I could go to Fred, tell him what I know, and scare him so he'd fall down in his effort to become the crack pitcher of the nine! My, but he'd go all to pieces if he thought I knew and could tell on him!" Dick chuckled, then his face sobered, as he added: "Fred's safe from that _trick_, though.

I couldn't stand a glimpse of my own face in the mirror, afterward, if I did such a low piece of business." Prescott was still revolving the whole thing in his mind when he reached "The Blade" office.

He turned in the news story he bad been sent for.

As he did so the news editor looked up to remark: "We have plenty of room to spare in the paper to-night, Prescott." "Yes?
Well ?" "Can't you give us a few paragraphs of real High School news?
Something about the state of athletics there ?" "Why, yes, of course," the young sophomore nodded.
Returning to the desk where he had been sitting, Dick ran off a few paragraphs on the outlook of the coming High School baseball season.
"Did you write that High School baseball stuff in this morning's paper, Dick ?" asked Tom Reade, the next day.
"Yes." "You said that the indications are that Ripley will be the crack pitcher this season, and that he is plainly going to be far ahead of all the other box candidates." "That's correct, isn't it ?" challenged Dick.
"It looks so, of course," Tom admitted.

"But why did you give Ripley such a boost?
He's no friend of yours, or ours." "Newspapers are published for the purpose of giving information," Dick explained.