"Dry up! She's coming on to St. Louis."
"She is? Good! Will she see you play?"
"Well, I don't know. It doesn't look as though I was going to get a game—especially against New York."
"Cheer up! There might be something worse."
"Yes, I might have another run-in with Shalleg."
"That's so. Seen anything of him lately?"
"No, but I hear he's been writing letters to Mr. Watson, intimating that if the boss wants to see the team come up out of the subway, Shalleg is the man to help."
"Some nerve; eh?"
"I should say so!"
It was a glorious sunny day, perhaps too hot, but that makes for good baseball, for it limbers up the players. The grandstand and bleachers were rapidly filling, and out on the well-kept diamond of Robison Field the rival teams—the Cardinals and the Giants—were practicing.