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diff --git a/27338.txt b/27338.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e992db0 --- /dev/null +++ b/27338.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7113 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Baseball Joe Around the World, by Lester Chadwick + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Baseball Joe Around the World + Pitching on a Grand Tour + +Author: Lester Chadwick + +Release Date: November 27, 2008 [EBook #27338] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BASEBALL JOE AROUND THE WORLD *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank, Juliet Sutherland and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: IT WAS A HAMMER-AND-TONGS CONFLICT FROM START TO FINISH. +_Baseball Joe Around the World_ Page 221] + + + + +BASEBALL JOE + +AROUND THE WORLD + +or + +Pitching on a Grand Tour + +By LESTER CHADWICK + +AUTHOR OF + +"BASEBALL JOE OF THE SILVER STARS," "BASEBALL JOE IN THE BIG LEAGUE," +"THE RIVAL PITCHERS," "THE RIGHT-OARED VICTORS," ETC. + +ILLUSTRATED + +New York + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY + + + + +BOOKS BY LESTER CHADWICK + +THE BASEBALL JOE SERIES +12mo. Cloth. Illustrated + +BASEBALL JOE OF THE SILVER STARS +BASEBALL JOE ON THE SCHOOL NINE +BASEBALL JOE AT YALE +BASEBALL JOE IN THE CENTRAL LEAGUE +BASEBALL JOE IN THE BIG LEAGUE +BASEBALL JOE ON THE GIANTS +BASEBALL JOE IN THE WORLD SERIES +BASEBALL JOE AROUND THE WORLD + +THE COLLEGE SPORTS SERIES +12 mo. Cloth. Illustrated + +THE RIVAL PITCHERS +A QUARTERBACK'S PLUCK +BATTING TO WIN +THE WINNING TOUCHDOWN +THE EIGHT-OARED VICTORS + +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, New York + +Copyright, 1918, by +Cupples & Leon Company + +Baseball Joe Around the World + +Printed in U. S. A. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER PAGE + I In Deadly Peril 1 + II Quick As Lightning 12 + III The Stranger's Visit 22 + IV The Top Of The Wave 32 + V Lucky Joe 40 + VI Circling The Globe 49 + VII The Gathering Of The Clans 60 + VIII The Rival Teams 67 + IX The Under Dog 75 + X By A Hair 84 + XI A Close Call 93 + XII A Dastardly Attack 103 + XIII Danger Signals 112 + XIV A Weird Game 119 + XV The Bewildered Umpire 128 + XVI Putting Them Over 135 + XVII "Man Overboard" 143 + XVIII One Strike And Out 150 + XIX Braxton Joins The Party 155 + XX In Mikado Land 164 + XXI Running Amuck 175 + XXII Taking A Chance 183 + XXIII An Embarrassed Rescuer 191 + XXIV The Blow Falls 200 + XXV The Cobra In The Room 207 + XXVI In The Shadow Of The Pyramids 213 + XXVII The Signed Contract 220 + XXVIII Whirlwind Pitching 227 + XXIX The Ruined Castle 234 + XXX Brought To Book--Conclusion 240 + + + + +BASEBALL JOE AROUND +THE WORLD + + + + +CHAPTER I + +IN DEADLY PERIL + + +"Great Scott! Look at this!" + +Joe Matson, or "Baseball Joe," as he was better known throughout the +country, sprang to his feet and held out a New York paper with headlines +which took up a third of the page. + +There were three other occupants of the room in the cozy home at +Riverside, where Joe had come to rest up after his glorious victory in the +last game of the World's Series, and they looked up in surprise and some +alarm. + +"Land's sakes!" exclaimed his mother, pausing just as she was about to +bite off a thread. "You gave me such a start, Joe! What on earth has +happened?" + +"What's got my little brother so excited?" mocked his pretty sister, +Clara. + +"Has an earthquake destroyed the Polo Grounds?" drawled Jim Barclay, +Joe's special chum and fellow pitcher on the Giant team. + +"Not so bad as that," replied Joe, cooling down a bit; "but it's something +that will make McRae and the whole Polo Grounds outfit throw a fit if it's +true." + +Jim snatched the paper from Joe's hands, with the familiarity born of long +acquaintance, and as his eyes fell on the headlines he gave a whistle of +surprise. + +"'Third Major League a Certainty,'" he read. "Gee whiz, Joe! I don't +wonder it upset you. That's news for fair." + +"Is that all?" pouted Clara, who had been having a very interesting +conversation with handsome Jim Barclay, and did not relish being +interrupted. + +Mrs. Matson also looked relieved and resumed her sewing. + +"Is that all?" cried Joe, as he began to pace the floor excitedly. "I tell +you, Sis, it's plenty. If it's true, it means the old Brotherhood days all +over again. It means a fight to disrupt the National and the American +Leagues. It means all sorts of trickery and breaking of contracts. It +means distrust and suspicion between the members of the different teams. +It means--oh, well, what doesn't it mean? I'd rather lose a thousand +dollars than know that the news is true." + +"But perhaps it isn't true," suggested Clara, sobered a