agerly talking about the game, he saw, just ahead of him in the
crowd of spectators a figure, at the sight of which he started.

"That looks like Shalleg," he said, half aloud.

"What's that?" asked Rad.

"Oh, nothing. I just thought I saw someone I knew. That is, I don't
exactly know him, but----"

At that moment the man at whose back Joe had been looking turned
suddenly, and, to our hero's surprise, it was Shalleg. The man, with an
impudent grin on his face, spoke to a companion loudly enough for Joe to
hear.

"There's the fellow who wouldn't help me out!" Shalleg exclaimed. "He
turned me down cold. Look at him."

The other turned, and Joe's surprise was heightened when he saw Wessel,
the man who had tried to quarrel with him, and who had "jumped" his bill
at the hotel.

"Oh, I know him all right," Wessel responded to Shalleg. "I've seen him
before."

Joe and Rad, with the two men, were comparatively alone now. The
attitude and words of the fellows were so insulting that Joe almost made
up his mind to defy them. But before he had a chance to do so Shalleg
snapped out:

"You want to look out for yourself, young man. I'll get you yet, and
I'll get even with you for having me turned down. You want to look out.
Bill Shalleg is a bad man to have for an enemy. Come on, Ike," and with
that they turned away and were soon lost in the throng.

CHAPTER XVI

JOE'S TRIUMPH

"Well, what do you know about that?" cried Rad, with a queer look at
Joe.

"I don't know what to think about it, and that's the truth," was the
simple but puzzled answer.

"But who are they--what do they mean? The idea of them threatening you
that way! Why, that's against the law!"

"Maybe it is," agreed Joe. "As for who those men are, you know Wessel,
of course."

"Yes. The fellow who jumped his board bill at the hotel. Say, I guess
the proprietor would like to see him. He has nerve coming back to this
town. I've a good notion to tell the hotel clerk he's here. Mr. Watson
would be glad to know it, too, for he takes it as a reflection on the
team that Wessel should claim to be one of us, and then cheat the way he
did."

"Maybe it would be a good plan to tell on him," agreed Joe.

"And who's the other chap, and why did he threaten you?" his chum asked.

"That's another queer thing," the young pitcher went on. "He's angry at
me, as near as I can tell, because I had to refuse him a loan," and he
detailed the circumstances of his