The other shook his head.
“No, thanks. What I’ve got to say will take but a minute,” he answered calmly.
[CHAPTER V]
AN ENCOUNTER IN THE YARD
“Oh,” said Joe, vaguely, “all right.” He wondered, rather uncomfortably, what was coming.
“It’s just this,” Jack continued. “I tried to get a word with you in the cage, but there was always some one around. I wanted to know if—if after what happened the other day at the river, you have any objection to my trying for the nine. You see,” he went on, hurriedly, “I know what the fellows call me, and I thought maybe you’d rather I didn’t come out. You just tell me, you know, and it’ll be all right. I won’t show up again.”
“I see,” said Joe. “No, I haven’t the least objection; in fact, I’m glad to have you. I don’t pretend to judge that—affair at the river, Weatherby; it’s none of my business. And the fact is, I want every man that can play baseball to report for practise. That’s plain, isn’t it?”
“Yes. I’ll keep on then for the present.”