Lefty Locke

“ That knowledge being denied Lefty, he could not warn Collier, and the plot would be carried through as arranged. Then, as the reporter had predicted, at the annual meeting of the magnates, shortly to be held, Garrity would appear as owner of the Blue Stockings. When that happened, the fight would be over, and the conspirators would be triumphant.
With the door to Janet’s chamber closed, Locke 221 walked the floor, striving for a clear conception of what ought to be done. He felt like a man bound hand and foot. ”

“ For, while the milltown people had heard that the Bullies would present a new left-handed slabman, the promise that Locke would do the tossing for the Kinks left them still with a feeling of assurance undisturbed by the least uncertainty.
Not that they believed there was no chance of losing, but their faith in Lefty was so great that it seemed at least a five-to-one shot in Kingsbridge’s favor; and a man who would “squeeze his roll” with such an opportunity staring him in the face certainly lacked sporting blood. ”

“ But human nature is frail and prone to temptation, and for the sum of fifty thousand dollars I’d inveigle Jones into signing with you, even though never again as long as I should dwell on this terrestrial sphere could I look my old college chump, Lefty Locke, in the countenance. ”

“ We’ve got ’em! We’ve got ’em! We win it right here! Old southpaw is making an altitude record! He’s gone! He’s up out of sight now! He’ll never come down! Kill it, Bingo, if he puts one across!”
Kingsbridge was apprehensively silent, taut, and choked with dread; Bancroft howled and screamed like a lot of caged Camorrists. Bangs gripped his club, longing for a two-bagger, or even a long, clean single. Locke took his time, absolutely declining to betray signs of agitation similar to those which had marked his advent upon that field.
“You’ve got to do it, Lefty!” ”

“ Labelle nailed Lisotte, and the two Canadians exchanged courtesies in choice patois. This second swift putout awoke some of the saddened Kingsbridgers, their sudden yells of satisfaction mingling with the groans of the Bancrofters.
“Now we’re all right!” cried Larry Stark. “Take a fall out of old Pinwheel, Lefty. We’ll make a game of this yet.”
Locke’s nerves were growing steadier. He had forced himself to dismiss every thought of the girl who had treated him so shabbily, and the man, her companion, who had flung him an insult and [278] escaped a thrashing. ”

“ He is going to give every dollar of that money away!”
Of course, Locke thought that Wiley was drawing the long bow, as usual. “I hope he won’t overlook his friends when he passes it around,” he said, smiling.
“His friends won’t get a dollar!” declared Wiley. “He’s going to give it to his enemies.”
This was too much for the southpaw. “Let’s cut the comedy,” he urged.
The sailor gave him a chastening look. “It isn’t comedy; it’s tragedy, Lefty. He believes it his duty. He believes he is bound, as a man of honor, to do it. ”

“ She could not remain quiet.
“I know Frank Parlmee, Mr. Stillman,” she asserted, “and Lefty is right about him. There’s not a squarer man living.”
“How is it possible for Parlmee to use Weegman as a tool?” asked Locke.
“Through Garrity,” answered the reporter without hesitation.
“But I don’t see–”
Stillman leaned forward. “Listen: I am not at liberty to disclose the sources of my information, but it has come to me that this idea of wrecking the Blue Stockings originated in Parlmee’s brain. He saw himself losing out in the fight for Virginia Collier, and he became desperate. ”

“ Locke turned toward him, but turned back quickly, with another question on his lips. Virginia was speaking again, however.
“I can scarcely believe it now,” she said sadly. “It seems too utterly impossible! I can’t imagine any one being such a scoundrel–much less him! But Weegman has made sure; he has the proof. 265 Of course, he has told you all about it, Lefty; it was necessary that you should know.” Her manner had grown deeply dejected.
“What did Weegman tell you?” asked the southpaw. “Who did he say was responsible for what had happened to the Blue Stockings?” ”

