“Nonsense!” protested Jim. “What puts such an idea as that in your head? Why should you play better on the Pirates’ field than on your own?”
“Does seem rather foolish, doesn’t it?” admitted Joe. “But I’ve had an odd feeling that a jinx was hovering over me in New York. I’ve felt that way for weeks past. That old arm of mine wouldn’t behave. I lost games that I ought to have won, and even when I did get by, it was largely a matter of luck and the poor playing of the other fellows. You know that as well as I do.”
“I knew that you weren’t yourself,” said Jim. “But I just put it down to overwork.”
“It was more than that,” asserted Joe. “I’ve worked just as hard in other years and my arm has never gone back on me. This time, though, the old wing just went on strike. No apparent reason for it. It just quit.”
“Well, it came back gloriously to-day,” said Jim, with infinite relief.
“I had a hunch it would when I was warming up, and that’s the reason I asked McRae to let me pitch to-day. It’s been feeling more and more like itself ever since I left New York. By and by, if this keeps on, they’ll be saying that I’m all right on the road, but no good at home.”
“No danger of that,” asserted Jim. “Now that your arm’s come back, all grounds will look alike to you.”
The sudden comeback of Joe, apart from his own achievements in the box and on the field, put new life into the Giant team. The pall of depression that had been resting on them was swept away as in a moment. The real class of the team came to the front.
For the rest of that western trip they were like a team of runaway horses that could not be stopped. The other members of the pitching staff took on a new lease of life. Everybody was on the rampage.
When they had come into Pittsburgh they would have been glad enough to get an even break. As a matter of fact, they swept the whole four games into their bat bags and moved on to Cincinnati with the intent of giving the same medicine to the Reds. This they did not quite succeed in doing, as Bradley faltered in one of the games, but they took the other three by a substantial margin.