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Show M ' I ilL iTiCiC ii iJ I By CharZes . Van Loan t v. - ' - I 9 S S 999 9999999999999lltil9l9 9999t 9lieti9a9l9l99l99ttt99l99l ! And there in front of him was the Big Chief, jogging along and. laughing over his shoulder. arm flashed over his shoulder, and Potts; saw what was offered him. Now, if there was any ball in the world which was made to orcW for Potts, it was one on the inside corner and avosa his shoulders-. This was what the Min-n Min-n ea p o I i s ir. a n h a d meant when he said that the boy picked them o:'f his e.ir. Muivey thought well of that bill, arid he let it fly with two hundred pounds of meat behind it. Many a busher had. trird to bunt that ball. If they were lucky they some; inies fouled it off. Potts saw it coming, and ho covM have yelled for joy. For.cot ton were the good intentions and the orders of the b:.c chki. Someth ir. seemed to snap inside his head ; he knew nothing, felt r.ot hiii.e but the impulse to swing: the bat with every ounce of strength in his wiry body. There was a era shi ntr impact, then a tremendous tremen-dous yell from the stands. The next thim? the boy knew ho was rounding first base, and the cheering had swelled int o a mighty roar like the note of a threat pipe or tran. Me was conscious that men were leaping from the left field bleachers bleach-ers into the field, but the sijrht conveyed nothing- to his brain. He flashed over second base and turned toward third, and there in front of him. josrging: alone; and lauprhing over his shoulder, was the big: chief. "Don't run over tit. l;id." yelled that great man. "She went into the bleachers for a home run!" Mechanically Potts slackened speed, and trotted along behind the chief, who disappeared beyond the plate in a preat. wave of whooping, dancing, demented humanity. Potts Is Redeemed. Before Potts knew what was happening", happen-ing", the wave caught him, too. Ito was seized and swung up on the shoulders of two half -crazy fanatics, who bore him through a sea of shouting faces. Men leaped up and thrust money into his cap, and held it in front of him. Through the swirl of ha is and canes, he sa v his teammates eeudding" for the clubhouse. He was beginning to enjoy the demonstration. demon-stration. S'ome leather-lunged individual, with the rim of a derby hat left in his hand, hoarsely suggested three cheers for "Pottsey," and U'.OOO wild men chimed in, winding up with a tiger and a shower of hats, which sailed through the air like birds. ' "Take me to the clubhouse, boys!" gasped the hero. They took him to the clubhouse nt tho head of a great procession of leaping, howling, whirling dervishes. They sec him down on the steps with one last terrific ter-rific cheer, and J. Vivian Potts, big leaguer and pennant-winner, opened the door and stepped inside the dressing-room. dressing-room. For a few seconds he stood perfectly still, his chest thrust out in front of him, his assurance regained with heavy interest. "Welcome to our city!" he said at hust. "Ain't anybody here going to tell me how good I am?" Then for the first time lie became aware that the place was very still, lie seemed to have interrupted a serious conference con-ference of some sort. Smiling Kelly, one stocking half off. was looking up at him from under heavily corrugated brows. The Big Chief stopped forward, and removed the overflowing cap from Potty's hands. "Til tell you how good you are." said he sternlv. "You had orders to lay that ball down, didn't you? And you hit it out of the lot. It wouldn't make any difference dif-ference if you won forty pennants! You disobeyed positive orders, and now I'm going to give vou what's coming to you!" Potts never had a chanco to raise his guard, and the Big Chief was famous for his right swing. When Potts opened his eyes someone was applying an iced towel to his nei-k. His head was in the chiefs lap. -t'ho manager's voice was stern, but there was a twinkle in his bluo-gray eyes as ho looked down at the youngster. "You'll be all right in a minute," snid he. "We're going to need you for tho post -sea son series." "Yes." gasped the newest of the Panthers, Panth-ers, "and I'll about win it for you. too!" (Copyright, 1010. by the Bell Syndicate, Syndi-cate, Inc.,) the right, rolling slowly along the ground. ' Miller was fairiy tearing up the ground between second and third, and the roar of indignation which fell from the stands reached Potts's ears as he st:i 2er.i to his feet, bruised, shaken and u.zzy. The Gray coaeher took one look at Hi lien's flyi ng legs, and then signalled Miller to keep on to the plate. As he rounded the bag, II alien dropped one hand and picked up the ball; and, almost without stopping, threw it with