CHAPTER XQUICK PUNISHMENT
“I don’t quite get you,” said Joe coldly. “Just what do you mean by that?”
“Only that it gets rather monotonous to see one team out so far ahead of the others year after year,” remarked Tompkinson carelessly, as he flicked the ash from his cigar. “It seems to me that a new interest would be given to the game in general if, for instance, the pennant should go West for a while, say to Pittsburgh or Chicago.”
“But they do get it every once in a while,” protested Joe. “Look at the years that Chicago took it time after time in the days of Frank Chance and Pop Anson. And Cincinnati got it with Pat Moran leading them. Pittsburgh has had it too. And in the East, Brooklyn has copped it off more than once and so have the Bostons. As a matter of fact, every team has a chance. Look at last year, when we won only on the last day of the season. When the Giants win, it’s because they deserve to win.”
“Oh, no doubt of that,” put in Harrish smoothly. “I suppose what Mr. Tompkinson has in mind is that it would give a little variety to the game if they didn’t win so often in succession. Let’s see, they’ve won for the last three years, haven’t they?”
“Yes,” said Joe. “And strictly on their merits,” he added.
“Of course,” assented Harrish. “But as it happened, the Yankees took the flag in their league during the same three years, so that the World’s Series was held altogether in New York. It made it a family affair, a close corporation, so to speak. What Mr. Tompkinson means is that the interest may die out in other sections of the country when they see their teams bringing up the rear time after time.”
“I haven’t noticed that the interest was dying out to any extent,” said Joe. “Last year we played to packed grounds almost all through the season.”
“No doubt that was because you were with them,” said Harrish graciously. “Half of them came to see you pitch or knock out a homer or both.”
“Another thing I had in mind,” remarked Tompkinson, “was that the winning of the pennant by some other team would put to rest to some extent the dissatisfaction caused by the fact thatNew York is the richest team in the league. The club has unlimited money and it can buy the best talent. It can get men that the other clubs are unable to buy. You know it’s common talk that while other managers have to develop their stars all McRae has to do is to buy them.”
“I’ve heard that old wheeze!” exclaimed Joe indignantly. “I want to nail it right here as a falsehood. To be sure McRae has money, but the money wouldn’t do him any good if he didn’t know what to buy. He’s the best judge of ball players in the country. And as for not developing them, I know of dozens of rookies that he has developed into stars. Why, McRae has more baseball brains in his head than half a dozen other managers put together.”
“Of course every one has a right to his own opinion,” said Tompkinson suavely. “It’s natural that you should stand up for the manager of your team.”
“He’s a prince,” declared Joe. “One of the best friends I have. He brought me to New York and gave me my chance. He’s one of the fairest, squarest men I know, and when it comes to baseball he’s the ablest.”
“Personally, I don’t question that at all,” replied Tompkinson. “I’m only repeating what I’ve frequently heard said. Whether that is true or not is beside the question. The fact is thatmany people believe it, and that belief is reinforced by the many victories of the Giants. And that leads me to think that if some other team got the pennant it might stir up renewed interest in the game. I think there are a good many people in New York who agree with me.”
“And those very people,” said Joe grimly, “would be the first to pan us if they came to the Polo Grounds only to see us beaten.”
“Of course they would, if you were beaten too often,” agreed Harrish. “But if you maintained a good standing in the race—say good enough to come in second or third at the end of the season—the New York public wouldn’t kick very much.”
Their persistent harping on this theme got on Joe’s nerves and at the same time he felt a faint stirring of suspicion.
“Speaking of McRae,” went on Tompkinson, “I understand he’s very liberal in the matter of salaries.”
“I don’t know a man on the team that’s dissatisfied,” replied Joe. “There’s nothing mean or niggardly about the Giant management.”
“And some of the salaries I imagine are almost princely,” remarked Harrish. “I’ve heard rumors, for instance, that you were drawing down more money than most railway or bank presidents.”
