"I will."

"It may not reach her, but there's no harm in trying. Meanwhile, I'll get busy on mine to Kennedy. There doesn't seem to be much chance to spike Weegman's guns, but it's worth trying."

Locke had the knack of writing a succinct letter; the one he wrote old Jack was concise, yet it was clear and complete. Within two minutes after opening it, doubtless Kennedy would know as much about the situation as did Lefty himself. Yet it was probable that, like the pitcher, the manager would be mystified by the surprising and seemingly sinister maneuvers of Bailey Weegman.

Following Lefty's advice, Janet wrote to Virginia Collier.

Locke rose early the following morning and posted the letters for the first outward mail. He sent a telegram also. Returning past the Magnolia Hotel, to his surprise he perceived Collier's private secretary sitting on the veranda, smoking. Weegman beamed and chuckled.

"Morning," he cried, waving his cigar between two fingers. "The early bird, eh? Been firing off a little correspondence, I presume.

Our communications will reach Kennedy in the same mail; and I wired him, too. Quite a little jolt for the old man, but it can't be helped. Of course, he'll have the sense to bow gracefully to the inevitable, and that will clear the air. Afterward, perhaps, you may change your mind regarding my offer."

"Perhaps so," returned Lefty pleasantly. "But if I do, I shall be a fit subject for a padded cell." The agreeable look was wiped from Weegman's face as Locke pa.s.sed on.

Some time after breakfast Lefty returned to the Magnolia to learn if Cap'n Wiley and his ball players had arrived. Approaching, he perceived a queer a.s.sortment of strangers lounging on the veranda, and from their appearance he judged that they were members of the team. Many of them looked like old stagers, veterans who had seen better days; some were youthful and raw and inclined to be c.o.c.k-a-hoop. There was a German, an Italian, an Irishman, and a Swede. One was lanky as a starved greyhound, and apparently somewhere near six feet and six inches tall from his heels to his hair roots. Another was short and fat, and looked as if he had been driven together by some one who had hit him over the head with a board.

In a way, these strangers in Fernandon were most remarkable for their attire. With scarcely an exception, the clothes they wore were weird and fantastic samples of sartorial art; various, and nearly all, prevailing freaks of fashion were displayed. With colored shirts, flaring socks, and giddy neckties, they caused all beholders to gasp. They were most amazingly bejeweled and adorned. With difficulty Locke suppressed a smile as his quick eyes surveyed them.

Near the head of the broad steps leading up to the veranda sat a somewhat stocky but exceptionally well-built man of uncertain age.

He was almost as swarthy as an Indian, and his dark eyes were swift and keen and shrewd. His black hair was graying on the temples. His coat and trousers, of extravagant cut, were made from p.r.o.nounced black-and-white-striped material. His fancy waistcoat, b.u.t.toned with a single b.u.t.ton at the bottom, was adorned with large orange-colored figures. His silk socks were red, his four-in-hand necktie was purple, and the band that encircled the straw hat c.o.c.ked rakishly upon his head was green. He was smoking a cigar and pouring a steady flow of words into the ear of Bailey Weegman, who made a pretense of not noticing Locke.

"Yes, mate," he was saying, "old man Breckenridge was the most painfully inconsiderate batter I ever had the misfortune to pitch against. Smoke, curves, twisters, slow b.a.l.l.s, low b.a.l.l.s, and high b.a.l.l.s--they all looked alike to him. Now I have a preference; I prefer a high ball, Scotch and carbonic. But it made no difference to Breck; when he put his fifty-five-ounce ash wand against the pill, said pill made a pilgrimage--it journeyed right away to some land distant and remote and unknown, and it did not stay upon the order of its going.

When it came right down to slugging, compared with old Breck your Home-run Bakers and Honus Wagners and Napoleon Lajoies are puny and faded shines. And he always seemed able to make connections when he desired; if he rambled forth to the dish yearning for a hit, there was no known method by which the most astute and talented pitcher could prevent him from hitting."

"Quite a wonder, I must admit!" laughed Weegman, in high amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Rather strange the Big Leagues didn't get hold of such a marvelous batsman, isn't it?"

"Oh, he was on the roster of some Cla.s.s A team at various times, but he had one drawback that finally sent him away to the remote and uncharted bushes: 'Charley horse' had him in its invidious grip. A spavined snail could beat Breck making the circuit of the sacks, and cross the pan pulled up. Yet, with this handicap, the n.o.ble old slugger held the record for home runs in the Tall Gra.s.s League. Naturally I had heart failure and Angie Pectoris every time I was compelled to face him on the slab. Likewise, naturally I began meditating with great vigor upon a scheme to circ.u.mvent the old terror, and at last my colossal brain concocted a plan that led me to chortle with joy."

"I am deeply interested and curious," declared Weegman, as the narrator paused, puffing complacently at his weed. "Go on."

Locke had stopped near at hand, and was listening. Others were hovering about, their ears open, their faces wreathed in smiles.