all his strength. "Slats" Oliver. the Panther catcher, did not have to move out of his tracks. Standing over the plate, he took the ball waist high; and. with a sweeping motion of his arm. dropped his hand with a. thump on Miller's 1 shoulder, as he slid head first for the rubber. "Out!" barked the umpire. All the noise which had gone before was swallowed up in one terrific burst of cheering. Miller, leaping to his feet, crid that he had beaten the throw "by three feet," but the umpire shook his head; and Oliver, smiling grimly, removed his harness and strode back to the bench. Potts had done his best to toss the game away, but Hallen, by a wonderful throw, had saved it: and while there were some who remembered to shake their fists at the center-fielder, most of them were busy cheering Hallen, who trotted in, cursing Potts over the shoulder and snatching his cap from his head in acknowledgment ac-knowledgment of the cheering. The chief met Polls as he walked in to the bench, rubbing the dirt from his clothes. "I haven't got time to talk to you now," said the manager quietly, "but if I had another hitter left I wouldn't let you bat this inning, i told you to cut out that grandstand business, and if it hadn't been for Hallen here you'd have ; tossed off this game." j The other players added their tributes ! of censure, and it was a crushed young j man who pawed around among the bats looking for his favorite stick. For the ; first time in his young life Potts was tamed; hi had nothing to say. He was a yellow dog; everybody had told him so. Worse than that, he realized it himself. Once he opened his mouth. "I thought I could make that catch,' he said weakly. "You thought!" snarled Kelly viciously. "Didn't you know James was the next man up? He hasn't had a hit off me all season!" The Chief at Bat. The big chief was first at bat in the 1. t of the ninth, and when he calmly j removed his cap and flicked the dust i from the plate a hopeful shout went up from the bleachers. ! "Kill it, chief!" they yelled. Kill it!" j "Pretty lucky! Pretty lucky!" countered i the Gray rooters, I The big chief waited for the second strike, took it without a move, and then i met the third one fairly. The ball flew on a line into right field, and tho big t chief paused on first base, yelling insults in-sults at Muivey at the top of his voice, Potts was the next man at bat. As he left the circle marked for the waiting, hitter, the temperature of the crowd j seemed to change. Hisses and groans were mixed in with the applause for the chief's hit. Smiling Kelly, who had taken the chief's signal, rushed after Potts and took him by the arm. "You're ordered to sacrifice." he panted. pant-ed. "Just dump one ilown between the : pitcher and third anything to get the chief down there. Bunt the first ball 1 pitched remember now, the first one!" There was a deep silence as the youngster young-ster swung himself into position, moving his bat up and down in short, jerky circles. "Come on, Frank!" roared the Gray catcher to Muivey. Here's something pretty soft! Git this busher !" Potts took one look at the big chief, who was slowly edging away from first base, balancing his body so that he might plunge himself in either direction. Then he looked at Muivey. For the first time he noticed what a big man the pitcher pitch-er really was. Ho was chewing tobacco, and there was a sardonic grin on his thin face. From high up in the grandstand came a single yell, high-pitched as the howl of a wolf, "Come on, swelled head!" it said., "Make up for the rotten play!" ! Potts sets his teeth and grunted savagely. sav-agely. He would show 'em what a real sacrifice hit was like. Ho would show the big chief that he knew how to obey orders. He would lay one clown and just then Muivey took a step forward, his (7T. i mother could not have de- ,;' fl!S,Tlt Viv.an Potts was fresl, ; U 1,16 ,o fresh that he was m ?moIta- Content ,udBe. '4 Ctew him before he became , , that he was the freshest F'0 I 2 that a big-league curry- out ot the baBebaU verv moment of his arrival Turing training camp, a pickup ,1,e Jhere without reputation or V Tin the world of baseta.l. J. pi'i: rotts acted as though he believed V" doins the Panthers an honor by ,Z 'Bull" Kennedy, one of !rlrh efs outs, had seen Potts p.r-. p.r-. ..professional team Be-. Be-. 'Vusiast, Bull had advanced the f1''" an 'carfare out of his own pocket - ructed him to report at Ashevihe, S VZ1. and still are, N" lot The world thinks well T ' wc:US'nd they think -well of them- it their habit to frown upon i.v on short acquaintance and -. ar'iLr with that team must learn ;. tf in";rr0Der and befitting reverence. " 10 !:"0W,wsPcoW and select circle young A!'"