“Hope you get your wish, June! You don’t happen to own a rabbit’s foot, do you? One of the lucky sort, I mean.”
“No, sir, I ain’ got no rabbit’s foot, but you-all’s goin’ win today, Mister Milburn, yes, sir! I goin’ put a conjur on that yere game!”
“You and your conjurs!” laughed the other. “We’ll see, though, and if we don’t win—well, you’d better keep out of my reach, boy.”
“Yes, sir,” chuckled June from the doorway, “if we don’ win I’m goin’ give you the whole sidewalk!”
June, however, had no chance to give Mr. Milburn’s message to Wayne, for Wayne did not come around to the hotel and June’s duties prevented him from seeking him at noon hour. June got his dinners at the hotel, which meant a saving of thirty cents a day, but he wasn’t allowed much time to eat them in. Consequently it was with the intention of walking boldly past Mike, the gate-man, that Wayne started out for the field that afternoon. Yesterday’s close contest, and the fact that today’s encounter was the last with the Damascus club at Harrisville until after the home team’s swing around the circle which began next week, had combined to awaken a more than usual amount of interest in the afternoon’s game and the cars that buzzed and clanged their way past Wayne were filled to the running-boards. It was evident that the attendance at the park today would assume holiday proportions, and, too, that the railway company had, in spite of extra cars, failed to accommodate all who wanted to ride. Wayne had started early, hoping to get there about the time the players went in and trusting to the good offices of “Red” Herring or some other acquaintance to gain him admittance should Mike prove obdurate, but the players had passed him long ago in their car and it lacked but twenty minutes of starting time when he got within distant sight of the park.
It was then that he noticed that the trolley cars were blocked somewhere ahead. The passengers were jumping off and starting the rest of the journey afoot, but Wayne thought nothing of it until the imperative clang of an ambulance bell sounded on his ears and he turned to watch the vehicle dash hurriedly past, scattering pedestrians to right and left. Before Wayne had covered the next two squares, the ambulance passed again, speeding now in the direction of town, with a white-garbed doctor swaying on the steps.
“Reckon someone got smashed up,” reflected Wayne, walking a little faster. The folks about him were audibly conjecturing on the accident but no one seemed to know anything about it, and it was not until Wayne had reached the corner of an intersecting street a square from the ball grounds that he learned the facts. The brakes on one of the cars had failed to work and, since there was a down-grade just here, it had crashed into the rear of a car ahead. The two cars were there for evidence, both badly crushed as to vestibules. A motorman and two passengers had been badly injured, Wayne heard, but no one had been killed. Several others had been shaken up, but, as Wayne’s informant added, with a smile, they had gone on into the ball game and so probably weren’t dangerously injured! That reminded Wayne of his own purpose and, after pushing his way forward for a curious view of the damaged cars, he hurried on again and sought the players’ gate. By now he had determined to see the game in any event. After walking all the way from town in the hot sun it would be silly to turn back, he told himself, and he jingled the few coins in his pocket reassuringly.
The door in the high fence was closed but yielded readily to pressure and Wayne, looking as nonchalant as he knew how, stepped inside. Mike was standing a few yards away, talking with one of the ground-keepers and didn’t turn until he heard the creaking of the door as it went shut on its rusty hinges. When he did turn, though, Wayne saw an expression of lively interest on his face and paused irresolutely, so certain was he that Mike meant to deny him admittance. But Mike’s greeting was startlingly different from what Wayne expected. The door tender took a step toward him and jerked an impatient thumb over his shoulder.
“Hurry up an’ get in there,” he said. “The boss is lookin’ for you!”