“The matter of my salary is a matter betweenme and the club,” said Joe curtly. “They pay me enough.”
“They couldn’t pay you too much,” replied Tompkinson. “You’re the biggest drawing card in the club. They probably pull in a half million dollars a year more than they would if you were not on the team.”
“You say they pay you enough,” put in Harrish. “But my experience is that nothing is enough if you can make more. Do you ever take a flier in stocks, Mr. Matson?”
“Not I,” returned Joe. “I never play another man’s game. Baseball is my game, and I’m going to stick to it. There are enough lambs getting shorn in Wall Street without my adding to the number.”
“Very true,” admitted Tompkinson, with a careless laugh. “At the same time fortunes are being made there. The reason that the lambs, as you call them, get shorn is because they go in blindly. If they had skillful guidance from some of the men who are really on the inside of what is going on they could pick up thousands of easy money.”
“No doubt,” agreed Joe. “The thing is to find the insiders.”
“I think without patting ourselves on the back Mr. Tompkinson and I can be fairly counted as insiders,” remarked Harrish. “We’re on the directoratesof a number of important corporations and we know when dividends are going to be passed or paid or increased. And we know that several days before the public does. If the dividend is to be passed, we can buy for a fall. If it’s going to be increased, we buy for a rise. In either case we make money.”
“In other words you’re betting on a sure thing,” remarked Joe dryly, with a growing distaste for his companions.
“Doesn’t seem exactly sportsmanlike, does it?” smiled Harrish. “As a matter of fact, we don’t put it that way. It is simply capitalizing our knowledge, a perfectly legitimate thing to do.”
“But the money you make is lost by somebody else,” remarked Joe.
“That’s their lookout,” said Tompkinson. “They don’t have to buy or sell unless they want to. If we have first-hand knowledge that other people haven’t, that’s our good fortune. If we utilize that knowledge, that’s our brains. But leaving all that out of the question, the point is that we know how to make money for ourselves in Wall Street, and sometimes, when we like a man very much, we pass the knowledge on to him.”
He paused for a moment to let this sink in. Joe said nothing, and Tompkinson, with a quickglance at Harrish, a glance that did not escape Joe, went on:
“Now, there’s no reason on earth, Mr. Matson, why you shouldn’t get in on this. We can give you tips on stocks from which the element of chance is almost wholly eliminated. Why shouldn’t you pick up thousands of dollars that are fairly begging to be gathered in?”
“Thanks, just as much,” replied Joe, “but I’ll stick to the game I know, and hold on to what I have.”
Again a quick glance passed between the two associates.
“Safe and sane, is it?” smiled Tompkinson. “Don’t want to risk your capital even on such conservative lines as we propose? Well, suppose then, just to try the thing out, we carry your account for a while without your investing a dollar?”
“What do you mean by that?” asked Joe.
“Just this,” was the reply. “We’ll purchase a certain number of stocks that we feel absolutely sure will rise, and when that rise comes we’ll turn over the profits to you. We’ll carry it on our books in your name, but you won’t have to advance a dollar.”
“But suppose the stocks are sold at a loss. I’ll be owing you money,” protested Joe.
“If there’s any loss,” said Tompkinson impressively,“you’ll never get a bill for it. We’ll pocket the loss ourselves as a punishment for our bad judgment.”
“In other words,” said Joe slowly. “I can’t lose and I may win.”
“You will win,” corrected Tompkinson. “We’ll see that you do.”
“Let me see if I understand you,” said Joe. “My investment is purely a paper one. I don’t advance a dollar. You credit me on your books with having bought a certain amount of stock. If the market registers a rise I get the profits. If it’s a loss you bear it and wipe the whole thing off your books.”
“You couldn’t have put it better,” said Tompkinson. “And what is more, I’ll guarantee that before this year is over you’ll have cleared fifty thousand dollars.”
“In other words,” said Joe, “you’re offering to make me a present of a clean fifty thousand dollars.”
