“Dead! You don’t say!” The stranger was visibly perturbed. “Poor McQuade! He never had much head for business. I suppose he died poor?”
“He died owin’ me two thousand,” said Colonel Carson grimly. “I got a mortgage on his place over by the river, right in my safe. I’m goin’ to foreclose, too.”
“Son an’ widder,” jerked the other. “Son’s ketchin’ on Merriwell’s team.”
John Smith glanced around. The town constable stood at a little distance, and the stranger pointed at him.
“That’s the constable, isn’t it, Carson? Well, let’s bring him into your office, and if we can make a little bet, he could be stakeholder. Eh?”
Colonel Carson grinned to himself, and agreed with some show of hesitation. With the constable following, they entered the bank and sat down in the owner’s private room.
“Look here, Carson,” said the stranger affably. “I’ve been thinking this thing over. McQuade used to be an old friend of mine, and I hate to think of his widow and son being left out in the cold. I tell you what I’ll do. I’ll set two thousand dollars against that mortgage you hold.
“If you win, the money’s yours. If the Clippers are beaten, then I get the mortgage. How does that sound?”
“No good,” stated Carson firmly. “The McQuade place is worth a heap more’n that sum, Smith. I got that mortgage cheap.”
“Well,” he remarked, replacing the bill book which he had taken from his inner pocket, “I don’t know that I’m very anxious to bet against the Clippers, anyway. I’d risk the sum for the sake of McQuade’s family, out of pure sentiment, but---- Well, I’ll hang about town and see if I can’t get a bit of money down on your team. After all, it’s safer.”
He rose, with a gesture of dismissal to the constable.
“Hold on!” cried Colonel Carson. “You ain’t in earnest, Smith?”
“Why, of course!” said the stranger. “Merriwell’s team is untried and green. After all, I might be foolish----”
“Set down, set down,” and the colonel reached out to his safe. “I’ve got that mortgage right here. I reckon I’ll take a chance, Smith.”
Every person in town, young and old, was a baseball enthusiast. The grand stand and bleachers of the club grounds were invariably crowded every Saturday. But on this one Saturday it seemed as though the town had gone crazy over the game.