“It’s a burning outrage,” cried Denton indignantly.
“What they expect to make out of it is beyond me,” declared Robbie. “They ought to know that they can’t get away with it.”
“But in the meantime it will have done its work,” Willis pointed out. “What if it is contradicted later on? By that time they’ll have a dozen stars signed and they should worry. As long as it’s believed that Joe has jumped, it’s just as good for them as though he had.”
“That’s the worst of it,” agreed Joe bitterly. “Of course I’ll send a cable contradicting it, but the lie has got a head start and a lot of damage has been done. What do you suppose my friends in America are thinking about me just now?”
“Don’t worry about that, Joe,” comforted Jim. “Your real friends won’t believe it, and for the rest it doesn’t matter. Nobody that really knows you believes you would jump your contract.”
“Whoever got that story up was foxy, though,” commented Mylert, the burly catcher of the Giants. “There are no ‘ifs or ands’ about it like most phony stories where the fellow’s trying to hedge in case someone comes back at him. It sounds like straight goods. It’s the most truthful looking lie I ever saw.”
“But it’s a lie just the same!” cried Joe 204 desperately. “All you fellows know I wouldn’t throw the Giants down, don’t you?” he asked, as his eyes swept the circle of fellow players who were gathered around him.
There was a murmur of assent, but it was not as hearty as Joe could have wished. If there was not distrust, there was at least bewilderment, for the story bore all the earmarks of truth.
“You know it, don’t you, Mac?” repeated Joe, this time addressing directly the Giant leader.
For a fraction of a second McRae hesitated. Then he threw doubt to the winds and gripped Joe’s hand with a heartiness that warmed the latter’s heart.