“This sort of thing has gone far enough!” exclaimed the Giants’ manager, pounding on a table with his fist. “No bunch of tin-horn gamblers can play ducks and drakes with my ball team and get away with it. If their dirty plans had gone through, both Joe and Jim would have been out of the game for good, branded as crooks, and the Giant team would be so shot to pieces you’d need a vacuum cleaner to clear up the remains. I’m going to turn this thing over to the police right here and now,” and he started for a telephone in the corner of the room.

“Easy there, Mac, easy,” warned Robson, who was also one of the party. “Take a little time to think this thing over before you go to making any bad breaks.”

“What do you mean—bad breaks?” queried the fiery manager. “If somebody lifts your watch, is it a bad break to go to the police about it? What are the cops for, anyway?”

“That’s all right, as far as the crooked gamblers are concerned,” said Robson. “But how about the crooked ball players we’ve got on the team right now? That’s a matter for organized baseball, more than for the police.”

“The crooked ball players will get theirs to-morrow, don’t doubt that for a minute!” growled McRae. “I’ll settle their hash for good, but I don’t see yet why we can’t put the police on the track of the gang that captured my two pitchers. We know their hangouts now, and the cops ought to be able to round them up easily enough.”

“Not a chance in the world,” said Robson, shaking his head. “You don’t suppose those birds will sit around in their nests and wait for the patrol wagon to come and get them, do you? I’ll bet any money that if you went to either of their hangouts right now you’d find them first cousins to the deserted village.”

McRae thought a moment.

“Well, I suppose you’re right,” he growled at last. “You always are, confound you! But if we don’t get the police in on this, what are we going to do? We can’t let this business go on unchecked, and not raise a finger to stop it, can we?”

“Not by a long shot!” exclaimed Robson. “But it would be better to worry along almost any way to the end of the season than it would to get this scandal in the newspapers. It would leave a stain on organized baseball that it would be almost impossible to wipe out. Let’s keep what we know to ourselves for the time being, and see if we can’t find some better way of handling the problem.”

“I’ll agree with you in that,” said McRae. “You’ll have to admit, though, that we can’t leave McCarney and Hupft to throw games for us at will. I’ll follow your advice as far as not publicly throwing them off the team goes, but I’m not going to have them play those important positions any more. The race is getting closer every day, and we can’t afford to take chances.”

“Yes, you’re right there,” admitted Robson. “The trouble of it is, that we haven’t any good substitutes to put in their places.”

“Even a rookie that’s honestly trying to do his best is better than the finest ball player in the world that’s trying to make mistakes,” McRae pointed out. “I’ll let them stay until they make some other bone play accidentally on purpose, and then I’ll have a good excuse to retire them to the bench. Maybe our rookies will do more than we hope for. I’ll leave it to your judgment which ones to put in when the time comes.”

“But what are you going to do about that meeting at Bill Davendorp’s to-night, Mac?” asked Jim. “There will be a choice assortment of crooks there, including the ringleader of the crowd. I’d say, capture the whole bunch red-handed, if possible, even if we have to get the police in on it. I know that a public scandal will be a bad thing for baseball, but if this sort of thing keeps on there’s bound to be a big blow-up some time, anyway, and when it comes it may be a lot worse than at the present time.”

“You told it, Jim!” exclaimed Joe. “Round up the whole bunch and get it over with right away, is what I say. And nothing will please me more than to be in at the finish. I owe that crowd a thing or two, and I’m anxious to pay them off.”

“They’re right, at that, Robson,” said McRae. “This looks like a golden opportunity, and we’d be foolish to miss it, it seems to me.”

“Well, yes and no,” said Robson slowly. “As you say, it looks like the opportunity of a lifetime to round up the gang and put them out of business. But don’t you think we could do it quietly, without letting the police and newspapers in on the show? I want to see those fellows get their deserts, all right, but if there’s some way to do it without hurting the game I want to do it that way.”

“Yes, yes,” said McRae, a trifle impatiently. “But what way is there? These men are desperate characters, and won’t submit tamely to be captured. If you’ve got a plan, tell us the details.”

“There’s another thing we’ve got to consider,” pointed out Joe. “If we go easy we can probably find out what the plans of the fellows are. If we can find some way to listen in on them and learn what they’re up to, we’d have evidence that would put them out of harm’s way for a few years.”

“That’s the idea, exactly,” said Robson approvingly. “That’s just about what I was going to say when you beat me to it, Matson. Get the evidence first, and then it will do some good to round them up. How does that sound to you, Mac?”

“Why, all right, I suppose,” said the manager irascibly. “As long as we get that bunch of crooks behind bars, it doesn’t matter much to me what methods we use. But if we don’t let the police in on the game, how do you propose to capture the bunch? There’s apt to be a pretty lively scrap, and if anybody gets hurt, you and I will get the blame for it.”

“Oh, well, we’re used to getting blamed for things that aren’t our fault,” said the genial trainer, with a touch of his usually cheerful philosophy. “You ought to be used to having the can tied to you by this time, Mac.”

“You’re right enough there,” admitted the manager. “Let’s get down to brass tacks on this proposition, though. We haven’t got much time to make our plans, so we’d better get busy right away. Who’s got something to suggest?” and he looked inquiringly from one to the other.

They were all silent for a few moments, as they thought of and rejected various plans. Of the four, Joe was the first to break the meditative silence.

“I don’t imagine there will be very many in the gang at Davendorp’s to-night,” he said, speaking slowly. “Probably not more than fifteen altogether, if there’s that many. The rascals will know that they are in a bad position, due to having let Jim and me get away from them, and there won’t be any one but the ringleaders at the conference, it’s likely. It seems to me that if we got all the men on our team together and put the thing up to them, they’d all volunteer for the job. They’re as anxious as we are to clean up the game and throw out the crooked ones.”

“It’s probably true, as you say, Matson, that only the leaders will be in at conference,” said Robson. “We know, though, that Davendorp’s place has a pretty shady reputation, and probably a lot of the gamblers’ hangers-on will be loafing about the place. I should say we’d need more men than the team can muster, to be on the safe side. We’ve got to count out McCarney and Hupft, and even with the rookies we would have only about fifteen men.”

“Yes, but they all know how to handle themselves in a scrap,” said Jim.

“That’s true enough. But we can’t afford to take chances,” said Robson, with the caution for which he was noted. “We ought to have five or six more, and the question is, where to get them.”

“Before we go any further I’m going to get Hughson here, and we’ll have the benefit of his advice,” said McRae. “He’s in the city on business connected with his team. I still think this is a matter for the police, but if he sides with you fellows, I won’t put up any more opposition. This is a serious thing, and we don’t want to go rushing into it before we know we’re right.”

“It won’t take long to get him here, I think,” said Robson. “He told me he was going to stay in this evening, so I think we can get hold of him right away. I think I know where I can find him, so I’ll give him a ring.”