With the bravery of which he was so capable, Dick ceased his worry about his sweetheart as much as he could, and threw his leisure hours heartily into his work in the ball squad.

It will not be possible to describe the games of the season in detail.  There were twenty scheduled games in all, though three were called off on account of rain.  The Army won twelve out of sixteen games played with college teams.  Dick and Greg were the battery in the heaviest nine of the winning games, and in one of the games lost.

Prescott and Holmes had no difficulty in putting up a game that has sent them down in history as being the best Army battery to that date.

But the Navy, that year, had an exceptionally fine team, too, with Dave Darrin and Dalzell for its star battery.

“This is the game we’ve got to win, fellows,” called out Durville earnestly, two days before the Annapolis nine was due at West Point in the latter part of May.  “We’ve done finely this year, better than we had hoped.  But, after all, what is it to beat every other college, and then have to go down before the Navy in defeat at the end?”

“Who says we’re going down in defeat?” grumbled Greg.

“If you say we’re not, you and Prescott, then you can do a lot to hearten us up,” continued Durville, with a sharp glance at the star battery pair.

“See here, old ramrod, you know all about that Annapolis battery,” broke in Hackett, of the nine.  “What about them as ball players?  I understand you went to school with Darrin and Dalzell.  Do that pair play ball the way they do football?”

“Yes,” nodded Dick.  “If anything, they play baseball better.”

“But you and Holmesy put them out at football.  Can’t you do it on the diamond, too?” insisted Hackett.

“I hope so, but Greg and I will feel a lot more like bragging, possibly, after we’ve played the game through.  There isn’t much brag about us now, eh, Greg?”

“Not much,” confessed Greg.  “And you fellows want to remember that old ramrod and I are to play only two out of the nine positions.  Don’t depend on us to play the whole game for the Army.”

“Of course not,” agreed Hackett, perhaps a bit tartly.  “But if the other seven of us were wonders we’d stand no show unless we had a battery that can do up these awful ogres of the Navy nine.”

“Oh, you’re better than the Navy battery, aren’t you, old ramrod?” demanded Beckwith.

“No, we’re not,” replied Dick slowly, thoughtfully.

“Don’t tell us that the salt-water catcher and pitcher are ahead of you two!” protested Durville with new anxiety.

“If either crowd is better, they’re likely to be It,” murmured Dick.

Thereupon all in the dressing room wheeled to take a look at Greg.  But young Holmes nodded his head in confirmation.

“Don’t talk that way,” pleaded Beckwith.

“You’ll have us all scared cold before we touch foot to the field day after to-morrow.”