The HalfBack Author:Ralph Henry Barbour Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: are little wooden benches to tempt the passer to rest and view from their hospitable seats the grand panorama of gently flowing river, of broad marsh and meadow ... more »beyond, of tiny villages dotting the distances, and of the purple wall of haze marking the line of the distant mountains. Opposite Long Isle, a wonderful fairyland inaccessible to the scholars save on rare occasions, the river path meets the angle of the Station Road, where the coach makes its first turn. Then the path grows indistinct, merges into a broad ten-acre plot whereon are the track, gridiron, baseball ground, and the beginning of the golf links. This is the campus. And here is Stony Bunker, and beyond it is the bluff and the granite ledge; and lo! here we are back again at the point from which we started on our journey of discovery; back to Outfield West and to the boy in the ridiculous straw hat. CHAPTER III. OUTFIELD WEST. It was several moments before West recovered his breath enough to speak, during Avhich time he sat and gazed at his rescuer in amazement not unmixed with curiosity. And the rescuer looked down at West in simple amusement. " Thanks," gasped West at length. " I suppose I'd have broke my silly neck if you hadn't given me a hand just when you did." The other nodded. "You're welcome, of course; but I don't believe you'd have been very much hurt. What's that thing? " nodding toward the brassie, still tightly clutched in West's hand. "A bras—a golf club. I was knocking a ball around a bit, and it went over the cliff here." " I should think golf was a rather funny sort of a game." " It isn't funny at all, if you know anything about it," replied West a trifle sharply. The rescuer was on dangerous ground, had he but known it. "Isn't it? Well, I guess it is all in getting u...« less