Joe Matson had won prizes in other fields than baseball. He had saved a charming girl, Mabel Varley, from serious accident in a runaway, and the acquaintance so romantically begun had ripened into a deeper feeling that led them to the altar. Their married life was ideal.
Joe’s pretty sister, Clara, had been introduced by him to Jim Barclay, a Princeton man, who was also a pitcher on the Giant team and second only to Joe himself in skill. The young folks had fallen in love and had been married at the end of the season just preceding the opening of this story.
How Joe had been made captain of the Giants when they were in a slump, how he brought them out of it and led them to victory, how he thwarted the attempts of enemies to overcome him, are told in the preceding volume entitled: “Baseball Joe, Captain of the Team; or, Bitter Struggles on the Diamond.”
And now to return to Joe as he sought to control his reeling brain after his escape with the woman from the burning house.
“Are you badly hurt, old man?” asked Jim, in a voice husky with emotion.
“I guess not,” gasped Joe. “I feel pretty well done up and I’m blistered in various places, but nothing of any account. I’ll be all right as soon as I can get my breath back. How’s the woman getting on?”
“They’re attending to her now,” replied Jim, pointing to a doctor and a woman who were ministering to her on the grass a little distance away. “The fright has probably hurt her worse than anything else. You had that coat of yours wound so tightly over her head and shoulders that she couldn’t have got burned much.”
At this moment the doctor rose and came over to Joe and Jim. His professional air gave way to one of surprise as he looked at the stalwart young hero of the occasion.
“Baseball Joe!” he exclaimed.
“You seem to know me,” remarked Joe, with a smile.