they had discussed the situation in all

I shall send him a telegram as soon as the office opens in the morning. It's up to him to get in communi

ghter of the owner of the Blue Sto

n over three weeks, and I don't

whole business is mysterious. Why don't you write her at once, ex

wil

le, I'll get busy on mine to Kennedy. There doesn't seem to b

two minutes after opening it, doubtless Kennedy would know as much about the situation as did Lefty himself. Yet it was proba

dvice, Janet wrote

He sent a telegram also. Returning past the Magnolia Hotel, to his surprise he perceived

ations will reach Kennedy in the same mail; and I wired him, too. Quite a little jolt for the old man, but it can't be helped. Of course, he'll

shall be a fit subject for a padded cell." The agreeabl

they were members of the team. Many of them looked like old stagers, veterans who had seen better days; some were youthful and raw and inclined to be cock-a-hoop. There was a German, an Italian, an Irishman, and a Swede. One was lanky as a

samples of sartorial art; various, and nearly all, prevailing freaks of fashion were displayed. With colored shirts, flaring socks, and giddy neckties, t

he temples. His coat and trousers, of extravagant cut, were made from pronounced black-and-white-striped material. His fancy waistcoat, buttoned with a single button at the bottom, was adorned with large orange-colored figures. His silk socks were red,

it made no difference to Breck; when he put his fifty-five-ounce ash wand against the pill, said pill made a pilgrimage–it journeyed right away to some land distant and remote and unknown, and it did not stay upon the order of its going. When it came right down to slugging, compared with old Breck yo

high amusement. "Rather strange the Big Leagues di

Breck making the circuit of the sacks, and cross the pan pulled up. Yet, with this handicap, the noble old slugger held the record for home runs in the Tall Grass League. Naturally I had heart failure and Angie Pectoris every

clared Weegman, as the narrator paused,

stening. Others were hovering about, their

all was hidden a tiny but powerful magnet. Then I secretly furnished the rascally bat boy with a specially prepared steel rod that would violently repel any magnet that chanced to wander around into the immediate vicinity of the rod. I instructed the boy to bore Breck's pet bat surreptitiously when the shades of

the most magnanimous contempt. 'Don't blow up, old boy,' says I. 'With the exception of your batting, you're all in; and I've a notion that your batting eye is becoming dim and hazy. Let's see you hit this.' Then I passed him a slow, straight one right over the middle of the rubber. He took a mighty swing at it, meaning to slam it over into the next county. Well, mate, may I be keelhauled if that ball didn't dodge the bat like a scared rabbit! Mind y

wart!' he ordered savagely, 'and I'll knock the peeling off it.' Beaming, I retorted: 'You couldn't k

f course, he didn't know what the matter was; he thought I was fooling him with some sort of a new drop I had discovered. The fact that I was passing him the merry cachinnation peeved him vastly. When he got upon his pins and squared away for the third a

eam into the next pitch, and, instead of dropping, the ball hopped over his bat when he smote at it. I had fanned the mighty Breckenridge, and the wondering crowd lifted their voices in hosannas. Yet I kn

usion, "I had him eating out of my hand right u

ul romancer to tell what

was Breck's turn to hit, I was confident we had the game sewed up. But the confidence oozed out of me all of a sudden when I saw the big fellow paw the clubs over to select a bat other than his own. Clammy perspiration started forth fr

loaded with an ordinary steel rod. This, you can clearly understand, made it more than doubly certain that he would hit the m

The magnet was attracted by the steel rod, and the ball just jumped at the bat, against which it struck–and stuck! I hope never to tell the truth again, mate, if I'm not stating a simple, unadulterated, unvarnished fact. The moment the ball touched the bat it stuck fast to it as if nailed there. Breck was so astonished that he stood in his tracks staring at the ball like a man turned to stone. I was likewise paralyzed for an extemporaneo

, he seemed to perceive Lefty for the first tim

ce you. This is Cap'n Wiley, owne