“Give it a ride!”
“Show them where you live!”
Rance looked Joe over with exceeding care. At that juncture he would rather have had any other man in the league facing him.
“Sizing me up, Dizzy?” asked Baseball Joe, with a grin. “Don’t you know it’s impolite to stare at a man that way? It makes me feel as though I were a suspicious character.”
“You won’t feel so gay when I strike you out,” retorted Rance as he took up his position in the box. But Rance’s grin was a little forced.
“I would have a queer feeling,” admitted Joe, “for you’ve never done it yet and I don’t know just how it would seem.”
Rance shot one over that would surely have caught Joe full in the head if he had not dropped like a flash to the ground.
“Trying to bean me?” he inquired, as he picked up his bat and resumed his position.
“Sorry,” said Rance, with evident sincerity.
“That’s all right, old man,” said Joe, who knew that Rance never resorted to dirty tricks. “But now give me a good one and I’ll lose it for you.”