“ Locke has denied that he is Paul Hazelton, I shall believe him. He has the eyes of an honest man. He has the face of a man who cannot lie.”
“I confess that he is an excellent actor, able to [185] assume a most deceiving air of innocence and veracity.”
“Benton King, I refuse to talk with you about him. Where’s your proof that he is not what he claims to be? You have only your unjust suspicions to back you up. I should hate to think you were concerned in the spreading of this preposterous story printed in the Bancroft News. ”

“ Old Cope signed Locke and the most of the team, and he’d never figger on a lefty worryin’ us because we’ve got so many left-hand hitters.”
“That,” persisted Dyke, “don’t alter the conditions any. This Locke stopped Fryeburg after they blanketed Deever, and Kingsbridge wants this game to-day—bad. I’ve heard some of the Bridgers talkin’, and they’re plenty confident, thinking they’ve got a wiz in this southpaw kid.
“To-morrow’s Sunday, and Hoover can rest,” he added. “He’s hard as nails, and you won’t [27] hurt him, even if you have to use him again Monday. ”

“ We are also warned not to use Locke again until the question is settled. Unless you know beyond the shadow of uncertainty that Bancroft can’t establish her claim, we’d better hurry the matter to a settlement, or keep Locke on the bench.”
Henry Cope was greatly wrought up.
“Keep him on the bench! That’s just what Riley’d like to frighten us inter doin’. If he [170] could only scare us so we wouldn’t dast use Locke for a while he’d have the laugh on us, whether he proved his case or not. He’s full o’ tricks as an egg’s full o’ meat.” ”

“ Not much time was wasted in preparation when it was understood that Locke was ready to meet his challenger. Members of the two teams began pushing the crowd back to make room, begging them to give the men a chance, and a fifteen-foot space was finally cleared. Eager spectators climbed upon the shoulders of those in front of them; the bleachers, at one end, were loaded to the cracking point with human beings; and every stout limb of a near-by tree quickly bore human fruit.
[90]
Bareheaded, the men met in the center of the cleared space. Hoover came with a rush, and Locke was not dilatory. ”

“ If Locke is the same guy, you’ve got somethin’ on Cope, and you can make some disturbance about it.”
Riley lifted himself to his feet, pulling out his watch and looking at it.
“Twenty-five minutes after,” he said. “What time do the stores close here? I might be able to catch the old fox in his den.”
“Go for him,” urged Fancy Dyke. “That’s the stuff! If there’s a chance to do it, it’s up to you to protest Locke. If you can’t take him away from the Kinks, mebbe you can stop him from pitchin’ in the league, and that would do the business. Shall I come along?” ”

“ If I knowed f’r sure Locke was Hazelton, and had some of his handwritin’—well, I cal’late I could get a letter faked that would cook his goose. I know a clever guy who’d do the pen-work. You bring me proof that he’s Hazelton, together with a workin’ sample of his penmanship, and we’ll put him down, both shoulders to the carpet. I’ll have [192] old Cope weepin’ briny tears for his lost wizard.”
“It’s a bargain,” said Hutchinson, rising. “But it must be agreed that we simply hang him up so that no team in the league can use him. ”

“ At his best, he can walk any three of us without a man down and then keep us from scoring. This game is as good as settled, and a lot of Kingsbridge sports have lost some good money to-day.”
“Nonsense, Crandall!” said Locke swiftly. “Even if the man is Pinwheel Murtel, he isn’t invincible.” ”

“ There was no doubt about it now; plainly Locke was nervous. Seeing this, the coachers and the visiting spectators did what they could to rattle him. Even though he tried to steady himself, the next ball from his fingers whiffed up a pop of dust two feet in front of the plate.
“Ball three!”
“The ascension begins early to-day,” laughed the coacher near third; and the Bancrofters behind him began to sing: “Up in a Balloon, Boys.” ”

“ Tom Locke?”
“Where—where did you get it?” she asked in [237] a husky whisper, taking it from his hand with nerveless fingers that nearly let it fall.
“I told you I had sent to a friend, asking him to get Hazelton’s picture for me. He went to Princeton for it; here’s the name of the Princeton photographer on it.”
She had hoped that there might be some doubt; that, even though the photograph resembled Locke, there might be some question as to whether it was not the counterfeit presentment of a person who looked like him. But, with it before her eyes, that hope sank and died; it was the man. ”

