Argosy, Vol. 119, No. 2 — page 87: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

HE WHO HESITATES IS BOSSED. Well, sir, I’m going to tell the dead Straight truth: in spite of the wife, in spite of Aloysius X. Beecroft—in spite of blazes —I couldn’t quite seem to make up my mind! And in a minute— I dodged into a door that led under the grand stand. I was out again in just a jiffy. As T came out I heard the umps sing out, “ Bat- ter out!” That fellow had whiffed just like I’d known he would. - Then Spike McGinnis tackled me. Leav- itt was walking toward the plate. And I hadn’t said a word. “See here, Jim,” Spike fired at me. “ Ain’t you going to put in Platt to pinch a hit for Leavitt? Believe me, we need that run!” ‘“ Nix,” I says. game.” ‘“Some manager!” snarled Spike. ‘“‘ Some manager! Zip! There goes the ball game!” Leavitt took a strike, two balls, and— oa one out of the lot! And yet you'll hear ’em say that the day of miracles is past. “Well, what do you know about that!” Says Spike. He was certainly disgusted. ‘“Here you go to work and pull a prize bone, and darned if you don’t get away ‘ Leavitt stays in the with it! You lucky stifi—how d’you do Lg “Judgment, Spike,” says. I. “ Judg- ment!” ‘ Judgment nothing,” he says, and took his grouch somewhere else. Just a word about Spike McGinnis. You understand, Spike was an old-timer and a privileged character, or else I wouldn’t have allowed him to talk to me that way— not right out in public, anyhow. And be- sides, as it happened, Spike was out of luck—or thought he was—and so he was pretty well down on the world in general. You see, Spike was superstitious, and— well, it was like this: After the game the day before, when we were walking out of the ball lot, Spike had offered to spin me for a couple of nut sundaes or something. I said all right, and Spike tossed the coin. When it came down he muffed it and it hit the ground and rolled; we must have 207 looked for it for at least half an hour, but we couldn’t find it. And so that was — Spike’s trouble. The coin was what Spike called his “‘ lucky piece,” and now he’d lost it, and believe him he was in for trouble— he’d bet a cooky he was going to get the rheumatism in his throwing arm again, and he had a hunch-right then that his wife’s mother was planning another visit, and so forth and so on: = And so you see there was some excuse for Spike’s feeling the way he did, seeing he was superstitious like that. Pll cover the next few weeks by sim- ply saying that I didn’t hesitate. Maybe I’d better add a little something to that: at any rate, I didn’t get caught at it. Ina was certainly one pleased woman—and every little while she’d mention how much good that book had done me. And of course I agreed with her. Anyway, when any little question came up at the house, I decided about it right off the bat. I had a picture of myself wading through Pro- fessor Aloysius X. Beecroft again! _As for the rest, we stayed right up there with the White Caps, holding second place turn and turn about, only a few percentage’ points separating the two teams at any time. Of course, in order to do that, I had to get the breaks at least some of die time. As to whether I got them or not—all you had to do was ask Spike McGinnis. He’d say I did! And in the big -pinches, when it was up to me to come through with a decision—I came. And if I hesitated— well, anyway, nobody noticed it. At least i thought—but never mind that just now. And as regards the magnate—well, Alonzo had picked up a few measly mil- — lions by never tipping off his hand; and so he had come to the conclusion that it was a pretty good policy. And he kept it right ~ up in my case. He didn’t throw any brick- bats at me—or any bouquets. All he did was to keep me guessing. Was I making good with him? You could search me. Then, according to the schedule, the White Caps came to town for a five-game series that would close the season. As it happened, we were in second place then; and to hold the position it was up to us to win at least three out of the five set-tos. com ehbooks.com —