!0, Educed "imsolf wlth t'16 TA3Z pons Introou c u He arrlved ' aS?2& and the Panthers had their '. 8 limSe of him the next morning 8 Teakfast. The players were all fc ll''aESnd the long table when a (.&tSe lrt upon their ears. !P.XMTup in amazement r Z ' ei in He wore the sort of IJm 'Ih. yowg man of Cherry "Solh! fondly imagines are worn at Har-! Har-! S or Yaie A ecreaming red silk hand-hef hand-hef bursting from a breast pocket j "-Sn an angle and decorated with a en tin" bSttons furnished a loud in- tl tie bottoms of the young man s tr'Js were turned up over the soiled X Lrr - uVrs of his patent-leather shoes, hp twirled a light bamboo cane. ' -A" grunted the Big Chief, "the vt '.-nd must be blowing some outside. Iook 4 W blew in when the door was open! a-.r'TrPn from the head of .the table to 'r foot the Panthers took a long, com-d7Vehensive com-d7Vehensive look at tho natty youth, and 'fc-ir olm level scrutiny would have i VithT"! another individual. This done, I- they returned to their ham and eggs. j Vivian Potts was not an ordinary n J'wivMual. He strutted over to the head a'".'of tte table. -shake the hand of a bail player, K V'i!ef," hp sairi, extending his fingers- '"Kew vou right away by the pictures. ' evi'n if thev f'o Patter you. My name is ; 'pnft' Kennedy told mc to report to you. ''Flffvoiir outfield was a little weak this ie: V;ir-on and you needed some class. P;' Whf-ro do 1 sit?" n- Irv outfielder at the table glared R-' iBai'acelv, but young Mr. Potts, wringing thp iimp and unresisting fist of the Chief, not nl'ow the hostile sentiment to em-n'"'b;irrass em-n'"'b;irrass him. "Greetings, bunch!" said Potts, as he ' ' drew up a chair and panted himself he-?d he-?d ,wcn the Big Chief and "Smiling" Kelly, T;' h: mar pitcher. "Greetings and ealuta-a; ealuta-a; Hlmisl Clarice, a little food here!" For a half minute there was a long, qifiverln? nilence. ,Ti Cat ten, center fielder, was first to re-'r'co'.Tr re-'r'co'.Tr his power of sneech. "Yes." said he, addressing the table 1n !t p'iural. " always did say Kennedy was ir ,U,o -matpst lemon picker in tho coun-" coun-" -try. Rents me where he gets 'em all!" y TotfK laughed loudly. ' "Al! rfchi, young feller," he said. "Pve 1 ot your number. All I hope is that ,f tym re nn outfielder, because, if vou are, ?nlnsr to get your job. You'll be .rurrvint; my hat around before the end of Di" season, hov." l'i "h that ko?" sneered Catten, malevo-Hy. malevo-Hy. It Ptruck him afterward that this r a very weak comeback, but at the time he could think of nothing better. Anfi listen- Clarice," said Potts, "regu-. "regu-. m r?Y crpam wlth tns coffee. Give Issklir, milk to eome of the hired men PT,- cream- Understand?" i I'refh thins!" sniffed the waitress as n- whlBked into the kitchen I J L . "miM T"tn'" pflid th big chief 1 J 'V Kh0le famil,GB have been killed: 'Zr2i thAaV0U have done liere this! rr PnUi A "J11 B"ei,Ce YOU, now!" TW . TWnre noon he had been In seven-J seven-J Wih In,rkll,1,cnty- h offered to fight 3 j and ld all the old-timers fr w , .J? c(xasperated- HiR crowning if. van the total rout of Catten. , hn f ; ,ro hensquafl returned to the t for lunch. Potts remarked: Uo Z 5m icn blK;ks ln my poor 0m iMn fr, hich Bays 1 t;an run away and ' Trls aKy,man hore at one hundred .,-b"fr A,,ybody sot nerve enough to JHiMookod straight at Catten, who. game seriSs between the Panthers and the Grays, which would decide the pennant pen-nant winner for the season. The team which won that series would win the flag and the chance to play for the world's championship. Smiling Kelly pitched the opening game of the series, and won it. Then the Grays took the second game, and on the third day ten thousand wilaly excited fans were waitfng at the ball park at 10 o'clock in the morning. "-Looks like they're going to pitch Muivey," Mui-vey," said tho chief before the -game opened. "Can you do it, do you think, Pete?" "I'll do It or break a leg," said Smiling Kelly. "I'm the only man that can beat him." The game opened with both teams keyed up to the tension where another ounce means a smash. For six Innings it was a grand battle between the pitchers. Smiling Kelly, cool, deliberate, resourceful, worked the corners of the plate with his slow curves, mixing in an occasional fast bail, and "Thunderbolt" Muivey fought him with speed, speed, nothing but speed. Then the catastrophe came. With two men out, Catten bounced a slow one down toward third base and, by a terrific sprint, beat the throw across the diamond. dia-mond. On the first ball pitched he started start-ed to steal. Ahearn, the Gray catcher, tvhipped the ball down to second. There was a whirl ut gray and a flash of white as Catten slid for the bag, and the umpire um-pire jerked his thumb over his shoulder. Catten