m go."

"You've been white all right," assented Joe warmly. He recalled an
occasion when a muff by a luckless center-fielder had lost a World Series
and fifty thousand dollars for the team, and yet McRae had "stood the
gaff" and never said a word, because he knew the man was trying to do his
best.

"I'm telling this to you, Joe," went on McRae, "because I want you to help
me out. You've proved yourself true blue when you were put to the test. I
know you'll do all you can to hold the boys in the traces. They all like
you and feel that they owe you a lot because it was your pitching that
pulled us through the World's Series. Besides, they'll be more impressed
by what you say than by the talk I'd give them. They figure that I'm the
manager and am only looking after my own interests, and for that reason
what I say has less effect."

"I'll stand by you, Mac," returned Joe, "and help you in any way I can.
Who are the boys that you think are trying to break loose?"

"There are three of them," replied McRae. "Iredell, Curry and Burkett, and
all three of them are stars, as you know as well as I do."

"They're cracks, every one of them," agreed Joe. "And they're among the
last men that I'd suspect of doing anything of the kind. What makes you
think they've been approached?"

"A lot of things," replied McRae. "In the first place, I have noticed that
they are stiff and offish in their manner when I speak to them. Then, too,
I've come across them several times lately with their heads together, and
when they saw me coming they'd break apart and start talking of something
else, as if I had interrupted them. Beside that, all three have struck me
lately for a raise in salary next season."

"That's nothing new for ball players," said Joe, with a smile.

"No," admitted McRae, an answering smile relieving the gravity of his face
for the moment. "And I stand ready of my own accord to give the boys a
substantial increase on last year's pay because of their winning the
pennant. But what these three asked for was beyond all reason, and made me
think there was a nigger in the woodpile. They either had had a big offer
from somebody else and were using that as a club to hold me up with, or
else they were just trying to give themselves a better excuse for
jumping."

"How long do their contracts have to run?" asked Joe.

"Iredell has one year more and Curry and Burkett are signed up for two
years yet," replied the Giants' manager. "Of co