Part 36 (1/2)

I

The base-ball season had closed, and we were walking down Fifth avenue, Larry Moore and I. We were discussing the final series for the champions.h.i.+p, and my friend was estimating his chances of again pitching the Giants to the top, when a sudden jam on the avenue left us an instant looking face to face at a woman and a child seated in a luxurious victoria.

Larry Moore, who had hold of my arm, dropped it quickly and wavered in his walk. The woman caught her breath and put her m.u.f.f hastily to her face; but the child saw us without surprise. All had pa.s.sed within a second, yet I retained a vivid impression of a woman of strange attraction, elegant and indolent, with something in her face which left me desirous of seeing it again, and of a pretty child who seemed a little too serious for that happy age. Larry Moore forgot what he had begun to say. He spoke no further word, and I, in glancing at his face, comprehended that, incredible as it seemed, there was some bond between the woman I had seen and this raw-boned, big-framed, and big-hearted idol of the bleachers.

Without comment I followed Larry Moore, serving his mood as he immediately left the avenue and went east. At first he went with excited strides, then he slowed down to a profound and musing gait, then he halted, laid his hand heavily on my shoulder, and said:

”Get into the car, Bob. Come up to the rooms.”

I understood that he wished to speak to me of what had happened, and I followed. We went thus, without another word exchanged, to his rooms, and entered the little parlor hung with the trophies of his career, which I looked at with some curiosity. On the mantel in the center I saw at once a large photograph of the Hon. Joseph Gilday, a corporation lawyer of whom we reporters told many hard things, a picture I did not expect to find here among the photographs of the sporting celebrities who had sent their regards to my friend of the diamond. In some perplexity I approached and saw across the bottom written in large firm letters: ”I'm proud to know you, Larry Moore.”

I smiled, for the tribute of the great man of the law seemed incongruous here to me, who knew of old my simple-minded, simple-hearted friend whom, the truth be told, I patronized perforce. Then I looked about more carefully, and saw a dozen photographs of a woman, sometimes alone, sometimes holding a pretty child, and the faces were the faces I had seen in the victoria. I feigned not to have seen them; but Larry, who had watched me, said:

”Look again, Bob; for that is the woman you saw in the carriage, and that is the child.”

So I took up a photograph and looked at it long. The face had something more dangerous than beauty in it--the face of a Cleopatra with a look in the deep restless eyes I did not fancy; but I did not tell that to Larry Moore. Then I put it back in its place and turned and said gravely:

”Are you sure that you want to tell me, Larry Moore?”

”I do,” he said. ”Sit down.”

He did not seek preliminaries, as I should have done, but began at once, simply and directly--doubtless he was retelling the story more to himself than to me.

”She was called f.a.n.n.y Montrose,” he said, ”a slip of a girl, with wonderful golden hair, and big black eyes that made me tremble, the day I went into the factory at Bridgeport, the day I fell in love. 'I'm Larry Moore; you may have heard of me,' I said, going straight up to her when the whistle blew that night, 'and I'd like to walk home with you, f.a.n.n.y Montrose.'

”She drew back sort of quick, and I thought she'd been hearing tales of me up in Fall River; so I said: 'I only meant to be polite. You may have heard a lot of bad of me, and a lot of it's true, but you never heard of Larry Moore's being disrespectful to a lady,' and I looked her in the eye and said: 'Will you let me walk home with you, f.a.n.n.y Montrose?'

”She swung on her foot a moment, and then she said: 'I will.'

”I heard a laugh go up at that, and turned round, with the bit in my teeth; but it was only the women, and you can't touch them. f.a.n.n.y Montrose hurried on, and I saw she was upset by it, so I said humbly: 'You're not sorry now, are you?'

”'Oh, no,' she said.

”'Will you catch hold of my arm?' I asked her.

”She looked first in my face, and then she slipped in her hand so prettily that it sent all the words from my tongue. 'You've just come to Bridgeport, ain't you?' she said timidly.

”'I have,' I said, 'and I want you to know the truth. I came because I had to get out of Fall River. I had a sc.r.a.p--more than one of them.'

”'Did you lick your man?' she said, glancing at me.

”'I licked every one of them, and it was good and fair fighting--if I was on a tear,' I said; 'but I'm ashamed of it now.'

”'You're Larry Moore, who pitched on the Fall Rivers last season?' she said.

”'I am.'

”'You can pitch some!' she said with a nod.