“Yes, do come,” urged Mabel.
“All right,” agreed Joe. “But I’ll have to be back soon. No telling which one of us Gregory will call on to pitch.”
“Oh, I’ll get you back in time,” promised Reggie.
So Joe, with the permission of Gregory, who warned him not to be late, started off for an auto ride.
They went for some distance into the beautiful country and Joe was beginning to feel in fit condition to pitch a great game. As they passed through one small town, Joe looked at the clock in a jeweler’s window. Then he glanced at his watch.
“I say!” he cried in dismay. “Either my watch is slow, or that clock is fast. Why, I haven’t time enough to get back to play! What time have you, Reggie?”
“My watch has stopped. But we can ask the jeweler if his time is right.”
It was, as Joe learned to his dismay. They had been going by his watch, and now it developed that it was nearly an hour slow!
“Jove! If I should be late!” cried the young pitcher in a panic of apprehension.