“It was a case of where I had to make it,” said Joe. “Anyway, I think I could have hoisted it a little higher if I’d had to. You can never tell what you can do till you try. But now tell me how you happened to get in that place. I’ll bet they had a scrimmage before they persuaded you to make them a visit.”
“Well, I can’t claim much of a battle, at that,” confessed Jim. “I trailed you to that house on the West Side, and I was trying to think up a plan to get inside when a big automobile came along and stopped right near me. I didn’t think much of it, but the next thing I knew a crowd of six or seven rascals landed on my devoted head and I went down for the count. They carried me over to that joint near the East River, and locked me in a little room on the top floor. I’d have had to be a human fly to get out, and I guess they thought they had me safely cooped up.”
“Did they want you to sign a framed-up paper that would have run you out of the game?” asked Joe. “That’s what they handed me.”
“That was the idea, all right,” replied his friend. “Of course I refused, and then they told me I could starve until I came around to their terms. I haven’t had anything to eat in twenty-four hours, and, believe me, a nice beefsteak would be mighty easy to take.”
“Good night!” exclaimed Joe. “Why didn’t you get something before we got on the sub train? They don’t run dining cars on this line.”
“I guess I was too excited to think about it,” said Jim. “I’m getting more starved every second, though. Let’s get off at the next station and hunt up a restaurant.”
“Fine! I could take a little nourishment myself,” said Joe, and at the next station they proceeded to put this plan into effect.
While Jim was ordering a meal that made the waiter gasp, Joe slipped out to a telephone and got McRae on the wire. The delight and excitement of the manager was manifest over the wire, and Joe promised to report with Jim as soon as they had eaten.
When he got back to the table Jim, unable to await his coming, had already started, and Joe was treated to an unusual exhibition of eating. His friend finished one large steak and called for another. The waiter looked scandalized, but he filled the order nevertheless.
When Jim at last finished and leaned back to drink a cup of black coffee, Joe solemnly extended his hand across the table.