A SECRET MEETING
At nine o’clock that night, Bob Hutchinson, smoking, stood on the steps
of the Central Hotel, in Kingsbridge, and waited. Presently two men,
one stout and heavy, the other slender and quickstepping, came round
the nearest corner, and hurried toward the steps. “Well, here he is!”
muttered Hutchinson, recognizing the heavy man as Riley.
“Hist!” breathed the Bancroft manager, as he puffed up the steps.
“’Fraid you wouldn’t be here. Let’s not hang round. Take us up to y’ur
room.”
“Come on,” said Hutchinson, leading the way.
It was not necessary to pass through the hotel office and writing room,
where there were a number of loungers, and some drummers. They mounted
the stairs, and reached Hutchinson’s room without encountering any one.
“Shut the door,” said Riley the moment he was inside. “That was lucky.
Nobody seen us come here.”
“Rather lucky,” agreed the Kingsbridge manager, turning the key in the
lock. “I’d just as lief not have it known that you’re here. I didn’t
want you to come, but you insisted. How’d you get here?”
“Gas wagon.”
“Oh, yes. Where is it?”
“Left it on the outskirts, so’s not to attract attention. Give the
chauffeur orders to drive off an’ come back in an hour.”
“I tried to shut you off from coming when you telephoned, but――”
“I was all ready to start. I’d made up my mind to see ye to-night,
anyhow. Shake hands with Mr. Dyke, Mr. Hutchinson.”
“Very glad to know you, sport,” said Fancy; but he dropped Bob
Hutchinson’s cold hand almost as soon as he touched it. “I think Mike
told you over the phone that I was all right.”
The Kingsbridge manager shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t quite get wise
to his reason for saying that. I presume this is nothing but a social
call?”
“Social blazes!” growled Riley. “Think I’d ride thirty miles at night
just to make a social call, Bob? You know better.”
“If you came for any other purpose,” said Hutchinson, “you should not
have brought company. That’s straight over the pan, Riley.”
“Aw, I tell ye Fancy is trusty; needn’t be afraid of him.”
“I’ve had some experience,” reminded Hutchinson. “You know what I mean.
Are you trying to put me in bad in this town?”
“Not a bit of it.”
“Of course, I know the result of the game to-day raised particular
thunder in Bancroft. It must have made them gnash their teeth.”
“Gnash ’em――you bet!” said Dyke. “There was an awful holler went up.”
“Got anything to drink, Hutch?” asked Riley. “It’s a bit chilly ridin’
to-night.”
“You know I do not drink.”
“Well, you can order up a round for Dyke an’ me.”
“I can, but I won’t. The boy would see you here, and in twenty minutes
the whole town would know it. Sit down, and make yourselves as
comfortable as you can without drinks. Here are cigars.”
Riley accepted one of the weeds, but Dyke chose to smoke a cigarette.
Although they sat down, they plainly were not at ease; there was an
atmosphere of suppressed tension in the room.
“Let’s git right down to cases,” said Riley abruptly. “You know, a
place like Bancroft can’t afford to let a raw, mushroom burg of this
sort beat it out at baseball, or anything else. We’re willin’ the games
should run close, so’s to keep the int’rest up, but we’ve got to feel
all the time that we’ve got somethin’ up our sleeves that’ll land us
sure at the head of the column when the season finishes.”
“Go ahead,” nodded Hutchinson, as the speaker paused. “Don’t mind me.”
“I know you well enough, Hutch,” pursued the Bancroft manager
significantly, “to be dead sure you ain’t goin’ out and tattle
anything I say to you in confidence. Well, our strongest hitters are
left-handers, and that southpaw o’ yourn bothers ’em. Kingsbridge
’u’d like to win the pennant; but, next to winnin’ herself, she’d be
satisfied to keep us from coppin’ it. Havin’ found a pitcher that can
hold us down, she’ll keep him for that express purpose, no matter how
the games with the other teams go. I own up that that pitcher looks
like a nasty stumblin’ block, and we’d like to git him outer our way.”
“We’ve got to do it!” put in Fancy.
Still cautious about his words before Dyke, Hutchinson made no comment.