was out. He lay writhing in the dirt, making no effort to rise. The chief and half a dozen Panthers raced into the diamond. "I'm cut all to pieces!" groaned Cat-ten. Cat-ten. "He ripped me from the ankle half way to the knee." The Gray second baseman apologized with real tears in his eyes. "I wouldn't have done it for the world!" said he. "You jumped right onto me, Harry. Honest, you did!" "Aw, shut up!" said Potts, who was helping to lift Catten from the ground. "You did it, didn't you?" The doctor took one look and then shook his head. The news flew through the crowd that Catten, the sure hitter; Catten, the fastest man on the team, had been badly hurt. In sympathizing silence the injured man was carried off the field, and those who were near enough to st knew that he was crying like a baby. The big chief ran his fingers through his curly hair. Then he turned to Potts with a snarl. "Go on out there in center," he said, "and don't make any mistakes. No grandstanding, remember. Play 'em safe, if you know how!" The seventh inning began with no score on either side. Smiling Kelly, still cool, quiet and deliberate, was pitching the game of his life. He struck out two men in succession, and the stands boomed as the entire country knew, was the fastest man on the team. "I guess I might as well saw the hnrns off this goat now as any time," remarked Catten in the tone of a man willing to sacrifice personal inclination to the public pub-lic good. They ran the one hundred yards, and Potta won by a clear six feet, seemingly without effort. "You ain't so awful bad for an old feller," fel-ler," said Potts, neatly applvjng the verbal ver-bal vinegar to the raw surfaces. "Of course you've been in the game a long time and you're all stove up. You're awful slow get tin' off the mark. You start like a horse car. I'll give you some lessons." That evening the players lounged in front of the hotel and watched young Mr. Potts strolling up and down under the trees with the girl who worked in the candy store.- She was a very pretty girl, and some of the unmarried men on the team had tried their big city manners on her without result. "How 'bout him, chief?" asked Kelly, jerking his thumb in the direction of the youthful Lothario. "Back to the weeds, hey?" Farmed Out. "Not yet," said the big chief slowly. "He's an awful thing, and I don't like a bone in his head, but I will say for him that he's some ball player. Did you see him when I worked him out on that 'hitting and running to first" stuff? Pie's got it on you, Catten, and you're the best In the big league." Catten snarled. "First chance he gives me, I'm going to tear his head off!" threatened the outfielder.. "1 like a fresh guy, but he suits me too well." Contrary to the general expectation. Potts lasted through the spring training. Pie was a fighting firebrand, he set at naught the discipline of the club, he quar-eled quar-eled with men old enough to be his father, and he talked back to the big chief in itself an unpardonable offense but there was no denying the fact that the boy was a marvelous ball player and he stayed. Catten had given him three sound lickings, lick-ings, Halsey had broken his nose; altogether, alto-gether, Potta had had a very busy month, and one of his eyes was still in mourning mourn-ing when he listened to the verdict. . "I'm going to farm you out this summer," sum-mer," said the chief. "You're going out to Minneapolis and I may bring you back if I need you. Don't get too gay with that fellow Lilley out there. Pie murders fellows like you." The Panthers did not grieve when Potts went west. In their honest hearts they hoped they might never, never see the young man again. "I'm of a forgivin' nature," said Cat-ten, Cat-ten, "and I never hold a grudge, but I hope the train runs off the track and busts this guy right in two in the middle. Outside of that, I wouldn't want to see a thing happen to him." Inside of a month after the opening of the season, the Big Chief began to get reports from his friend Lilley. "What did I ever do to you," wrote the Minneapolis manager, "that you should lend me a wildcat like Potts?" But there was an unexpected postscript at the end of the letter: "The boy is surely a great baseball player. play-er. He's a grand stahder for fair, but he's so fast he makes the rest of these fellows look like they're standing still. Y'ou ought to see him pick one off his ear and slam it a mile." Young Potts was the sensation of the Minneapolis season and the thorn in the side of St. Paul. The fans adored him, for he was always worth watching, but no amount of argument or entreaty could make him "play 'em safe." Ho loafed on his easy chances in order to make sensational plays, and the best thing he did was to fall ten feet short of a pop fly, so that he might make a lightning plunge through the air, catch the ball just before it struck the ground, turn three somersaults, and come up posed like the Statue of Liberty, with the , ball held aloft in his glove. He was the idol of the bleacherites, who : loved him almost as much as his fellow j players hated him, and whenever he came ; to the bat he was hailed with tremen- j dous salvos of applause. The Big. Chief read the Minneapolis papers and sighed. 