little by her +brother's earnestness. "You can't believe half the things you see in the +papers." + +"Will it hurt your position with the Giants, Joe?" asked Mrs. Matson, her +motherly instincts taking alarm at anything that threatened her idolized +son. + +Joe stopped beside his mother's chair and patted her head affectionately. + +"Not for a long time if at all, Momsey," he replied reassuringly. "My +contract with the Giants has two years to run, and it's as good as gold, +even if I didn't throw a ball in all that time. It wasn't the money I was +thinking about. As a matter of fact, I could squeeze double the money out +of McRae, if I were mean enough to take advantage of him. It's the damage +that will be done to the game that's bothering me." + +"Perhaps it won't be as bad as you think," ventured his mother. "You know +the old saying that 'the worst things that befall us are the things that +never happen.'" + +"That's the way to look at it," broke in Jim heartily. "Let's take a +squint at the whole article and see how much fire there is in all this +smoke." + +"And read it out loud," said Clara. "I'm just as much of a baseball fan as +either of you two. And Momsey is, too, after all the World's Series games +she's seen played." + +It is to be feared that Mrs. Matson's eyes had been so riveted on Joe +alone, in that memorable Series when he had pitched his team to victory, +that she had not picked up many points about the game in general. But +anything that concerned her darling boy concerned her as well, and she let +her sewing lie unheeded in her lap as Joe read the story from beginning to +end. + +"Seems to be straight goods," remarked Jim, as Joe threw the paper aside. + +"They've got the money all right," rejoined Joe. "They've got two or three +millionaires who are willing to take a chance and put up the coin." + +"One of the names seems to be rather familiar," remarked Jim, with a +sidewise look at Joe. "Do you remember him?" + +"I remember him," replied Joe grimly, "but I'd bet a dollar against a +plugged nickel that he remembers me better yet." + +"Who is it?" asked Clara with quickened interest. + +"Beckworth Fleming," replied Joe. + +"Rather a pretty name," remarked Mrs. Matson absently. + +"Prettier than he was when Joe got through with him," interposed Jim with +a grin. + +Mrs. Matson looked up, shocked. + +"Oh, I hope Joe didn't hurt him!" she exclaimed. + +"Whatever Joe did was for the good of his soul," laughed Jim. "I can't say +as much for his body." + +"It's all right, Momsey," smiled Joe. "He was insolent to Mabel, and I had +to give him a thrashing. But that's neither here nor there. He's the +spoiled son of a very rich man, and he's one of the men behind this new +league. 'A fool and his money are soon parted,' and he'll probably be +wiser when he gets through with this than he is now." + +"But why shouldn't they start a new league if they want to?" asked Mrs. +Matson. "I should think they had a right to, if they wanted to do it." + +"Of course they have a right to," agreed Joe. "This is a free country, and +any man has a right to go into any legitimate business if he thinks +there's money in it. Neither the National League nor the American League +have a mortgage on the game. But the trouble is that there aren't enough +good players to go round. All the really good ones have been already +gobbled up by the present leagues. If the new league started in with +unknown players, it wouldn't take in enough money to pay the batboys. The +consequence is that it tries to get the players who are already under +contract by making them big offers, and that leads to all sorts of +dishonesty. You take a man who is making three thousand a year and offer +him six if he'll break his contract, and it's a big temptation." + +"They'll be after you, Joe, sure as shooting," remarked Jim. "It would be +a big feather in their cap to start off with copping the greatest pitcher +in the game. They'd be willing to offer you a fortune to get you. They +figure that after that start the other fellows they want will be tumbling +over themselves to get aboard." + +"Let them come," declared Joe. "I'll send them off with a flea in their +ear. They'll find that I'm no contract jumper." + +"I'm sure that you'd never do anything mean," said his mother, looking at +him fondly. + +"There isn't a crooked bone in his head," laughed Clara, making a face at +him as he threatened her with his fist. + +"The contract is enough," said Joe; "but even if I were a free agent, I +wouldn't go with the new league and leave McRae in the hole. I feel that I +owe him a lot for the way he has treated me. He took me from a +second-string team and gave me a chance to make good on the Giants. He +took a chance in offering me a three-year contract in place of