Jack Winters' Baseball Team - Mark Overton (best color ereader .txt) 📗

bright-faced young fellow who was swinging toward them, waving a hand as he caught their signals.

There was nothing remarkable about Jack Winters, save that he seemed a born athlete, had a cheery, winning way about him, and seemed to have a magnetism such as all born leaders, from Napoleon down, possess, that drew others to him, and made them believe in his power for extracting victory from seeming defeat.

“Sorry to have kept you waiting so long, fellows,” Jack remarked, as he joined them, “but a man stopped me on the street, and his business was of such importance that I couldn’t break away in a hurry. But let’s adjourn to a quieter place; over there in the little park under the trees I can see a bench that’s empty. I’ve got something to tell you that nobody must hear except you two.”

“Does it have a bearing on the great game with Harmony, Jack?” begged Toby, who was a bit impatient after his way.

“It may mean everything to us in that battle!” Jack admitted, as he headed for the bench in the small park.

CHAPTER II
A WEAK LINK IN THE CHAIN

When Jack dropped down on the bench, the others crowded as close up on either side as they could possibly get. No one was near by, save a couple of nursemaids chatting and gossiping while they trundled their baby carriages back and forth; and they were too much engrossed in exchanging views of the gallant policeman on the block to notice three boys with their heads close together, “plotting mischief,” as they would doubtless believe.

“Now break loose and give us a hint what it’s all about, please, Jack!” urged Toby.

“Because both of us have noticed that something’s been bothering you latterly,” added Steve; “and as you’re not the fellow to borrow trouble it’s got us guessing, I tell you. Who’s the weak brother on the team you’re afraid of, Jack?”

“I see your guessing has been in the right direction, Steve,” the other went on to remark, with an affectionate nod; for in the few months he had known them, these new chums had won a warm place in Jack Winters’ heart. “Don’t be startled now when I tell you it’s Fred who’s keeping me awake nights.”

Both the others uttered low exclamations of surprise.

“What! Fred Badger, our bully reliable third baseman, equal to that crackerjack Harmony boasts about as the best in the State!” gasped Toby. “Why, only yesterday I heard you say our Fred was getting better right along, and that his equal couldn’t be easily found. We don’t even need to keep a substitute back of Fred, his work is that gilt-edged.”

“That’s just what’s troubling me,” admitted Jack, quietly. “If I was able to lay my hand on some one right now who could fill Fred’s shoes even fairly well, I wouldn’t be so bothered; but there isn’t a boy in Chester who can play that difficult position so as not to leave a terrible gap in our stone-wall infield, no one but Fred.”

“But what’s the matter with Fred?” demanded Steve.

“I saw him not an hour ago,” spoke up Toby, “and say, he didn’t look so very sick then, let me tell you, Jack. He was swallowing an ice-cream soda in the drug-store, and seemed to be enjoying it immensely, too.”

“And yet,” added Steve, thoughtfully, “now that you mention it, Jack, seems to me Fred has been acting a little queer lately. There’s been a sort of shifting way he avoids looking straight into your eyes when you’re talking with him. Why, when I got speaking about our next big game, and hoped he’d play like a regular demon at third sack he grinned sheepishly, and simply said he meant to try and do himself credit, but nobody could ever tell how luck was going to pan out.”

Jack shook his head.

“That’s just it, fellows,” he went on to say, gloomily. “I’ve heard the same thing from others. In fact, Phil Parker even went on to say it looked like Fred was getting ready to excuse himself in case he did commit some terrible crime in juggling a ball when a vital time in the game came, and a clean throw meant win or lose.”

“I’d hate to see that spirit shown under any conditions,” said Jack, “because it means lack of confidence, and such a thing has lost no end of games. It’s the fellow who says he can and will do things that comes in ahead nearly every time. But listen, boys, that isn’t the worst of this thing.”

“Gee whiz! what’s coming now, Jack?” asked Toby, wriggling uneasily on the bench.

“Of course you know that over in Harmony, which is a larger place than Chester, there is quite a sporting element,” Jack continued. “Latterly, we’ve been told quite an interest has been aroused in the outcome of this deciding game between the two rival clubs; and that some rich sports from the city have even come up to make wagers on the result. I’ve heard gentlemen here tell this, and deplore the fact that such a thing could invade an innocent sport like baseball. You both know this, don’t you, fellows?”

“Yes,” said Steve, quickly, “I’ve heard a lot of talk about it, and how they are determined to arrest anybody making an open bet on the game at the grounds when the crowd is there; but even that isn’t going to prevent the laying of wagers in secret.”

