“Let’s send some of the stuff to a chemist and have it analyzed,” suggested Jim.
“No,” objected Joe, “that wouldn’t do any good. The thing would be apt to get into the papers, and that’s the very thing we mustn’t let happen for the sake of the folks at home. We know enough about the stuff to be sure that it was doctored in some way. Everything about the incident tells of crookedness. Fleming was probably the master hand, although he may have simply been the tool of Braxton. Those fellows are running up a heavy account, and some day I hope we’ll get the goods on them. We’ll just dump the stuff out so that nobody else will be injured. Then we’ll lay low but keep our eyes open. It’s all that we can do.”
“Gee, that was one dandy homer, Joe,” said the catcher some time later.
“Best ever,” added the first baseman.
“Oh, I don’t know,” answered the young ball player modestly. “I think I have done better. But it was great to carry it along to eleven innings,” he added, with a smile.
“That tenth had me almost going,” said the shortstop. “We came close to spilling the beans,” and he shook his head seriously.
“Well, ‘all’s well that ends well,’ as Socrates said to General Grant,” and Joe grinned.
From Chicago the Giants jumped to St. Louis, where, despite the stiffest kind of resistance, they took three games out of four. They were not quite as successful in Cincinnati, where the best they could get was an even break. The Reds saw a chance to come in third, in which case they would have a share in the World Series money, and they were showing the best ball that they had played all season. The Giants had all they could do to nose them out in the last game, which went to eleven innings and was only won by a home run by Joe in the wind-up.
Seven games out of twelve for a team on the road was not bad, but it would have been worse if the Pirates, in the meantime, had not also had a rocky road to travel. The Brooklyns had helped their friends across the bridge by taking the Pittsburghs into camp to the tune of three games out of four and the Bostons had broken even. With the Phillies, however, the Pirates had made a clean sweep of the four games. So when the Giants faced their most formidable foes, they still had the lead of four games with which they had begun their Western trip.
This, of course, gave the Giants the edge on their rivals. The Pittsburghs would have to win the whole four games to draw up on even terms with the leaders. In that case a deciding game would be necessary to break the tie. On the other hand all the Giants had to do was to win one game of the four and they would have the championship cinched. And that they would do at least that seemed almost a certainty.