"It was a simple matter of scientific knowledge and a little skulduggery," pursued the story-teller obligingly. "I possessed the knowledge, and I bribed the bat boy of old Breck's team to perform the skulduggery. I sent to the factory and had some special baseb.a.l.l.s manufactured for me, and in the heart of each ball was hidden a tiny but powerful magnet. Then I secretly furnished the rascally bat boy with a specially prepared steel rod that would violently repel any magnet that chanced to wander around into the immediate vicinity of the rod. I instructed the boy to bore Breck's pet bat surrept.i.tiously when the shades of night had fallen, insert the steel rod, and then craftily plug the hole. And may I never sail the briny deep again if that little scoundrel didn't carry out my instructions with the skill of a cutthroat, or a diplomat, even! Nature intended him for higher things.

If he isn't hanged some day it won't be his fault.

"Well, the next time old Breck brought his team to play against us upon our field, I used the magnetized baseb.a.l.l.s. I was doing the hurling and in the very first inning the old swatter came up with the sacks charged and two out. He smiled a smile of pity as he bent his baleful glance upon me. 'You'd better walk me, Walter,' says he, 'and force a run; for if you put the spheroid over I'm going to give it a long ride.' I returned his smile with one of the most magnanimous contempt. 'Don't blow up, old boy,' says I. 'With the exception of your batting, you're all in; and I've a notion that your batting eye is becoming dim and hazy. Let's see you hit this.' Then I pa.s.sed him a slow, straight one right over the middle of the rubber. He took a mighty swing at it, meaning to slam it over into the next county. Well, mate, may I be keelhauled if that ball didn't dodge the bat like a scared rabbit! Mind you, I hadn't put a thing on it, but the repulsion of that deneoutronized steel rod hidden in the bat forced the ball to take the handsomest drop you ever beheld, and the violence with which old Breck smote the vacant ozone caused him to spin round and concuss upon the ground when he sat down. It was a tremendous shock to his nervous system, and it filled me with unbounded jubilance; for I knew I had him at my mercy, literally in the hollow of my hand.

"He rose painfully, chagrined and annoyed, but still confident. 'Give me another like that, you little wart!' he ordered savagely, 'and I'll knock the peeling off it.' Beaming, I retorted: 'You couldn't knock the peeling off a prune. Here's what you called for.' And I threw him another slow, straight one.

"Excuse these few tears; the memory of that hallowed occasion makes me cry for joy. He did it again, concussing still more shockingly when he sat down. It was simply an utter impossibility for him to hit that magnetized ball with his doctored bat. But, of course, he didn't know what the matter was; he thought I was fooling him with some sort of a new drop I had discovered. The fact that I was pa.s.sing him the merry cachinnation peeved him vastly. When he got upon his pins and squared away for the third attempt, his face was the most fearsome I ever have gazed upon. He shook his big bat at me. 'One more,' he raged; 'give me one more, and drop flat on your face the moment you pitch the ball, or I'll drive it straight through the meridian of your anatomy!'

"Let me tell you now, mate, that Breck was a gentleman, and that was the first and only time I ever knew him to lose his temper. Under the circ.u.mstances, he was excusable. I put all my nerve-shattering steam into the next pitch, and, instead of dropping, the ball hopped over his bat when he smote at it. I had fanned the mighty Breckenridge, and the wondering crowd lifted their voices in hosannas. Yet I know they regarded it in the nature of an accident, and not until I had whiffed him three times more in the same game did either Breck or the spectators arrive at the conviction that I had something on him.

"After that," said the narrator, as if in conclusion, "I had him eating out of my hand right up to the final and decisive game of the season."

Weegman begged the fanciful romancer to tell what happened in the last game.

"Oh, we won," was the a.s.surance; "but we never would have if Breck had been wise the last time he came to bat. It was in the ninth inning, with the score three to two in our favor, two down, and runners on second and third. Knowing it was Breck's turn to hit, I was confident we had the game sewed up. But the confidence oozed out of me all of a sudden when I saw the big fellow paw the clubs over to select a bat other than his own. Clammy perspiration started forth from every pore of my body. With any other swat stick beside his own, I knew he was practically sure to drive any ball I could pitch him over the fence.

The agony of apprehension which I endured at that moment gave me my first gray hairs.

"Although I did not know it at the time, it chanced that Breck had selected the bat of another player who had had it bored and loaded with an ordinary steel rod. This, you can clearly understand, made it more than doubly certain that he would hit the magnetized ball, which would be attracted instead of repelled. Had I known this, I shouldn't have had the heart to pitch at all.

"As the n.o.ble warrior stood up to the pan, I considered what I could pitch him. Curves could not fool him, and he literally ate speed.

