s and
perils which lay ahead of them.

CHAPTER XVI

PUTTING THEM OVER

As the two baseball players sauntered down the corridor after supper they
chanced upon Iredell. He was sitting at a reading table, intent upon a
letter which had attached to it what looked like an official document of
some kind.

It was a chance for which Joe had been looking, and he gave Jim a sign to
go on while he himself dropped into a seat beside the famous shortstop.

"How are you, Dell, old boy?" he said, genially.

"Able to sit up and take nourishment," replied the other, at the same time
thrusting the document into his pocket with what seemed like unnecessary
haste.

"Most of the boys are that way," laughed Joe. "There are just two things
that every ball player is ready to do, take nourishment and nag the
umpire."

Iredell laughed as he bit off the end of a cigar.

"That poor umpire got his this afternoon," he said. "With McRae on one
side and Everett on the other I thought he'd be pulled to pieces."

"He was sure up against a hard proposition," agreed Joe. "The next hardest
was in a play that happened when I was on the Pittston team. A fellow
poled out a hit that went down like a shot between left and center. A lot
of carriages were parked at the end of the field and a big coach dog ran
after the ball, got it in his mouth and skipped down among the carriages
where the fielders couldn't get at him. It would have doubled you up to
have seen them coaxing the brute to be a good dog and give the ball up. In
the meantime, the batter was tearing around the bases and made home before
the ball got back."

"And how did his Umps decide it?" asked Iredell, with interest.

"He was flabbergasted for a while," replied Joe, "but he finally called it
a two-base hit and let it go at that."

"An umpire's life is not a happy one," laughed Iredell. "He earns every
dollar that he gets. I suppose that's what some of us fellows will be
doing, too, when we begin to go back."

"It will be a good while before you come to that, Dell," Joe replied.
"You've played a rattling game at short this year, and you're a fixture
with the Giants."

"I don't know about that," said the shortstop slowly. "Fixtures sometimes
work loose, you know."

"It won't be so in this case," said Joe, purposely misunderstanding him.
"McRae wouldn't let go of you."

"Not if he could help it," responded Iredell.

"Well, he doesn't have to worry about that just yet,"