As he listened, Garrity's face showed his anger; his breath came short and quick; his eyes were blazing with the fury of a wild animal. "Have you got that all out of your system?" he asked, when Lefty stopped. "You're a wise gazabo, ain't you? You know all about baseball and players and such things! You've got a head bigger than a balloon. But it'll shrink, give it time. It's plain you think you really know how to manage a team. By the middle of the season, and maybe considerable before that, your head will be about the size of a bird shot. And you'll know a lot more then than you do now, believe me!" The southpaw laughed in his face. "Don't lose your temper," he advised, "just because you couldn't put a raw one over on me. Go ahead and ask waivers on Pendexter. You'll get mine. I wouldn't carry him on my team if you agreed to pay his season's salary for me. My trade with Frazer gave you the notion that you could pick another good man off me, and weaken the Stockings still more. You fooled yourself that time, Garrity. Perhaps you'll find out before long that you are fooling yourself in other ways." "What do you mean by that?" "I'll let you guess. But just remember what Bobby Burns said about 'the best-laid plans o' mice and men.'" With this, Locke passed on, leaving the wrathy owner of the Rockets glaring after him. "You poor fool!" muttered Garrity. "I'll have you whimpering like a whipped dog before I'm done with you. Your head's liable to roll into the basket before the season opens. When the time comes, I'll lift my finger, and the ax'll fall." CHAPTER XXVIII THE GAGE OF WAR Janet had let some friends know that she was in the city, and had been invited out to a matinee performance at one of the theaters. Lefty urged her to go. "That's better than sitting around the rooms alone," he said, "and I'll be so busy that I can't be with you." So when, shortly after lunch, her friends appeared in a comfortable limousine, they had little trouble in persuading her to join them. Kennedy dropped in a little later, and Locke told him of Garrity's proposed trade. "He sure did pick you for a mark," said the ex-manager. "You handed it to him straight about Mundy and Pendexter. You're going to need a pair of fast boys to stop the holes, but there's better men in the minors than those two. You've got better ones on the reserve list. Besides that, I'm doin' a little free scouting on my own hook. I've got friends scattered all over the country. Whenever an old player, gone to the scraps, has touched me up for a five or a ten, I've stood for the touch, asking him to keep his eyes open for anything good he might run across in the sticks. That way I've got a good deal of inexpensive scouting done for me. Maybe it'll be worth something in this pinch. I'm going to interview an old friend over in Jersey this afternoon." "I'm not worrying over players just now," said Lefty. "I'm anxious to get hold of Stillman."