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"Are you married?" I ast him.

"No," he says. "I never run round much with girls, except to shows onct in a wile and parties and dances and roller skatin’. "

"Never take ’em to the prize fights, eh?" says Carey.

"We don’t have no real good bouts," says Ike. "Just bush stuff. And I never figured a boxin’ match was a place for the ladies. "

Well, after supper he pulled a cigar out and lit it. I was just goin’ to ask him what he done it for, but he beat me to it.

"Kind o’ rests a man to smoke after a good work-out," he says. "Kind o’ settles a man’s supper, too. "

"Looks like a pretty good cigar," says Carey.

"Yes," says Ike. "A friend o’ mine give it to me—a fella in Kansas City that runs a billiard room. "

"Do you play billiards?" I ast him.

"I used to play a fair game," he says. "I’m all out o’ practice now—can’t hardly make a shot. "

We coaxed him into a four-handed battle, him and Carey against Jack Mack and I. Say, he couldn’t play billiards as good as Willie Hoppe; not quite. But to hear him tell it, he didn’t make a good shot all evenin’. I’d leave him an awful-lookin’ layout and he’d gather ’em up in one try and then run a couple o’ hundred, and between every carom he’d say he’d put too much stuff on the ball, or the English didn’t take, or the table wasn’t true, or his stick was crooked, or somethin’. And all the time he had the balls actin’ like they was Dutch soldiers and him Kaiser William. We started out to play fifty points, but we had to make it a thousand so as I and Jack and Carey could try the table.

The four of us set round the lobby a wile after we was through playin’, and when it got along toward bedtime Carey whispered to me and says:

"Ike’d like to go to bed, but he can’t think up no excuse. "

Carey hadn’t hardly finished whisperin’ when Ike got up and pulled it:

"Well, good night, boys," he says. "I ain’t sleepy, but I got some gravel in my shoes and it’s killin’ my feet. "

We knowed he hadn’t never left the hotel since we’d came in from the grounds and changed our clo’es. So Carey says:

"I should think they’d take them gravel pits out o’ the billiard room. "

But Ike was already on his way to the elevator, limpin’.

"He’s got the world beat," says Carey to Jack and I. "I’ve knew lots o’ guys that had an alibi for every mistake they made; I’ve heard pitchers say that the ball slipped when somebody cracked one off’n ’em; I’ve heard infielders complain of a sore arm after heavin’ one into the stand, and I’ve saw outfielders tooken sick with a dizzy spell when they’ve misjudged a fly ball. But this baby can’t even go to bed without apologizin’, and I bet he excuses himself to the razor when he gets ready to shave. "

"And at that," says Jack, "he’s goin’ to make us a good man. "

"Yes," says Carey, "unless rheumatism keeps his battin’ average down to . 400. "

Well, sir, Ike kept whalin’ away at the ball all through the trip till everybody knowed he’d won a job. Cap had him in there regular the last few exhibition games and told the newspaper boys a week before the season opened that he was goin’ to start him in Kane’s place.

"You’re there, kid," says Carey to Ike, the night Cap made the ‘nnouncement. "They ain’t many boys that wins a big league berth their third year out. "