Page:Lefty o' the Bush.djvu/180

 player every protection possible under ordinary circumstances, but there is nothing ordinary about this case, and you've certainly put yourself in bad by the course you have pursued. If I had a claim on a coveted player, similar to that which Riley professes to hold on you, I'd surely push it to the limit."

"I don't know whether or not I have made the statement to you personally," said Lefty grimly, "but I will tell you now that Mike Riley has no claim whatever upon me."

"How about the letter he says you wrote him last December, in response to his offer?"

"If such a letter was written him, it was a declination of the offer, and therefore put an end to negotiations. A man can't be bound to a manager by any rule simply because he writes refusing the offer."

"Not unless that refusal is, on its face, a suggestion or a proposition that a higher offer might be considered. In the latter case, negotiations would still be pending. Do you assert that your letter to Riley gave him to understand distinctly that you would not take any offer from him into consideration, Hazelton?"

"I have not said that I ever wrote Riley a letter, or ever received one from him; and while I am