one. I'm +getting four thousand, five hundred a year, which is a good big sum +whatever way you look at it. And you remember how promptly he came across +with that thousand dollars for winning twenty games last season." + +"We remember that, don't we, Momsey?" said Clara, patting her mother's +hand. + +"I should say we did," replied Mrs. Matson, while a suspicious moisture +came into her eyes. "Will we ever forget the day when we opened that +letter from the dear boy, and the thousand-dollar bill fell out on the +table? It gave us all the happiest time we have had in all our lives." + +Jim, too, mentally blessed that big bill which had brought the Matson +family to witness the World's Series games and so had enabled him to meet +Joe's charming sister. Perhaps that vivacious young lady read what was +passing in his mind, for her eyes suddenly dropped as they met Jim's +eloquent ones. + +Joe flushed at this reference to his generosity, and Clara was quick to +cover her own slight confusion by rallying her brother. + +"He's blushing!" she declared. + +"I'm not," denied Joe stoutly, getting still redder. + +"You are so," averred his sister in mock alarm. "Stop it, Joe, before it +gets to your hair. I don't want a red-headed brother." + +Joe made a dash at his tormentor, but she eluded him and got into another +room. + +"Come along, Jim," said Joe, picking up his cap. "Let's warm up a little. +We want to keep our salary wings in good condition, and maybe the open +air will help to get the bad taste of the new league out of our mouths." + +They went into an open lot near by and had a half-hour's practice, +pitching to each other at a moderate pace, only now and then unlimbering +some of the fast balls that had been wont to stand opposing batters "on +their heads" in the exciting games of the season just ended. + +"How does the old soup bone feel?" inquired Jim. + +"Fine as silk," replied Joe; "I was afraid I might have strained it in +that last game. But it feels as strong now as it did at the beginning of +the season." + +They had supper a little earlier than usual that night, for with the +exception of Joe's father, who was busy on a new invention, they were all +going to a show that evening at the Riverside Opera House. It promised to +be an interesting entertainment, for the names of several popular actors +appeared on the program. But what made it especially attractive to Joe and +his party was the fact that Nick Altman, the famous pitcher of the "White +Sox" of Chicago, was on the bill for a monologue. Although, being in the +American League, Joe and Jim had never played against him, they knew him +well by reputation and respected him for his ability in their chosen +profession. + +"As a pitcher he sure is classy," remarked Joe. "They say that fast +inshoot of his is a lulu. But that doesn't say that he's any good on the +stage." + +"He's pulling in the coin all right," replied Jim. "They say that his +contract calls for two hundred dollars a week. He won't have to eat +snowballs this winter." + +"Jim tells me that a vaudeville manager offered you five hundred dollars a +week the day after you won the championship for the Giants," said Clara. + +"So he did," replied Joe, "but it would have been a shame to take the +money." + +"Such a shrinking violet," teased his sister. + +"I'm sure he would make a very good actor," said his mother, who would +have been equally sure that he would make a good president of the United +States. + +The night was fine, and the town Opera House was crowded to its capacity. +There was a buzz and whispering as Joe and his party entered and made +their way to their reserved seats near the center of the house, for +Riverside regarded the famous pitcher as one of its greatest assets. He +had given the quiet little village a fame that it would never have had +otherwise. In the words of Sol Cramer, the hotel keeper and village +oracle, Joe had "put Riverside on the map." + +There were three or four sketches and vaudeville turns before Altman, +who, of course, was the chief attraction as far as Joe and his folks were +concerned, came on the stage. He had a clever skit in which baseball +"gags" and "patter" were the chief ingredients, and as he was a natural +humorist his act went "big" in the phrase of the profession. Knowing that +Joe lived in Riverside and would probably be in the audience, Altman +adroitly introduced his name in one of his anecdotes, and was rewarded by +a storm of applause which clearly showed how Joe stood in his home town. + +"You own this town, Joe," laughed Jim, who was seated between him and +Clara--Jim could be depended on these days never to be farther away from +Clara than he could help. + +"Yes," mocked Clara. "Any time he runs for poundkeeper he's sure to be +elected." + +Joe