“Now,” said McRae, whose own knuckles had done valiant work in the scrap, “we’ve got you fellows exactly where we want you. All of you ought to be sent up the river and put behind bars where the dogs can’t bite you. But I’m not going to turn you over to the police.”
There was a stir of relief among the prisoners at this.
“I’m going to stop your dirty schemes for once and for all where baseball is concerned,” went on McRae, producing a paper. “I got this ready this afternoon on the chance of copping you scoundrels to-night. And every one of you is going to sign it, or I’ll have you beaten to a frazzle on the spot.”
While the rascals glared at him sullenly he read the paper. It acknowledged that the signers had kidnaped Joe and Jim; that they had hired thugs to do them great harm; that they had paid ball players to throw games; and that they had done these things to win large sums of money that they had bet against the Giants.
The fat man who had been Joe’s captor started forward with a yell to protest, but Larry smashed him straight between the eyes and he staggered back, cowed and wilted.
The object lesson was effective, and all of the rascals signed, except Hupft and McCarney, who were not required to affix their names.
“Now,” said McRae, as he folded the signed document and put it in his pocket, “that puts a brand on the whole lot of you. The least move on your part and I’ll make this public and you’ll be in jail within twenty-four hours.
“As for you traitors,” he added, turning to Hupft and McCarney, a look of utter contempt in his eyes, “there’s no need of telling you you’re fired. Your names are a stench in the nostrils of decent ball players, and I’ll see that you never play in the ranks of organized baseball again. You’re on the blacklist forever. And I’ll see that Lemblow gets the same medicine. Now go while the going’s good.”
They slunk out, and none of the Giants ever saw their faces again.
“Now we’ve done our work and we’re going,” concluded McRae, as he turned to the crooked baseball gamblers. “Remember, one word from you, one dirty trick, and it will be curtains for you.”