“I ran across a Harmony fellow yesterday,” Toby now remarked, eagerly, “and he said there was a terrible lot of excitement over there about this game. You see, the news about our new pitcher has leaked out, from the Chester boys doing considerable bragging; and they’re going to play their very best to win against us. He also admitted that there was open betting going on, with heavy odds on Harmony.”

Jack sighed.

“That all agrees with what came to me in a side way,” he explained. “In other words, the way things stand, there will be a big lot of money change hands in case Harmony does win. And those sporting men who came up from the city wouldn’t think it out of the way to pay a good fat bribe if they could make sure that some player on the Chester team would throw the game, in case it began to look bad for Harmony!”

Toby almost fell off his seat on hearing Jack say that.

“My stars! and do you suspect Fred of entering into such a base conspiracy as that would be, Jack?” he demanded, hoarsely; while Steve held his very breath as he waited for the other to reply.

“Remember, not one word of this to a living soul,” cautioned Jack; “give me your solemn promise, both of you, before I say anything more.”

Both boys held up a right hand promptly.

“I never blab anything, even in my sleep, Jack,” said Steve; “and until you give permission never a single word will I pass along.”

“Same here,” chirped Toby; “I’ll put a padlock on my lips right away, and wild horses couldn’t force me to leak. Now tell us what makes you suspect poor old Fred of such a horrible crime?”

“I’ve tried to make myself believe it impossible,” Jack commenced; “and yet all the while I could see that Fred has changed in the last ten days, changed in lots of ways. There’s something been bothering him, that’s plain.”

“Stop a minute, will you, Jack, and let me say something,” interrupted Toby. “I wouldn’t mention it even to you fellows only for this thing coming up. I chance to know why Fred has been looking worried of late. Shall I tell you, in hopes that it might ease your mind, Jack?”

“Go on, Toby,” urged Steve. “We ought to get at the bottom of this thing before it’s too late, and the mischief done. Any player can throw a game, if he’s so minded, and the opportunity comes to him, and mebbe not even be suspected; but as a rule, baseball players are far too honorable to attempt such tricks.”

“It’s a secret over at our house,” Toby went on to say. “My mother happens to know that Doctor Cooper told Mrs. Badger she could be a well woman again if only she went to a hospital in the city, and submitted to an operation at the hands of a noted surgeon he recommended. But they are poor, you know, boys, and it’s next to impossible for them to ever think of raising the three hundred dollars the operation would cost. She told my mother Fred was making himself fairly sick over his inability to do something to earn that big sum. So you see the poor chap has had plenty of reason for looking glum lately.”

“I knew nothing about Fred’s mother being sick,” Jack admitted; “and I’m sorry to learn it now; but don’t you see, your explanation only seems to make matters all the blacker for him, Toby?”

“Why, how can that be, Jack?”

“Only this, that while Fred might never be bribed to listen to any scheme to throw the game in favor of Harmony, on his own account, the tempting bait of three hundred dollars might win him over now, because of his love for his mother.”

“But, Jack, however could he explain where he got so much money?” cried Steve. “It would come out, and he’d be called on for an explanation. Even his mother would refuse to touch a cent dishonestly gained, though she died for it. Why, Fred would be crazy to think he could get away with such a game.”

“Still, he might be blind to that fact,” Jack explained. “The one thing before his eyes would be that he could pick up the money so sorely needed, and for which he might even be tempted to barter his honor. All sorts of explanations could be made up to tell where he got the cash. But there’s even something more than that to make matters look bad for Fred.”

“As what, Jack?” begged Toby, breathlessly.

“Just day before yesterday,” the other continued, “I chanced to pass along over yonder, and glancing across saw Fred sitting on this very bench. He was so busy talking with a man that he never noticed me. That man was a stranger in Chester, at least I had never seen him before. Yes, and somehow it struck me there was a bit of a sporty look about his appearance!”

“Gee whiz! the plot thickens, and that does look black for Fred, I must say,” grunted Toby, aghast.

“I was interested to the extent of hanging around to watch them further,” Jack went on to say, “and for half an hour they continued to sit here, all the while talking. I thought the sporty stranger glanced around a number of times, as though he didn’t want any one to overhear a word of what he was saying. He seemed to have a paper of some sort, too, which I saw Fred signing. I wondered then if he could be such a simpleton as to attach his name to any dishonorable deal; but sometimes even the sharpest fellow shows a weak point. Now I know that Fred must be fairly wild to get hold of a certain sum of money, it makes me more afraid than ever he is pledged to toss away the game, if it looks as though Chester is going to win out on a close margin.”

“Then we ought to drop Fred out, and take our medicine with another man on third,” proposed Steve, hotly.

“I’d do that in a minute, and take no chances of foul play,” said Jack, “if only we knew of anybody capable of filling his shoes. If Harmony knows a weak player covers third bag, they’ll make all their plays revolve around him,