1 It was a. hard year for the Panthers. One by one their star players limped , Into the hospital squad. Only the pitch- I Ing staff remained intact. The infield was shattered ; the outfield was like an old soldiers' home, but the chief, raving and cheering, by turns, kept his limping veterans on the move, fighting nose and noae with the Grays for the leadership of the league. One by one the Big Chief called In his -men. Finally he sent for j Potts. "Well, good -by, you bush leaguers." said that tactfil yountr man, after he had read the telegram. "The chief needs me to win that pennant. I guess." Then he packed his small trunk. The fans mourned him sincerely, but the men on the Minneapolis team offered prayers of thanksgiving. Ho had been about as popular as a bald hornet in a beehive. The Pftnthers received him sullenly. Catten, whose right knee was very bad, gritted his teeth and refused to quit the lineup, playing on his bare nerve. Powers Pow-ers and Hallen, the other regular outfielders, out-fielders, redoubled their efforts. "Well," said Potts to the chief, "throw some of these old men into the hospital and make room for a real ballplayer. I suppose you know I've been hittin' three-forty three-forty out in the bushes." "Keep your shirt on!" growled the chiff. "You won't go in until I have to put you in." They Tried to Keep Him Down. So Potts sat on the bench and poured vitriol Into the open wounds. The Panthers, Panth-ers, fighting desperately to hold a. few points' advantage over the Gravy, were in no mood for Potts' pleasantries. Out of the great wealth of a few months' experience experi-ence in organized baseball, the young man offered caustic advice, and stinging criticism criti-cism flowed from his lips like water from an artesian well. Whn he began to compare the Paifthers star players unfavorably unfa-vorably with the men of western teams there was almost a riot. Tho last week of The season found Potts still on the bench, sullen and sarcastic, sar-castic, by turns. The world of baseball was waiting breathlessly for the three- : I with applause. The last man died on a weak grounder to the shortstop, and the Panther fans roared their relief. Muivey did almost as well. Hallen, the right fielder, was retired on strikes. Courtney popped one into the air. The third man lined out in center, and the eighth inning began. Potts, eager as a fox terrier, danced around out in center, hoping and praying for a chance to do something. Kelly seemed to want the game all to himself. Again the Grays went down in order, and not a ball was hit out of the infield. The last half of the eighth was a repetition repe-tition of the other innings. One Panther reached first base, but stayed there. The ninth opened with the heavy hitters of the Grays coming up. Miller, the offending second baseman, refused to hit at anything, and drew a base on balls. Kelly struck out the next man on three pitched balls. Norris swung for a curve ball, popped up a weak foul, and the Panther third baseman got under it after a hard run. Kelly was working himself out of a hole, and the crowd rose to cheer him. Then came Buckley, the most dangerous hitter on the Gray team. The fielders dropped back for him, Powers Pow-ers and Hallen yelling at Potta to play deep. Kelly wound up slowly and delivered the ball. Out of the corner of his eye Potts saw Miller flash down toward second. "It'o the hit and run!" he thought. The Fresh Guy Humbled. Buckley swung at the ball, and Potts heard the crack of the bat. The sphere was coming straight toward him, a hit neatly placed just over the infield. Then he began to run as he never ran before. He had made just such a play against the St. Faul club. "Safe! Play it safe!" howled Hallen, racing over from right field to get behind be-hind the flying center-fielder. Potts should have taken the ball on the first bounce and held Miller at second j base. That would have been baseball, j Instead of that, the boy ran to meet I the ball; and, when ten feet from it, launched himself like a catapult through the air and thrust out both hands. A catch would have retired the side, but to attempt such a play was taking one desperate chance in a thousand. The ball i struck Potts's bare hand and glanced to |