“Substantially that,” agreed Tompkinson. “Though I would prefer to put it that we are offering you an opportunity to make fifty thousand dollars.”
“You guarantee that?” asked Joe, with a pretended show of excitement that elicited a gleam of satisfaction from the eyes of both his companions.
“Absolutely,” declared Tompkinson. “So surely, in fact, that I’d have no hesitation about giving you the fifty thousand in cash at once if you’d prefer it that way. That’s how sure I feel that I could make the money for you in the way I say.”
“But why should you do this?” asked Joe, pretending bewilderment. “I scarcely know you. I have no claim upon you. I’ve never done anything for you.”
“Not yet,” drawled Tompkinson, as he lighted a fresh cigar. “But of course there’s no knowing but what you might do something for us in the future.”
Joe rose from his chair and began to pace the room restlessly. His two companions exchanged a significant glance. They believed that Joe’s cupidity had been aroused and they were perfectly willing to have him take all the time he wanted to mull over in his mind the enchantment of that fifty thousand dollars.
At last Joe resumed his seat.
“I didn’t quite get what you meant by that reference to something that I might be able to do for you in the future,” he said.
Tompkinson and Harrish felt pretty sure that Joe had risen to the bait. Still they proceeded warily.
“Oh, nothing but what you might be able todo for us easily and with perfect safety,” replied Tompkinson. “Just think for a moment of what you said a little while ago about sticking to your own game. That game is baseball. Naturally, it would be in the baseball game that you would be able to be of service to us.”
“For instance?” asked Joe.
“Well,” replied Tompkinson, “everybody knows that you’re the mainstay of the Giants. You’re the keystone of the whole team. Whether the Giants win or lose the pennant this year depends more on you than any one else.”
“I don’t admit that,” replied Joe. “The Giants had won more than one pennant before I joined it. They can do it again.”
“Ah, but that was when they had Hughson as their star pitcher,” put in Harrish. “He carried the team on his back for a dozen years or so. Now you’ve taken Hughson’s place—in fact, you’ve more than taken it, for Hughson in his best days never approached your record. That’s why the Giants have won the pennant for the last three years in succession. And they’ll win it again this year if you keep up the pace at which you’ve started.”
“Let that pass,” said Joe. “Just what have you got in mind?”
Tompkinson cleared his throat.
“As I was saying a little while ago,” he remarked,“I don’t think that it’s a good thing for the game to have the Giants win so steadily. I have a lot of friends who feel the same way. In fact, we felt so strongly about it, especially after we’d heard that your arm had been burned at the training camp, that we backed our judgment and our feelings to the extent of putting up quite a little pool of money that this wasn’t the Giants’ year to win. Now that you’ve come back so strongly we stand to lose something like two hundred thousand dollars.”
“I see,” said Joe, trying to restrain himself, though his blood was boiling.
“Well,” went on Tompkinson. “We’re not the men to ask for anything without giving something in return. And I don’t think you’d be the man to take fifty thousand dollars without having a kindly feeling toward the men who gave it.”
“You mean that you want me to throw enough games to make the Giants lose the pennant?” asked Joe, still trying to keep his voice steady.
“You have a disconcerting way of putting things,” replied Tompkinson, with a smile. “I—ah—just thought that if you found out suddenly that your arm was burned a little more seriously than the doctors thought and that you had to let up in your work and, ah——”
Joe rose slowly from his seat.
“I can think better when I’m on my feet,” heexplained, as he strolled toward the side of the room.
Harrish and Tompkinson exchanged a smile of evil triumph as they rose also and walked over to where Joe was standing. Their prey was hooked!
“Fifty thousand dollars,” Joe murmured dreamily.
“In cash if you like!” exclaimed Tompkinson eagerly. “What’s the answer?”
“Here’s the answer!”
Joe’s fist shot out and crashed against Tompkinson’s jaw!