“It looks that way,” said the manager grimly. “He went in search of you the day following your disappearance, and nobody’s seen nor heard from him since.”
This news came as a terrible blow to Joe and put a damper on his happiness at his own escape. But he resolved to hunt for his missing friend right away.
This was not so easy, however, as news of his arrival had gone out on to the field and spread to grandstand and bleachers, where the greatest excitement prevailed. Joe had to go out and show himself, whereupon the fans rose and gave him a greeting that any one might have been proud to receive as a tribute. They all wanted Joe to pitch the game that afternoon, but McRae would not hear of it.
“After what you’ve been through, Matson, you need a good rest before you’ll be ready to pitch again. Take the afternoon off, and forget about baseball for that length of time.”
[CHAPTER XXV]
DOWN THE ROPE
It was not easy for Joe to “forget about baseball,” but the thought of his chum in captivity, perhaps as bad as that from which he himself had just escaped, did much to take his mind from the game that he loved so well.
How was he to find out where Jim was held captive? New York is a tremendously big city, and Joe had not the faintest clue on which to work. McCarney would be likely to know something about it, Joe thought, but if he did there was little hope of getting the information out of him.
Joe decided that the first step would be to go to his hotel, get a bath and put on some respectable clothes before starting the hunt for Jim. The clothes he had on were torn and bedraggled, and when he caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror he realized that he looked more like a tramp than the spruce star pitcher of the New York Giants.