Evening star., 1922-12-03

THERE WERE TWO SHOTS
started the season Cocky Lewis was
in wrong with every man on the team.
Did you ever play poker with guy
who could draw two cards to a flush
an fill? An make inside straights?
An then keep right on doin' it night
after night? A guy who can do that
an does it has got to have a wonder
full disposition to keep any friends.
Cocky Lewis did it, He did 1t right
along, an he had a disposition that
would make you hate him. even il
you were winning his money. which
none of US ever did.
He got the sport writer's with the
team set against him before he'd
been with US two weeks. When they
wrote that he was good-which he
Washed go round an bawl 'em out
for not havin' made their stories
stronger. An when they wrote that
which they also did he'd laugh at 'em
and tell 'em sure he was SWELL
headed: he had something to be
well-headed ABOUT.
So when we got home the only
friends he had left in the world were
the fans an Mary Horton.
1t was all right with me about the
fans, but the Mary Horton thing
made me sore. Mary was my sisters
kid. an I'd had her with me ever
since her mother died, when the
youngster was five. Mary was twenty
one the year Cocky Lewis first came
up. an she was one little peach. Her
time had been divided between board
in schools an college. press stands
an ball parks, Pullmans an hotels
Her friends ran all the way from
high brow professors an multi mil
lionaires' kids on down to rough
neck ball players. I'd always been
awful proud Of the way she stayed
clear of the hundred an one young
ships that tried to make love to her.
She hated a case of swelled head as
much as I did. And yet she fell for
Cocky Lewis!
Hes a nice boy, uncle" she told
me when I tried to set her straight
on him. IT know what you think
about him. an 1 know what everybody
else on the team thinks. an you're
all wrong. Mr.. Lewis has only two
big faults, an I'm willin' to overlook
Them
only two" 1 says to her. What
two Of the ten thousand, seven hun
nized?"
Hes bashful." she says. "an' he
lacks confidence in himself"
Mary" 1 says to her. II wish had
a daughter of my own" I says. II
wish I had her just 80 I could profit
by what you've taught me, an never
send her to college,"
Il know what you think" Mary
says to me. but you're wrong, uncle;
you're wrong, an I'm right"
X \ + X
90 they got engaged, an that was
~ that up to the time Of that game
with Chicago, the first week In July.
I'm not one of those that says Dusty
Hanson meant to do it. 1 don't like
Dusty an I never did, but he's no
murderer. Cocky was always crowdin'
the plate, anyway. an Dusty wasn't
the first one who burned 'em In high
an inside to drive him back. OF
course. Dusty expected the boy to
duck. an why he didn't do it nobody
knows. Cocky himself could never
explain it. I talked to him about 1t
while he was in the hospital. He
said he seen the ball comm an the
next thing he remembered he was in
bed.
1t was while he was delirious from
that crack on the bean that I first
/, learned about the luck piece. It was
4 gold-mounted rabbits foot, at
tached to an old twenty-dollar gold
piece The kid got to calm for it
in the ambulance before we got him
to the hospital. II want Uncle Jim's
luck piece" he kept sayin' over an
over again. "Something's happened to
me. I want Uncle Jim's luck piece!
want it! I tell you something's
happened, an I want Uncle Jlm's luck
piece"
He kept on an on like that, an
none of US knew what he was talkin'
about till Mary showed up. AS soon
she told me what to get. 1 frisked
his clothes an I found this rabbits
foot with the twenty dollar gold piece
in a little special trick pocket in the
inside of his vest An you know
what? He had a lock on that pocket!
Yes, he did! 1t was lined with leather
an had a leather flop with one O.
these little bits Of locks on 1t, like
you see on jewelry boxes.
got 1t out an took it up to him.
He was unconscious, all right But
boy! He had sense alive in him
somewhere to close his hand over
that luck piece when I put it in his
palm, an he never let loose Of 1t for
all the time he was delirious. Pretty
near three weeks, that was. an he
held that luck piece in his hand all
that time.
There was q dozen times that the