"Seems to me you look worried. I don't wonder, though, considering the job they've handed you. Some job piecing together the tattered remnants, hey? It's going to make you a busy little manager." "I'm busy now," said the southpaw, moving as if to pass on; but Garrity detained him. "You've got some positions to fill. The Feds got at you hard. Shame to see a team like the Stockings shot to pieces. You've got three or four bad holes, and I'd like to help you." "_You_ would?" "Sure. I've got the very lads you need, too--Mundy and Pendexter. Both fast men. They work together like two parts of a machine. Mundy covers the short field like Maranville, and Pendexter sure can play that keystone cushion. They're the boys for you." "How's it happen you are willing to let go of them?" asked Locke, feeling some curiosity to know what lay behind this particular proposition. "Well, this is between us, mind? I'd just about as soon give up an eye as part with either Mundy or Pendexter, but it's easier to lose them than dispense with Pressly, my third sacker. That's been the trouble with my team. Pressly loves Mundy and Pendexter as he loves aconite, and they reciprocate. You know what a feud like that means. It knocks the bottom out of any team. I can't fill Pressly's place, but I've got a couple of youngsters that I can work in at short and second. I'm not going through another season with those three scrapping. You need the very players I'm willing to part with, and there we are." Locke knew the man was not honest, and that he was holding something up his sleeve. In order to make him show his hand, the southpaw asked: "What do you want for Mundy and Pendexter?" Garrity considered for a minute. "Well," he answered slowly, "I'll trade them with you for Spider Grant--and cash." Lefty stared at him in amazement. Was it possible the man could think he was such a soft mark? He laughed loudly. "You don't want much, do you, Garrity? The 'and cash' was a capper! Man, I wouldn't trade you Spider Grant for your whole team--and cash!" The owner of the Rockets scowled, glaring at Locke, the corners of his thick-lipped mouth drooping. "Oh, you wouldn't, hey?" he growled huskily. "I suppose you think that's a joke?" "Not at all; it's serious. I couldn't use the players you offer, anyhow. Mundy does cover the short field like Rabbit Maranville--sometimes; but he's got a yellow streak, and he quits. Pendexter knows how to play second, and at the beginning of last season he hit like old Sockalexis when the Indian first broke into the league. But the pitchers all got wise to his weak spot, close and across the knees, and from a three-hundred-and-sixty batter he slumped into the two-hundred class. You were thinking of asking for waivers on him. Spider Grant--and cash--for that pair! I didn't imagine that even you could think me such a boob."