SHALLEG'S DOWNFALL
Plans to capture Shalleg and his cronies were carefully made, but were
unsuccessful, for, it appeared, the scoundrel and his cronies had fled
after putting Joe into the boat.
The moving picture people readily agreed to keep silent about the
affair, and Manager Watson said he would explain Joe's absence from the
game in a way that would disarm suspicion.
Joe soon recovered from his unpleasant and dangerous experience and,
true to his promise, used his influence to induce Mr. Watson to play an
exhibition game for the moving picture people.
"Of course we'll do it!" the manager exclaimed. "That would be small pay
for what they did for you. I'll see if we can't play the Phillies right
here. Of course it will have to be arranged with the high moguls, but I
guess it can be."
And it was. The game was not to count in the series, for some changes
and new rules had to be adopted to make it possible to get it within the
scope of the moving picture cameras. And the picture managers agreed to
pay a sum that made it worth while for the players, Joe included, to put
up a good game of ball.
To his delight Joe was selected to pitch for his side, and fully himself
again, he "put up a corking good game," to quote his friend Rad.
"Well, I'm not sorry to be leaving Philadelphia," remarked Joe to Rad,
when their engagement in the Quaker City was over, and they were to go
on to Brooklyn. "I always have a feeling that Shalleg will show up
again."
"I only wish he would!" exclaimed Rad.
"I don't!" said Joe, quickly.
"I mean and be captured," his chum added, quickly.
"Oh, that's different," laughed Joe.
Taking three of the four games from the Superbas, two of them on the
same day, in a double-header, the St. Louis team added to their own
prestige, and, incidentally, to their standing in the league, gaining
fourth place.
"I think we have a good chance of landing third place," the manager
exulted when they started West. They were to play Chicago in their home
town, then work their way to New York for a final set-to with the
Giants, and end the season on Robison Field.
And in St. Louis something happened that, for a long time, took Shalleg
out of Joe's path.
The first game with Chicago had been a hard one, but by dint of hard
work, and good pitching (Joe going in at the fourth inning to replace
Barter), the Cardinals won.
"And we'll do the same to-morrow," good-naturedly boasted Manager
Watson, to Mr. Mandell of the Cubs.
"Well, maybe you will, but I have a good chance to put it all over you,"
said the Chicago manager, and there was that in his manner which caused
Mr. Watson to ask quickly:
"What do you mean?"
"Just this. How much chance do you think you'd have to win if our men
knew your battery signals?"
"Not much, of course, but the thing is impossible!"
"Is it?" asked the other, quietly. "Not so impossible as you suppose. I
have just received an offer to have the signals disclosed to me before
the game to-morrow."
"By whom?" cried Manager Watson. "If any of my players is trying to
throw the team----"
"Go easy," advised the other with a smile. "It's nothing like that. The
offer came from a man, who, I understand, tried unsuccessfully to become
a member of the Cardinals."
"Not Shalleg!"
"That's who it was."
"Where can I get him?" asked Mr. Watson, eagerly. "He's wanted on a good
deal more serious charge than that. Where can I get him?"
"I thought you might want to see him," said the Chicago manager, "so I
put him off. I've made an appointment with him----"
"Which the police and I will keep!" interrupted Mr. Watson.
"Perhaps that would be better," agreed Mr. Mandell.
So the plot for the downfall of Shalleg was laid. It appeared that he
had come back to St. Louis, and, by dint of careful watching, and by his
knowledge of the game, he had managed to steal the signal system used
between the Cardinal pitchers and catchers. This he proposed disclosing
to the Chicago team, but of course the manager would have nothing to do
with the scheme.
Shalleg had named a low resort for the transfer of the information he
possessed, he to receive in exchange a sum of money. He was in desperate
straits, it appeared.
The Cubs' manager, Joe and Mr. Watson, with a detective, went to the
appointed meeting place. The manager went in alone, but the others were
hiding, in readiness to enter at a signal.
"Did you bring the money?" asked Shalleg, eagerly, as he saw the man
with whom he hoped to make a criminal "deal."
"I have the money, yes," was the cool answer. "Are you prepared to
disclose to me the Cardinal battery signals?"
"Yes, but don't speak so loud, someone might hear you!" whined Shalleg.
"That's just what I want!" cried the manager in loud tones, and that was
the signal for the officer to come in. He, Joe and Mr. Watson had heard
enough to convict Shalleg.
"Ha! A trap!" cried the released player, as he saw them close in on him.
He made a dash to get away, but, after a brief struggle, the detective
overpowered him, for Shalleg's manner of life was not such as to make
him a fighter.
He saw that it was no use to bluff and bluster, and, his nerve
completely gone, he made a full confession.
After his unsuccessful attempt to borrow money of Joe, he really became
imbued with the idea that our hero had injured him, and was spreading
false reports about him. So he set out to revenge himself on Joe.
It was Shalleg who induced Wessel to pick a quarrel with Joe, hoping to
disable the pitcher so he could not play ball that season. It was a mean
revenge to plot. And it was Shalleg's idea, in luring Joe to the lonely
house, on the plea of helping Rad, to involve him in a fight that might
disable, or disgrace, him so that he would have to resign from the
Cardinals. Likewise it was a tool of Shalleg's who kept track of Joe,
who boarded the same car as did our hero, and who so cruelly twisted his
arm, hoping to put him out of the game.
Shalleg denied having induced Wessel to enter Joe's room that night in
question, but his denial can be taken for what it was worth. As to
Weasel's object, it could only be guessed at. It may have been robbery,
or some worse crime.
And then, when all else failed, Shalleg tried the desperate plan of
kidnapping Joe, but, as he explained, he did not really intend bodily
harm. And perhaps he did not. He was a weak and criminally bad man, but
perhaps there was a limit.
"Well, this is the end!" the former ball player said, bitterly, as he
was handcuffed, and led away. "I might have known better."
Some time afterward, when the ball season had closed, Shalleg was tried
on the charge of mistreating Joe, and was convicted, being sentenced to
a long term. His cronies were not caught, but as they were only tools
for Shalleg no one cared very much whether or not they were punished.