“Now,” continued Riley, “knowin’ you as I do, Hutch, I decided to talk
it over with ye. Outside of that guy Locke, you’ve got a couple of dead
ones for twirlers. Deever’s arm is on the blink, and Skillings is a
has-been. Playin’ five games a week, as you do, with only one lay-off
besides Sunday, you need three reg’lar dependable pitchers to do the
work.”
“What are you driving at?”
“Just this: To win from Fryeburg and Lakeport, you’ve got to use better
slabmen than Deever or Skillings. Locke is the only one you’ve got, and
so you’ll have to work him in them games. See?”
Hutchinson fancied he saw, but he remained silent.
“Of course,” said Riley, “you’ll make a bluff of workin’ the others,
but the minute things look a bit hazy you’ll yank ’em out and run Locke
in to save the day. Get me?”
“And no man,” murmured Dyke, “can do that much pitchin’ and keep his
flinger in condition to trim Bancroft.”
“I see,” said Hutchinson frostily, “that you _do_ want to put me in bad
here. If I overworked Locke that way I’d have the whole town howling
like mad dogs. Already I’ve had instructions from old Cope to save the
youngster for Bancroft.”
“But you’re manager, ain’t ye?” rasped Riley. “Are you goin’ to run the
team or let an old Reuben like him do it? What did they hire ye for?”
“An inquiry I have put to Cope already.”
“Y’u’re s’posed to know your business. When a game’s goin’ to the bad,
whether you’re playin’ with Bancroft or any other team, it’s up to you
to save it, if ye can, by changin’ pitchers. As I said, Locke’s the
only man you can depend on to win games, so you’ll have to use him.”
“If I should tell them so,” said Hutchinson, “I’d mighty soon get
orders to go out after other pitchers.”
“Where are ye goin’ to get them――now? It’s too late; they’ve all been
gobbled up――all the good ones. And even if you should happen to know of
one that was all right, you wouldn’t _have_ to sign him. You could try
plenty of ’em no better’n Deever and Skillings, able all the time to
explain, if the town kicked, that good pitchers couldn’t be had. What
d’ye say?”
“I’m not saying a word,” replied Hutchinson, with another glance in
Dyke’s direction.
In a way, although it was far from satisfactory, Riley accepted this
as a tacit agreement to his proposal.
“I’d like to know,” he growled, after drawing hard at his cigar, “where
old man Cope ever found that fellow, anyhow.”
“You’re not the only person who is curious about it,” said the
Kingsbridge manager. “One chap seems to think he knows. A young fellow
by the name of King came to me about Locke. He’s got an idea in his nut
that the boy is a Princeton pitcher by the name of Hazelton.”
Riley started as if shot, almost dropping his cigar.
“What’s that?” he cried. “Hazelton, of Princeton? Great smoke! It can’t
be possible!”
“Why not? I should say the youngster is a college man.”
The manager of the Bancroft Bullies gave his thigh a resounding slap.
“Great smoke!” he exclaimed again. “If that’s right, that old rat Cope
beat me to it. Why, I made a proposal to Paul Hazelton myself.”
“You did?”
“Sure. Biff Durgin, scout for the Phillies, told me about that kid last
December; said he was a sure-enough comer. I wrote Hazelton a letter.”
“Then,” said Dyke quickly, “accordin’ to the rules of the league, you
had the call on this Hazelton, in a way. If Locke is the same guy,
you’ve got somethin’ on Cope, and you can make some disturbance about
it.”
Riley lifted himself to his feet, pulling out his watch and looking at
it.
“Twenty-five minutes after,” he said. “What time do the stores close
here? I might be able to catch the old fox in his den.”
“Go for him,” urged Fancy Dyke. “That’s the stuff! If there’s a chance
to do it, it’s up to you to protest Locke. If you can’t take him away
from the Kinks, mebbe you can stop him from pitchin’ in the league, and
that would do the business. Shall I come along?”
“You may as well. If this thing really comes to a meetin’ to decide
on a protest, I may need a witness to the conversation that’ll pass
between Cope and me to-night.”
Hutchinson was on his feet. “Gentlemen,” he said, “I presume it’s fully
understood that my name is not to be mentioned in the matter. You’ll
say nothing of your visit to me?”
“Aw, sure not,” promised Riley. “We’re not lookin’ to get you fired;
we would ruther see you stay right here as manager of the Kinks. Don’t
worry, Hutch; it’s all right. Let’s hike, Fancy.”