Mabel leaned forward suddenly, her troubled eyes on Clara.
“What do you mean?” she asked, but a roar from the crowd drowned Clara’s answer.
“I’ll tell you later,” she shouted above the tumult of cheers and whistles and turned once more to watch the game.
[CHAPTER VIII]
A BLACK CONSPIRACY
During the game Joe wondered once or twice what Clara’s sudden interest in McCarney meant. His pretty sister was so deeply in love with Jim that it seemed almost impossible for her even to see another man. Yet here she was, calling attention to McCarney——
At this point a spectacular play elicited a mighty roar from the grandstand, and Joe forgot everything but his interest in the game.
He had been back and forth several times from the bleachers to the grandstand and now, with a murmured word to Mabel, he slipped away again.
He wanted to get closer to the field where he could watch the work of Reddy Hupft, and of McCarney, too. The two men were apparently playing good ball, and yet, to his experienced eye, there was something queer about their game. Even while he reproached himself for letting his imagination run away with him, his eyes narrowed and his mouth grew grim.