Baseball Joe Around the World Part 21

"And everybody has got a right to go into baseball if he feels like investing his money that way."

"Right again. But if he wants to make any headway in the great national game, he has got to play it on the level right from the start. If he doesn't do that, he may, for a certain length of time, hoodwink the public. But, as I said before, sooner or later he'll be exposed; and you know as well as I do that the public will not stand for any underhand work in any line of sports. I've talked, not alone to baseball men, but also to football men, runners, skaters, and even prize fighters, and they have all said exactly the same thing--that the great majority of men want their sports kept clean."

There was no reply to this and Joe rose to his feet.

"But what's the use of talking?" he added. "Let the new league do as it likes. There's one bully thing, anyway, that it won't touch--our Giants.

Whatever it does to the other teams, we will all stick together. We'll stand by Robbie and McRae till the last gun's fired. So long, fellows, see you later."

He strode off down the corridor, leaving three silent men to stare after his retreating figure thoughtfully.

CHAPTER XVII

"MAN OVERBOARD"

Baseball Joe found Jim waiting for him near the clerk's desk.

"Been having quite a confab," remarked the latter.

"Yes," replied Joe carelessly. "Burkett and Red came along and we had a fanfest."

The next day was the first of their real vacation, and they spent the morning strolling about the city and marveling at the quick recovery it had made from the earthquake. They had a sumptuous dinner on the veranda of the Cliff House, where they had a full view of the famous harbor and watched the seals sporting on the rocks.

The commerce of the port was in full swing, and out through the Golden Gate pa.s.sed great fleets with their precious argosies bound for the Orient, for immobile China, for restless and awakened j.a.pan, for the islands of the sea, for the lands of the lotus and the palm, of minaret and mosque and paG.o.da, for all the realms of mystery and romance that lie beneath the Southern Cross.

It would have been a wrench to tear themselves away had it been any other day than this, but to-day was the one to which they had looked eagerly forward through all the month of exhibition playing, since they had left the quiet home at Riverside, and they kept looking at their watches to see if it were not time to go to the train and meet the girls.

They were at the station long before the appointed time, and when at last the Overland Flyer drew in they scanned each Pullman anxiously to catch a sight of two charming faces.

They were not kept long in suspense, for down the steps of the second car tripped Clara and Mabel, looking more wonderfully alluring than ever, although a month before neither Jim nor Joe would have admitted that such a thing were possible.

Reggie, too, was there, dressed "to the limit" as usual, and with his supposed English accent twice as p.r.o.nounced as ever.

But Reggie for the moment did not count, compared with the lovely charges whom he had brought across the continent. Of course, the boys felt grateful to him, but their eyes and their thoughts were fastened on his two charming companions.

"I'm awfully glad you've got here at last," cried Joe, as he rushed up to Mabel and caught her by both hands. He would have liked very much to have kissed her, but did not dare do it in such a public place.

"Oh, what a grand trip we've had!" declared Clara, as she shook hands first with Jim and then with her brother. "I never had any idea our country was so big and so magnificent."

"That's just what Joe and I were remarking on our trip across the Rockies," answered Jim. He could not take his eyes from the face of his chum's sister. Clara looked the picture of health, showing that the trip from her little home town had done her a world of good.

But if Clara looked good, Mabel looked even better--at least in the eyes of Joe. He could not keep his gaze from her face. And she was certainly just as glad to see him.

"Ye-es, it was quite a trip, don't you know," remarked Reggie. "I met several bally good chaps on the way, so the time pa.s.sed quickly enough.

But I'm glad to be here, and hope that before long we'll be on shipboard."

"Oh, I'm so excited to think that I'm going to take a real ocean trip!"

burst out Clara. "Just to think of it--a girl like me going around the world! I never dreamed I'd get that far."

"And just think of the many queer sights we'll see!" broke in Mabel. "And the queer people we'll meet!"

The girls were all on the _qui vive_ with excitement in their antic.i.p.ation of the delightful trip that lay before them, and there were no pauses in their conversation on the way to the hotel.

Here they were introduced to the other members of the party, which by this time had increased to large proportions, for beside the ladies who had accompanied the players across the continent, many others had followed the same plan as Mabel and Clara and joined their friends in San Francisco.

Altogether, there were more than a hundred of the tourists, of whom perhaps a third were women.

All were out for a good time, and the atmosphere of good will and jollity was infectious. There was an utter absence of sn.o.bbery and affectation, and the boys were delighted to see how quickly the girls fell into the spirit of the gathering and with their own fun and high spirits added more than their quota to the general hilarity.

That night there was a big banquet given to the tourists by the railroad officials who had had the party in charge from the beginning and by some of the leading citizens of San Francisco. It was a jolly occasion, where for once in affairs of the kind the "flowing bowl" was notable for its absence. The stalwart, clear-eyed athletes who, with their friends, were the guests of the occasion, had no use for the cup that both cheers and inebriates.

A striking feature of the table decorations was a cake weighing one hundred and twenty-five pounds, on whose summit was a bat and ball, and whose frosted slopes were accurate representations of the Polo Grounds and the baseball park at Chicago. It is needless to say how p.r.o.nounced a hit this made with the "fans" of both s.e.xes. It was a great send-off to the globe-encircling baseball teams.

The next day, Joe and Jim took the girls down to the pier to see the ship on which they were to sail. It was a splendid craft of twenty thousand tons and sumptuously fitted up. The girls exclaimed at the beauty of her lines and the superb decoration of the cabins and saloons.

"The _Empress of j.a.pan_!" read Clara, as she scanned the name on the steamer's stern.

"Most fittingly named," said Jim gallantly, "since she carries two queens."

"What a pretty compliment," said Clara, as she flashed a radiant look at Jim.

"I'm afraid," said Mabel, "that Jim's been practising on some of the nice girls in the party."

"Have I, Joe?" appealed the accused one. "Haven't I been an anchorite, a sen.o.bite, an archimandrite----"

"Goodness, I thought you were bad," laughed Clara. "But now I know you're worse."

"Keep it up, old man, as long as the 'ites' hold out," said Joe. "I guess there are plenty more in the dictionary. But honest, girls, Jim hasn't looked twice at any girl since he came away from Riverside."

"I've looked more than twice at one girl since yesterday," Jim was beginning, but Clara, flushing rosily, thought it was high time to change the subject.

The next day, with all the party safely on board, the ship weighed anchor, threaded its way through the crowded commerce of the bay and then, dropping its tug, turned its prow definitely toward the east and breasted the billows of the Pacific.

"The last we'll see of Old Glory for many months," remarked Joe, as, standing at the rail, they watched the Stars and Stripes floating out from the flag-pole on the top of the government station.

"Not so long as that," corrected Jim. "We will still be on the soil of G.o.d's country when we reach Hawaii seven days from now."

The first two days of the voyage pa.s.sed delightfully. The girls proved good sailors, and had the laugh on many of the so-called stronger s.e.x, who were conspicuous by their absence from the table during that period.

On the afternoon of the third day out, Joe and Mabel were pacing the deck with Jim and Clara at a discreet distance behind them. It was astonishing how willing each pair was not to intrude upon the other.

Suddenly there was a tumult of excited exclamations near the stern of the vessel, and then above it rose a shout that is never heard at sea without a chill of terror.

"Man overboard!"