CHAPTER VIIGROWING BEWILDERMENT
The boys, in their joy at having the girls with them once more, wanted to go to one of the big hotels for luncheon, but the girls themselves protested.
They wanted, they said, to go to some quiet place “where they could talk,” and, besides, they weren’t “presentable” after the long train journey.
Although the boys disagreed vehemently with this last statement, they finally yielded the point and found a quiet little restaurant just around the corner from Fifth Avenue.
Eagerly Joe plied them with questions about home. “Had the girls been well?” “How was mother and dear old dad?” and so on until the girls rebelled, saying that they had come to hear about Joe and Jim, not to talk about themselves.
“I say, how is the old game coming?” queried Reggie, taking the monocle from his eye and tapping it gently on the table. “Yesterday’s gamewas perfectly ripping, what? Hear you did yourself proud, Joe, old top.”
“He always does,” murmured Mabel proudly, and somehow Joe’s hand managed to find hers under the table.
“It was a great game,” he said, smiling at recollection of it. “Luck was with me.”
“Do you boys play to-day?” asked Clara, adding with a little bounce of delight: “Oh, I’m crazy to see the game!”
“Jim’s the lucky one,” said Joe. “He’s scheduled to pitch. And I tell you, you girls are going to see some classy work. Jim has the little ball trained so it comes to his whistle.”
“Spare my blushes,” begged Jim, adding, with a grin: “Anyway, listen who’s talking!”
“’Spose everything’s goin’ smoothly, is it?” queried Reggie, with a lift of his eyebrow that sent the monocle sliding down the front of his waistcoat. “No trouble with the good old teammates? Everything jolly and happy?”
Both Jim and Joe looked at him quizzically. Was it possible that Reggie knew something of their suspicions of Reddy Hupft or McCarney? It seemed hardly possible. Probably the question was merely an idle one.
“Everything’s in tip-top shape,” answered Joe, after the barest perceptible pause. “The boys are going at top speed and if we keep on the waywe’ve started we ought to beat last year’s record.”
Clara opened her lips as though to speak, then evidently changed her mind. But as Jim’s eyes met hers it seemed to him they were the least bit anxious.
As for Mabel, she had reached out and laid a little hand on Joe’s arm.
“Everything is all right, isn’t it, Joe?” she asked.
“Perfectly,” he replied, hoping his tone had sounded as confident as he wanted it to. “What could be wrong, little girl?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Mabel replied hesitantly. “Perhaps it’s that trouble you had last year——”
“Here, here!” interrupted Joe, with mock severity. “I thought you promised to forget all about that!”
“I am trying,” said Mabel gamely. “But it’s pretty hard when I’m not with you, Joe.”
Though the boys could have lingered forever at that pleasant little meal, it was not long before they were reminded that time was flying and that if they meant to get to the ball grounds in time they must hurry.
They took the girls to the hotel where they had accommodations ready for them. There they regretfully left them in Reggie’s care and hurried off for the field.
“I wonder if Reggie has got wind of something brewing,” said Jim, as, a few minutes later, they struggled into their uniforms. “He certainly has a talent for smelling out trouble.”
“Let’s hope there won’t be any serious trouble to smell out and let the matter go at that,” answered Joe carelessly. Then everything but baseball and the game on hand was forgotten.
That game was a triumph for the Giants, but it was even a greater one for Jim. Perhaps the fact that two bright eyes were watching his work from the grandstand spurred Jim on to greater effort. At any rate it was certain that he had never done more brilliant work.
Joe, who was resting from his triumphs of the day before, spent most of his time with the two girls and Reggie. Although ordinarily he would have been wild to take his place on the diamond, to-day, with McRae’s consent, he was content just to sit beside Mabel and watch her interest and enthusiasm in the game.
It was good to have his pretty sister with him too, even though he knew her interest for the time being was entirely with Jim. And it was good to have old Reggie with the troublesome monocle and the hat which the burly old gentleman had inadvertently used as a seat!
Suddenly Clara, who, with the rest of the crowd had been wildly cheering Jim, straightenedin her seat, her eyes widening as they rested upon one of the Giant team.
She turned and laid a hand on Joe’s arm.
“Joe,” she said excitedly, “who is that man out there? That man on third base?”
“That’s McCarney,” replied Joe, wondering at her excitement. “Want an introduction?” he added jokingly. “I could get you one in a jiffy, but I wouldn’t because he’s no good.”
“Goodness, no!” said Clara, with a motion of the shoulders that was almost like a shudder. “I know him already.”
“Know him?” repeated Joe, bewildered. “What’s the great idea?”
“Well,” Clara corrected, “I don’t really mean that I know him. But I’ve seen him at pretty close range.”
Mabel leaned forward suddenly, her troubled eyes on Clara.
“What do you mean?” she asked, but a roar from the crowd drowned Clara’s answer.
“I’ll tell you later,” she shouted above the tumult of cheers and whistles and turned once more to watch the game.