CHAPTER XXVTHE JINX
On the floor lay Jim. The letter that he had been reading had fallen from his hand. He had slipped from the chair and lay crumpled up in a heap.
“Oh, Joe!” Mabel cried, as she knelt down and took Jim’s head on her knee. “What has happened to him? Is he dead?”
“Nothing like that, honey,” Joe reassured her, as he felt for Jim’s heart and noted that it was beating. “Just fainted I guess. We’ll have him all right in a jiffy.”
He rushed for some water, which he dashed into Jim’s face. Then he tore off Jim’s collar and chafed his wrists so vigorously that in a few moments Jim opened his eyes.
He encountered those of Mabel and essayed to smile.
“Hello, Mabel!” he said as he tried to get up. “What seems to have happened to me? This is a nice reception to give you, isn’t it?” he added sheepishly.
“Oh, I’m so thankful to hear you speak,” sobbed Mabel. “I feared at first that you were dead.”
“Oh, I’m worth a dozen dead men yet,” returned Jim, as Joe helped him into a chair. “Never felt better in my life than I did this morning. Don’t know what came over me. Must have tripped over something and hit my head. It’s whirling yet a bit. No, it wasn’t a fall either. Don’t think I got up from this chair after Joe left. Must have had a touch of vertigo and slipped from the chair. That’s funny, too. Never had anything like that happen to me before. Last thing I remember I was reading Clara’s letter. Where is it?” he asked, as he looked around.
Joe picked it up from the floor and handed it to him.
“Nothing in the letter itself to upset you, was there?” asked Joe.
“Nothing in the world,” replied Jim. “Clara is well and it is one of the most delightful letters the dear girl has ever written. I was just feasting on it when suddenly I didn’t know anything. But I’m ashamed to think that I should topple over that way. And just at this time too, when Mabel was coming.”
“Don’t think of that twice,” said Mabel. “I’m so relieved to know that the thing wasn’t as serious as I feared. How are you feeling now?”
“The old bean is getting steady again,” replied Jim. “But my arm feels queer. Something like a pin cushion with all the pins strictly on the job.”
“Give it to me,” commanded Joe, and he rubbed the afflicted member till it glowed and the queer symptoms disappeared.
“Well, that’s that,” said Jim as he adjusted his collar and tie and smoothed his rumpled hair. “Now let’s forget the whole thing. It makes me feel sheepish every time I think about it. And above all, Mabel, don’t breathe a thing about it to Clara. She would worry herself to death about it and after all it’s only a trifle.”
Mabel promised, and they were soon chatting gayly about other matters. Mabel could stay for only a few days, as she had promised a visit to her parents at Goldsboro.
But she and Joe made the most of those golden days while they lasted. Mabel’s mornings passed rapidly in shopping and sightseeing, her afternoons were spent at the Polo Grounds, and in the evenings they took in some of the best theaters and concerts in the metropolis.
All too soon the visit was over and Mabel departed, but not until after arranging for a much longer visit as soon as the Giants should have returned from their next western trip.
Two days after the queer occurrence in theirrooms, it was Jim’s turn to go into the box. He entered it with the confidence born of a long series of recent victories.
But, to his surprise and consternation, he was sent to the showers before the fourth inning was over. Almost from the start he was batted freely, but one or two sparkling plays by his fielders pulled him through. But in the fourth came the slaughter.
Base hits fairly rained from his opponents’ bats and in a twinkling the bases were full with none out. Then Joe reluctantly gave the signal and Jim walked in, his face flushed with mortification.
“Can’t understand it,” he remarked, as he handed the ball to Merton who replaced him on the mound.
Merton took up the burden and by good pitching, aided by a few breaks, pulled the game out of the fire.
“What in thunder do you suppose got into me this afternoon?” Jim asked Joe, as they were walking back to their rooms after the game.
“The same thing that got into me, I guess,” replied Joe. “We’re brothers in misfortune, old boy. And now that this has happened I’m beginning to get hold of one end of the string that may furnish a clew. As long as I was the only one affected I put it down to something connectedwith me alone, something in my mental attitude or my physical condition. I’ve been mulling it over and over in my mind and couldn’t make head or tail of it. But when you were knocked out of the box to-day an idea began to take shape in my mind. It grew clearer and clearer.
“Then suddenly I saw something in the grandstand and I had a blinding flash of light. I believed I had found——”
“What?” interrupted Jim eagerly.
“The jinx!” answered Joe.