LARGEST WEEKLY CIRCULATION IN AMERICA | 1 AN | Fl | IDEAL PUBLICATION FOR THE AMERICAN, YOUTH dssued Weekly. By subscription $2.soper year. Entered as Second-class Matter at the N. Y. Post Office, by STREET & SMITH, 79-80 Seventh Ave. N. ¥. No. 535 NEW YORK, JULY 14, 1906. Price, Five Cents weenie mea ‘«‘Look here, Sparkfair,’’ said Arlington, boiling with wrath, «I want you to understand you are no longer a friend of mine if you pitch for Merriwell this afternoon.’’ Issued Weekly. By subscription $2.50 per year. Entered as Second-class Matter at the N. Y. Post Office, by STREET & SMITH, 79-8 Seventh ‘Avenue, N.Y. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1906, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C. : _ No. 535. NEW YORK, July 14, 1906. Price Five Cents. DICK MERRIWELL'S SLABMATES OR, The Boy from Bloomfield. By BURT L. STANDISH. CHAPTER I. ON THE HIGHWAY AT NIGHT, adeeb Madge!” ‘The girl reined up her horse and looked round at he call. . Behind her on one hand gleamed the many lights om the windows of the Madawaska ees Blue Link behind the ‘wooded ‘hills. Bulenistied gira beginning to stud the sky. “Oh, I didn’t think of stopping there,” protested: Blacklock. “You’re very kind to permit me to escort — you part of the way.’ x “Tf you feel that way about it, you may come along. a short distance,” laughed Madge. They followed the well-built eae that had bene con~. structed by the hotel proprietor. It led them: into the dark woods which clothed. the hills and bordered. the lakes in the velleys. The forty beautiful lakes of the Blue Hills were famous far and wide. . Many-of these lakes were connected in such a manner.that they formed a chain of waterways by which one could traverse the hilly country in a small boat. There was great fishing in those lakes, which made them all the more attractive to a certain class of recreationers and sportsmen. » | “T suppose Dick Merriwell and his friends will get a chance to play baseball for Pineville now?” said the girl, as the horses jogged along side by side. ‘ “T don’t know whether it’s settled or not,” answered Blacklock. “Had they defeated Madawaska to-day, it would have been settled; but the game was a draw, ended by darkness in the sixteenth inning. Benjamin Brace, the proprietor of the Madawaska House, wa greatly exasperated because his team did not. win. I heard him talking with Silas Springer, of Pineville. Springer was inclined to chuckle and. boast, Brace insisted that in order for the Pineville team to recognized it must defeat both Madawaska and Sil Springs. It is my opinion that Brace intends to force Merriwell’s ae into plang two ‘gaines in-one. a Ly You = OD tes Syn: Sa ee ck et ae much work. _ To-day he pitched fifteen full innings against Mada- ment with Springer by which both pathy with Merriwell. iding around alone through these hills.