"Well, that's simply because it's baseball," argued Joe. "You know just as well as I do that that's the only way the game can be carried on. It wouldn't last a month if players started jumping from one team to another, or from one league to another. The public would lose all interest in it, and it's the public that pays our salaries." "Pays our salaries!" snapped Iredell. "Puts money in the hands of the owners, you mean. They get the feast and we get the crumbs. What's our measly salary compared with what they get? I was just reading in the paper that the Giants cleaned up two hundred thousand dollars this year, net profit, and yet it's the players that bring this money in at the gate." "Yes," Joe admitted. "But they are the men who put up the capital and take the chances. Suppose they had lost two hundred thousand dollars this year. We'd have had our salaries just the same." Just then Burkett and Curry came along and dropped into seats beside the pair. "Hello, Red," greeted Joe, at the same time nodding to Burkett. "How are your ribs feeling, after that bear hug you got this afternoon?" Curry grinned. "That's all right," he said. "But he never touched me with the ball. And that umpire was a boob not to give me the run." "What were you fellows talking about so earnestly?" asked Burkett, with some curiosity. "Oh, jug-handled things like baseball contracts," responded Iredell. "They're the bunk all right," declared Burkett, emphatically. "Bunk is right," said Curry. "What's the use of quarreling with your bread and butter?" asked Joe good-naturedly. "What's the use of bread and butter, if you can have cake and ought to have it?" Iredell came back at him. "Cake is good," agreed Joe, "but the point is that if a man has agreed to take bread and butter, it's up to him to stand by his agreement. A man's word is the best thing he has, and if he is a man he'll hold to it." "You seem to be taking a lot for granted, Joe," said Burkett, a little stiffly. "Who is talking of breaking his word? We've got a right to talk about our contracts, haven't we, when we think the owners are getting the best end of the deal?" "Sure thing," said Joe genially. "It's every man's privilege to kick, but the time to kick is before one makes an agreement, not when kicking won't do any good." "Maybe it can do some good," said Curry significantly. "How so?" asked Joe innocently. "No other club in the American or National League would take us if we broke away from the Giants." "There are other leagues," remarked Iredell. "Surely. The minors," replied Joe, again purposely misunderstanding. "But who wants to be a busher?" "There's the All-Star League that's just forming," suggested Burkett, with a swift look at his two companions. "'All-Star,'" repeated Joe, a little contemptuously. "That sounds good, but where are they going to get the stars?"