Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-01-08

field. constituted my ~inglorious record.
| was back in my old batting slump.
deeper than u begged steer.
We lost the two games and the pen
nant. and the only Kisses that crowd
bestowed on anybody We're directed at
the troubled head of Walloper Murphy.
Two days later | got a call from my
special policeman. who was more of a
sleuth than | gave him credit for being.
He had followed a clew that led him to
one of the biggest hotels in the city.
My google eyed man had been seen go
ing in there. carrying a bat that an
swered the description of the war club
of Dinjir Meb.
l was at the hotel us quick as gasO-
line and a daredevil chauffeur could
take me. l hadn't any more than
stepped into the lobby than | saw Doc
Bilstruther sitting comfortably in an
armchair and reading a pink sporting
section. ! grabbed him by the shoulder
and fairly yelled:
You're mixed up in all this business.
Now you tell me where Dinjir Meb has
taken my batls
81 see it's all up, Walloper." says
Doc. gentle as a lamb. Come up to
my room and I'll tell you the hull
thing"
| dismissed the special with my bless
ing and his wage, and no sooner had l
entered Docs room than | saw Dinjir
AIahtc hot lau.ai..p In fhn arnnr +
pounced upon it. eager-like, and as /
stood there in the middle of the room,
grooming over that stick and swinging
1t, Doc lit a cigar and laughed.
Its a shame to tell you about it,"
he said. I've a good notion to freeze
up"
"At your peril" | says. and so he
told me everything.
I'm the first place there amt any
Dinjir Meb," he says. giving me the
cold shock right at the start. I'm
all the Dinjir Meb there eve was.
You know I've always been interested
in the study of the effect of the imagi-
nation upon the human organism. l
noticed your batting slump and | deter
mined to find out how much of it was
real and how much of it was due to
your w realization that you were APP
preaching the age when, according to
all physical laws. your eyes must begin
to fail a little. | happened to be in
Calcutta, and it occurred to me that a
little touch Of oriental mysticism would
help along the case. | got this cheap
bat of an American business mana
baseball fan in exile. 1t probably didn't
cost over four bits at the most and is
a bat that you wouldn't look at any
more than Kubelik would pick out a
mail order fiddle instead of a Strad.
"But the charm of the bat was in the
story that accompanied it. You thought
the bat had magic qualities, and that
thought gave you back all the self con-
fidence you had lost. You hit straight
and true and picked out the good ones,
and that was why you sent SO many
balls over the fence. After | had
reached over that little gate and had
snatched the bat from your guardians
hand 1t was different with you. You
lost your self confidence once more
and were back where you stood before
the bat reached me. That was why
you were struck out seven times and
lost the pennant for your team. It's
been a mighty interesting case for me,
and Pm going to write it up for my
medical journal. leaving out names, Of
course. You don't object, do youY'
l just stood swinging the bat without
answering. All the Jingle had gone out
of my arms. The bat, as l looked at it,
assumed its true proportions IS an i'll