“Well, I might have had an off day and gotten knocked out of the box, so maybe it was a lucky thing for the team that I wasn’t there,” said Joe.
“I’ll take a chance on you any time, old scout,” declared Jim. “But here we are at the old hangout, and make out our lady clerk won’t be surprised to see us come walking in together.”
The interested woman was surprised, indeed, and delighted as well. She fairly deluged them with questions, which they answered as well as they could. McRae had warned them to keep their experiences to themselves, for a while, at least, but they told the clerk as much as they could and evaded the other questions. At last they succeeded in satisfying her curiosity to some extent, and went on upstairs to their rooms. Their bathroom was equipped with a shower bath, and they fairly reveled in this. Then, when each had donned a complete set of fresh clothing, they felt almost “one hundred per cent efficient,” as Jim put it, although his hands still bothered him a good deal.
“You’ll have to take my turn at pitching as well as your own, Joe,” he said ruefully. “I’m afraid I shan’t be able to handle a ball for a week, at least.”
“Well, I’m the boy that can do it,” said his friend confidently. “I feel as though I could pitch a double header right now and never be any the worse for it. It’s one of my ambitions to do it some day, too.”
“It looks as though you might have the chance, all right,” remarked Jim. “But there’s somebody at the door. Let him in, Joe; you’re nearest to it.”
Joe did so, and they were both delighted to see Larry Barrett standing on the threshold. He rushed in, delighted at seeing them, and they all shook hands joyously.
“Glory be, but it’s glad Oi am to see you both again!” he exclaimed. “Shure, an’ we thought you’d both been bumped off, fur good, when ye neither one showed up for practice. Phwat in the name of all that’s good have ye been doin’ wid yerselves?”
“Oh, just off on a little vacation,” said Jim, airily. “It looked at one time as though it might turn into a permanent one, but they say ‘only the good die young,’ and that probably explains why we’re still decorating the landscape.”
“It’s happy Oi am that ye’re both back,” said the jovial Irishman. “Shure, an’ the Giants would soon have been in the cellar position if ye hadn’t got back pretty soon.”