"I'm telling this to you, Joe," went on McRae, "because I want you to help me out. You've proved yourself true blue when you were put to the test. I know you'll do all you can to hold the boys in the traces. They all like you and feel that they owe you a lot because it was your pitching that pulled us through the World's Series. Besides, they'll be more impressed by what you say than by the talk I'd give them. They figure that I'm the manager and am only looking after my own interests, and for that reason what I say has less effect." "I'll stand by you, Mac," returned Joe, "and help you in any way I can. Who are the boys that you think are trying to break loose?" "There are three of them," replied McRae. "Iredell, Curry and Burkett, and all three of them are stars, as you know as well as I do." "They're cracks, every one of them," agreed Joe. "And they're among the last men that I'd suspect of doing anything of the kind. What makes you think they've been approached?" "A lot of things," replied McRae. "In the first place, I have noticed that they are stiff and offish in their manner when I speak to them. Then, too, I've come across them several times lately with their heads together, and when they saw me coming they'd break apart and start talking of something else, as if I had interrupted them. Beside that, all three have struck me lately for a raise in salary next season." "That's nothing new for ball players," said Joe, with a smile. "No," admitted McRae, an answering smile relieving the gravity of his face for the moment. "And I stand ready of my own accord to give the boys a substantial increase on last year's pay because of their winning the pennant. But what these three asked for was beyond all reason, and made me think there was a nigger in the woodpile. They either had had a big offer from somebody else and were using that as a club to hold me up with, or else they were just trying to give themselves a better excuse for jumping." "How long do their contracts have to run?" asked Joe. "Iredell has one year more and Curry and Burkett are signed up for two years yet," replied the Giants' manager. "Of course I could try to hold them to their contracts, but you know as well as I do that baseball contracts are more a matter of honesty than of legal obligation. If a man is straight, he'll keep it, if he's crooked, he'll break it. And you know what a hole it would leave in the Giant team if those three men went over the fence. There isn't a heavier slugger in the team than Burkett, except Larry. His batting average this year was .332, and as a fielding first baseman he's the class of the league." "You're right there," acquiesced Joe, as he recalled the ease and precision with which Burkett took them on either side and dug them out of the dirt. "He's saved a game for me many and many a time."