“ 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 50 the Fernandon Grays, I thought the letter was a hoax. ”

“ THE LETTER IN THE DESK Shortly after Sunday morning breakfast, Hutch had a private talk in his room with one of the two bell hops of the hotel, following which he complacently strolled down to the veranda, where, lounging in a comfortable chair, he presently saw Tom Locke come forth and depart on his way to church. When the pitcher had vanished, the man rose and returned to his room. ”

“ To win from Fryeburg and Lakeport, you’ve got to use better slabmen than Deever or Skillings. Locke is the only one you’ve got, and so you’ll have to work him in them games. See?”
Hutchinson fancied he saw, but he remained silent.
“Of course,” said Riley, “you’ll make a bluff of workin’ the others, but the minute things look a bit hazy you’ll yank ’em out and run Locke in to save the day. Get me?”
“And no man,” murmured Dyke, “can do that much pitchin’ and keep his flinger in condition to trim Bancroft.” ”

“ You’ve taken a big contract, Phil.”
“Are you afraid?” he asked.
She looked up at him and smiled proudly. “Not a bit. You are not the sort of man who fails. I know you’ll win out.”
His cheeks glowed and a light leaped into his eyes. “After hearing you say that, I couldn’t 198 fail, Janet, dear,” he said quietly but earnestly. “It’s going to be some fight, but let it come–I’m ready.”
The journey northward was uneventful. Locke had wired both Kennedy and Parlmee when he would arrive in New York, asking them to meet him at the Great Eastern. ”

“ I am always being brought up against this final fireproof curtain. Suddenly a thought came which caused me to exult exceedingly.
“Ten thousand pounds, my dear Latimer,” said I, “would save you from being hammered on the Stock Exchange and from seeking a suicide's grave. It would also enable you to maintain Lucy and the kids in your luxurious house at Hampstead, and to take them as usual to Dieppe next summer. Am I not right?”
He begged me not to make a jest of his miseries. It was like asking a starving beggar whether a dinner at the Carlton wouldn't set him up again. ”

“ Paul, his head against the lintel of the van door, looked up at them, enthralled by the talk of Barney Bill. The vagabond merchant had the slight drawling inflection of the Home Counties, which gave a soothing effect to a naturally soft voice. To Paul it was the pipes of Pan.
"It mightn't suit everybody," said Barney Bill philosophically. "Some folks prefer gas to laylock. I don't say that they're wrong. But I likes laylock."
"What's laylock?" asked Paul.
His friend explained. No lilac bloomed in the blighted Springs of Bludston. ”

“ He stared at it stupidly as long as he could see it. The light on the Clock Tower announced that the House was sitting. It was all curiously familiar, and yet he felt like an alien. There was not a soul in London to welcome his home-coming. His heart sank with the sense of loneliness. He was as infinitesimal and as isolated a unit in this seething, swarming ant-hill of humanity as amid the starry solitudes of the African veldt.
As chance willed it, he found the house in Pimlico in the same hands as before, and his old room in the attics vacant. ”

“ By the time it was put in order and decorated, he declared, Unity would be in a fit condition to take up her abode there with Miss Lindon and himself.
“Where is this convalescent home you 're going to send her to?” asked Herold.
John did not know. A man could not attend to everything at once. But there were thousands. He would find one. Then, it being the end of the week, he went down to the Channel House, where, by the midnight train on Saturday, Herold joined him.
It was Herold who laid John's rash project before Sir Oliver and Lady Blount. ”

“ Then, when the applause came to an end, he bowed, half ironically and gave a quick, imperious order, at which the curtain was rung down amid an uproar of excitement. He strode into the wings followed by Elodie starry-eyed, and stood panting. The curtain rose as if automatically. The manager thrust him towards the stage.
"They want you," he cried.
"They can go to the devil," said Andrew.
Regardless of the clamour, he stalked with Elodie to the foot of the iron stairs. On their way they passed the waxed moustachioed trainer of the performing dogs. ”