” replied Miss Comfort. “I’m settled
so nicely here now, you see, Laurie. In a great many ways it is better
for me than my other home was. There were so many rooms there to
keep clean, and then, in winter, there were the sidewalks to be
looked after, and the pipes would freeze now and then. No, I think
everything has turned out quite for the best, just as it generally does,
my dears.”
“Just the same,” quoth Laurie as they returned up the hill past the
telegraph office, “I’m going in there to-morrow and find out what
happened to that message we sent.”
“That’s right,” assented Bob. “They ought to give us our money
back, anyway!”
 They learned the fate of the message without difficulty the
following morning, although they had to make two calls at the office.
On the second occasion the manager displayed a telegram from
Sioux City. Laurie’s message had been delivered to A. T. Gompers,
Globe Farm Machinery Company, Sioux City. The date and even the
time of day were supplied. At first the manager appeared to consider
Laurie and Ned over-particular, but finally acknowledged that
perhaps a mistake had been made. If, he said, the sender cared to
put in a claim the company would take up the matter and make a
thorough investigation, and if it found there really had been an error
in delivery the price of the telegram would be refunded. But Laurie
shook his head.
“We’re a short-lived family,” he explained. “Few of us Turners live
to be over eighty, and so I guess there wouldn’t be time. Thank you
just as much.”
“What it amounts to,” said Ned, as they hurried back to a
recitation, “is that Miss Comfort got the fellow’s name wrong
somehow. Or maybe his initials. Or maybe the name of his
company.”
“Or maybe there ain’t no such animal,” said Laurie. “I always did
sort of doubt that any one could have a name like Goupil. It—it isn’t
natural, Ned!”
“Oh, well, as Bob says, ‘All’s swell that ends swell,’ and Miss
Comfort’s satisfied with the way it’s turned out, and so we might as
well be.”
“Sure,” agreed Laurie. “We don’t own it.”
In front of the school entrance Mr. Wells’s blue roadster was
standing, a bit faded as to paint, a bit battered as to mud-guards, but
having the self-assurance and poise of a car that has traveled far
and seen life. Laurie, to whom automobiles were ever a passion,
stopped and looked it over. “Nice old bus,” he observed, laying a
friendly hand on the nickeled top of the brake-lever. “Let’s take a
spin, Ned.”
“Nice old bus,” Laurie observed, “let’s take a spin, Ned”
 Ned laughed. “Think you could drive it?” he asked.
“Why not? I don’t believe it’s locked. Kick on the switch, push
down on the starter, put her into first—I wonder if the clutch works
the same way as dad’s car. Yes, forward, back and across—All right,
let’s go!”
Ned pulled him toward the gate. “You’d better come along. First
thing you know you’ll be yielding to temptation, old son.”
“I sure would like to try the old boat out,” acknowledged Laurie.
“Some time he’s going to look for it and find it missing. He’s always
leaving it around like that, putting temptation in my way!”
Examinations began two days later, and Laurie had other things to
worry about than blue roadsters or even Kewpie’s non-participation
in baseball games, for, just between you and me, Laurie and
mathematics were not on very friendly terms, and there was at least
one other course that caused him uneasiness. Yet, should I fail to
mention it later, he did scrape past, as did Ned and, I think, all others
in whom we are interested. But he wasn’t certain of his fate until a
week later, which accounts in part for the somewhat perturbed and
unsettled condition of mind that was his during the rest of the present
week.
On Wednesday Hillman’s scored another victory, and Laurie aided.
Mr. Mulford put him to catch at the beginning of the sixth inning, and
he performed very creditably during the remaining four. He made
one “rotten error”—I am repeating his own words—when, in the
eighth he pegged the ball a yard over Lew Cooper’s yearning glove
and so allowed a steal to second that, a few minutes later, became a
tally. But otherwise he did very well behind the bat and made one hit
in two times up. George Pemberton pitched the game through, and
Kewpie remained lugubriously on the bench. Afterward he had quite
a good deal to say about Mr. Mulford, none of which was very
flattering. Hillman’s had put the game on ice in the fifth inning,
Kewpie averred feelingly, and it wouldn’t have hurt Pinky or the
team’s chances to have let him pitch a couple of innings!
 “And there’s only Saturday’s game left,” mourned Kewpie, “and
that’s with Crumbie, and she’s better than we are and there isn’t one
chance in a hundred of my getting into it! Gee, I should think folks
wouldn’t make promises if they don’t mean to keep ’em!”