Therefore, without hope, I tossed him up a slow one. Now it chanced that the old boy had decided to try a surprise, having become disheartened by his efforts to slug; he had resolved to attempt to bunt, knowing such a move would be unexpected. So he merely stuck out his bat as the sphere came sailing over. The magnet was attracted by the steel rod, and the ball just jumped at the bat, against which it struck--and stuck! I hope never to tell the truth again, mate, if I'm not stating a simple, unadulterated, unvarnished fact. The moment the ball touched the bat it stuck fast to it as if nailed there. Breck was so astonished that he stood in his tracks staring at the ball like a man turned to stone. I was likewise paralyzed for an extemporaneous fraction of time, but my ready wit quickly availed me. Bounding forward, I wrenched the ball from the bat and tagged old Breck with it, appealing to the umpire for judgment. There was only one thing his umps could do. He had seen the batter attempt to bunt, had seen bat and ball meet, and had seen me secure the ball on fair ground and put it on to the hitter. He declared Breckenridge out, and that gave us the game and the championship."

Bailey Weegman lay back and roared. In doing so, he seemed to perceive Lefty for the first time. As soon as he could get his breath, he said:

"Oh, I say, Locke, let me introduce you. This is Cap'n Wiley, owner and manager of the Wind Jammers."

CHAPTER V

A MAN OF MYSTERY

The swarthy little fabulist rose hastily to his feet, making a quick survey of the southpaw. "Am I indeed and at last in the presence of the great Lefty Locke?" he cried, his face beaming like the morning sun in a cloudless sky. "Is it possible that after many weary moons I have dropped anchor in the same harbor with the most salubriously efficacious port-side flinger of modern times? Pardon my deep emotion! Slip me your mudhook, Lefty; let me give you the fraternal grip."

He grabbed Locke's hand and wrung it vigorously, while the other members of the Wind Jammers pressed nearer, looking the Big League pitcher over with interest.

"In many a frozen igloo," declared Wiley, "I have dreamed of this day when I should press your lily-white fingers. Oft and anon during my weary sojourn in that far land of snow and ice have I pictured to myself the hour when we should stand face to face and exchange genuflections and greetings. And whenever a smooched and tattered months-old newspaper would drift in from civilization, with what eager and expectant thrills did I tremulously turn to the baseball page that I might perchance read thereon how you had stung the Hornets, bitten the Wolves, clipped the claws of the Panthers, or plucked the feathers from the White Wings!"

"And I have been wondering," confessed Lefty, "if you could be the original Cap'n Wiley of whom I heard so many strange tales in my boyhood. It was reported that you were dead."

"Many a time and oft hath that canard been circulated. According to rumor, I have demised a dozen times or more by land and sea; but each time, like the fabled Phoenix, I have risen from my ashes. During the last few fleeting years I have been in pursuit of fickle fortune in far-off Alaska, where it was sometimes so extremely cold that fire froze and we cracked up the congealed flames into little chunks which we sold to the Chilkoots and Siwashes as precious bright red stones. Strange to say, whenever I have related this little nanny goat it has been received with skepticism and incredulity. The world is congested with doubters."

"When you wrote me," admitted Locke, "proposing to bring your Wind Jammers here to play the Fernandon Grays, I thought the letter was a hoax. At first I was tempted not to answer it, and when I did reply it was out of curiosity more than anything else; I wanted to see what the next twist of the joke would be."

"Let me a.s.sure you that you will find playing against the Wind Jammers no joke. I have conglomerated together the fastest segregation of baseball stars ever seen outside a major league circuit, and I say it with becoming and blushing modesty. Look them over," he invited, with a proud wave of his hand toward the remarkable group of listeners.

"It has always been my contention that there are just as good players to be found outside the Big League as ever wore the uniform of a major. I have held that hard luck, frowning fate, or contumelious circ.u.mstances have conspired to hold these natural-born stars down and prevent their names from being chiseled on the tablet of fame. Having gathered unto myself a few slippery shekels from my mining ventures in the land where baseball games begin at the hour of midnight, I have now set out to prove my theory, and before I am through I expect to have all balldom sitting up agog and gasping with wonderment."

"I wish you luck," replied Lefty. "If you don't do anything else, you ought to get some sport out of it. I presume you still ascend the mound as a pitcher?"

"Oh," was the airy answer, "on rare occasions I give the gaping populace a treat by propelling the sphere through the atmosphere. When my projector is working up to its old-time form, I find little difficulty in leading the most formidable batters to vainly slash the vacant ether. The weather seeming propitious, I may burn a few over this p.m.

I trust you will pitch also."

"I think I shall start the game, at least."

Bailey Weegman b.u.t.ted in. "But he won't finish it, Wiley. Like yourself, he's not doing as much pitching as he did once." His laugh was significant.

The owner of the Wind Jammers looked startled. "Tell me not in mournful numbers that your star is already on the decline!" he exclaimed, looking at Locke with regret. "That's what the Big Leagues do to a good man; they burn him out like a pitch-pine knot. I've felt all along that the Blue Stockings were working you too much, Lefty. Without you on their roster ready to work three or four times a week in the pinches, they never could have kept in the running."

"You're more than complimentary," said Locke, after giving Weegman a look. "But I think I'll be able to shake something out of my sleeve this season, the same as ever."

"Then don't let them finish you, don't let them grind you to a frazzle," advised Wiley. "For the first time in recent history you have a chance for your white alley; the Federals are giving you that. If you're not already enmeshed in the folds of a contract, the Feds will grab you and hand you a square deal."