Laurie, who was half of Kewpie’s audience, Hal Pringle being the
other half, reminded the speaker that Pinky hadn’t really promised,
but his tone lacked conviction. He, too, thought that the coach might
have used Kewpie that afternoon. Kewpie was still plaintive when
Laurie remembered that the morrow held two examinations and
hurried off for a brief period of study before supper.
I have already intimated that Laurie was not quite his usual care-
free self that week, and the same is true to a greater or lesser
degree of most of the other ninety-odd students. Finals are likely to
put a fellow under something of a strain, and, as a result, normal
characteristics are likely to suffer a change. The sober-minded
become subject to spells of unwonted hilarity, the normally
irrepressible are plunged in deepest gloom, and the good-natured
develop unsuspected tempers. All this is offered as plausible partial
excuse for what happened on Friday.
 CHAPTER XXII
THE FORM AT THE WINDOW

N ed had been through a hard session that had not ended for him
until after four o’clock, and he was very far from certain that his
answers to Questions V and VIII were going to please Mr.
Pennington. A game of golf with Dan Whipple arranged for four
o’clock had not materialized, and Ned had returned to No. 16 to
spend the remainder of the afternoon worrying about the Latin
examination. About 5:30 Laurie came in. Laurie had a bright-red
flush under his left eye and looked extremely angry.
“What did you do to your face?” asked Ned.
Laurie viewed himself in the mirror above his chiffonier before
replying. Then, “I didn’t do anything to it,” he answered a bit sulkily.
“That’s what Elk Thurston did.”
“For the love of mud!” exclaimed Ned. “Don’t tell me you’ve gone
and had a fight!”
“I’m not going to,” responded Laurie briefly, sinking into a chair.
“Well, then what—”
“Shut up and I’ll tell you,” said Laurie crossly. “We were playing the
scrubs, and Simpson had an exam and wasn’t there, and Pinky put
me to catching for them. Elk came sprinting in from third on a little in-
field hit, and I got the ball and blocked him easy. He was out a yard
from the plate, and that made him mad; that and the fact that he’d
made an ass of himself by trying to score, with only one out, on a hit
to short-stop. So he jumped up and made a great howl about my
having spiked him. Of course I hadn’t. All I had done was block him
off when he tried to slide. Cooper told him to shut up, and he went off
growling.”
“Well, how did you get—”
 “I’m telling you, if you’ll let me! After practice I was walking back
with Kewpie and Pat Browne, and just before we got to the fence
across the road down there Elk came up and grabbed me by the arm
and pulled me around. That made me mad, anyhow, and then he
began calling me names and saying what he’d do if I wasn’t too little,
and I swung for him. Missed him, dog-gone it! Then he handed me
this and I got him on the neck and the others butted in. That’s all
there was to it. How’s the silly thing look?”
“It looks punk,” answered Ned unsympathetically. “Better go down
and bathe it in hot water and then put some talcum on it. Gosh, son,
I should think you’d have more sense than to get in a brawl with Elk
Thurston. That rough-neck stuff doesn’t get you anywhere and—”
“For the love of limes, shut up!” exclaimed Laurie. “I didn’t start it!”
“You didn’t? Didn’t you just say that you hit him first—or tried to?”
“What of it? Wouldn’t you have struck him if he’d called you all
sorts of names, like that? I’ll say you would! You’re always strong on
the ‘calm yourself’ stuff, but I notice that when any one gets fresh
with you—”
“I don’t pick quarrels and slug fellows right under the eyes of
faculty, you idiot! For that matter—”
“Oh, forget it!” growled Laurie. “What difference does it make
where you do it? You give me a pain!”
“You give me worse than that,” replied Ned angrily. “You look like—
like a prize-fighter with that lump on your cheek. It’s a blamed shame
he didn’t finish the job, I say!”
“Is that so? Maybe you’d like to finish it for him, eh? If you think
you would, just say so!”
Ned shrugged contemptuously. “Guess you’ve had enough for one
day,” he sneered. “Take my advice and—”
“Your advice!” cried Laurie shrilly. “Your advice! Yes, I’m likely to,
you poor shrimp!” He jumped to his feet and glared at Ned invitingly.
“You make me sick, Ned, you and your advice. Get it? You haven’t
got enough spunk to resent a whack on the nose!”