was about to make some laughing retort, when his quick eye caught +sight of something that made the flush fade from his face and his heart +lose a beat. + +From the wing at the left of the stage _a tiny wisp of smoke was +stealing_. + +Like lightning, his quick brain sensed the situation. The house was old +and would burn like tinder. There were only the two exits--one on each +side of the hall. And the place was crowded--and his mother was there--and +Clara! + +His plan was formed in an instant. He must reach a narrow corridor, by +which, out of sight of the audience, he could gain the back of the stage +and stamp out whatever it was that was making that smoke. + +He rose to slip out, but at that moment a big bulk of a man sitting two +seats ahead of him jumped to his feet with a yell. + +"Fire! Fire!" he shouted wildly. "The house is on fire!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +QUICK AS LIGHTNING + + +For one awful instant the crowd sat as though paralyzed. + +But in that instant Joe acted. + +With one powerful leap he reached the frenzied shouter, his fist shot out, +and the man went down as though hit with an axe. + +Up the aisle Joe went like a flash, cleared the orchestra rail at a bound, +and with one more jump was on the stage. + +The audience had risen now and was crowding toward the aisles. Women +screamed, some fainted, and all the conditions were ripe for a panic. + +Above the hubbub, Joe's voice rang out like a trumpet. + +"Keep your seats!" he shouted. "There's no danger. I tell you to keep your +seats." + +The crowd halted uncertainly, fearfully, and Joe took instant advantage of +the hesitation. + +"You know me," he cried. "I tell you there's no danger. Haven't you ever +smelled cigar smoke before?" + +The suggestion was a happy one, and the crowd began to quiet down, +regaining their courage at the sight of that indomitable figure on the +stage. + +Jim had been only two jumps behind Joe in his rush to the front, and while +Joe was calming the crowd Jim had rushed into the wing and dragged down +some draperies that had caught fire from a gas jet. In a moment he had +trampled them underfoot and the danger was over. + +The orchestra had seemed to keep its wits better than the rest of the +throng, and Joe signaled to the leader to strike up a tune. The next +instant the musicians swung into a popular air, and completely reassured, +the people settled down into their seats. + +And while Joe stands there, exulting in his triumph over the panic, it may +be well for the sake of those who have not read the preceding books of +this series to sketch something of his life and adventures up to this +time. + +Joe's first experience in the great game in which he was to become so +famous was gained on the diamond of his own home town. He did so well +there that he soon became known in the towns around as one of the best +players in the county. He had many mishaps and difficulties, and how he +overcame them is told in the first volume of the series, entitled, +"Baseball Joe of the Silver Stars; Or The Rivals of Riverside." + +A little later on, when playing on his school nine, he had obstacles of a +different character to surmount. The bully of the school sought to down +him, but found that he had made a mistake in picking out his victim. Joe's +natural skill and constant practice enabled him to win laurels for himself +and his school on the diamond, and prepared him for the larger field that +awaited him when later on he went to Yale. + +As may be easily understood, with all the competition he had to meet at +the great University his chance was long in coming to prove his class in +the pitching box. But the homely old saying that "it is hard to keep a +squirrel on the ground" was never better exemplified than in his case. +There came a time when the Yale "Bulldog" was hard beset by the Princeton +"Tiger," and Joe was called on to twist the Tiger's tail. How well he did +it and what glory he won for his Alma Mater can be read in the third +volume of the series, entitled: "Baseball Joe at Yale; Or, Pitching for +the College Championship." + +But even at the top notch of his popularity, Joe was restless at college. +He was bright and keen in his studies and had no difficulty in standing up +well in his classes. But all his instincts told him that he was made for +the out-of-door life. + +His mother had hoped that Joe would enter the ministry, but Joe, although +he had the greatest respect for that profession, did not feel that his +life work lay in that direction. He had been so successful in athletic +sports and took such pleasure in them that he yielded to his natural bent +and decided to adopt professional baseball as his vocation. + +His mother was sorely grieved at first, and the more so as she felt that +Joe was "stepping down" in entering the professional ranks. But Joe was +able to show her that scores of college men were doing the same thing that +he planned to do, and she had too good sense to press her opposition too +far. + +The opening that Joe was looking for came when he was offered a chance to +play in the Pittston team of the Central League. It was only a minor +league, but all the great players have been developed in that way, and Joe +determined to make it a stepping stone to something higher. How he +speedily rose to leadership among the twirlers of his league is told in +the fourth volume of the series, entitled: "Baseball Joe in the Central +League; Or, Making Good as a Professional Pitcher." + +While Joe had been winning his spurs, the keen-eyed scouts of the big +leagues had not been idle. The St. Louis team of the National League +drafted him into their ranks and took him away from the "bushes." Now he +felt that he was really on the highway to success. Almost from the start +he created a sensation, and it was his pitching that brought his team into +the first division. + +A still wider field opened up before him when after one year with St. +Louis he was bought by the New York Giants. This had been his ambition +from the start, but he had scarcely dared to hope that his dream would +come true. He promised himself that he would "pitch his head off" to +justify the confidence that McRae, the Giants' manager, had put in him. +How he came through an exciting season and in the final game won the +championship for his team can be seen in the sixth volume of the series, +entitled: "Baseball Joe on the Giants; Or, Making Good as a Ball Twirler +in the Metropolis." + +Of course this brought him into the World's Series, in which that year the +Boston Red Sox were the Giants' opponents. It proved to be a whirlwind +series, whose result remained in doubt until the last inning of the last +game. Joe had fearful odds to contend against since an accident to +Hughson, the Giants' standby, put the bulk of the pitching burden on our +hero's shoulders. Unscrupulous enemies also sought by foul means to keep +him out of the Series, but Joe's indomitable will and magnificent pitching +won out against all odds, as told in the volume preceding this, entitled: +"Baseball Joe in the World Series; Or, Pitching for the Championship." + +If ever a man had earned a rest it was Joe, and, as we have seen, he was +taking it now in his home town. Jim Barclay, a fine young Princeton man +and second-string pitcher on the Giants, had come with him, not so much, +it is to be suspected, because of his fondness for Joe, though that was +great, as to be near Clara, Joe's charming sister, who had been working +all sorts of havoc with poor Jim's heart. + +By the time the orchestra had finished the tune, the panic had about +subsided. But Joe was taking no chances and he motioned for a repetition. +The leader obeyed, and at the end of this second playing the danger was +entirely over. The audience was seated, with the exception of the man whom +Joe had knocked down, who slunk shame-facedly out of the hall holding his +hand on the place where the blow had landed. + +And now that the peril had passed, it was Joe who was panic-stricken. +Though brave as a lion and quick as a panther in an emergency, he was the +most modest of men and hated to pose as a hero. He was wondering what he +should say or do, when Altman solved the problem by coming up to him with +both hands extended. That gave the audience its cue, and in a moment a +tempest of cheers swept the hall. + +"What's the matter with Matson?" someone shouted in a stentorian voice. + +"He's all right!" came back in a roar. + +"Who's all right?" + +"Matson! Joe Matson! Baseball Joe!" + +Men crowded forward, and in a moment Joe was surrounded by his friends and +fellow townsmen, most of whom had known him when he was in knickerbockers +and now were more proud of him than they had ever been, even when he +returned to Riverside crowned with the laurels of his last great season. +Joe was mauled and pounded until he was almost out of breath, and it was a +relief when at last he had made his way back to his mother and sister. + +They were both crying openly with joy and pride, and the looks they turned +on Joe were a greater reward than all the plaudits of his friends. + +There was no going on with the performance after that. The nerves of the +audience were too highly keyed by the great peril that had been escaped. +And they had a more dramatic scene to remember and talk about than +anything that could be given them from the stage. + +In the excitement, a great many of those present had lost track of the +friends or relatives that had been with them, and from all sides came +various calls. + +"Where is Frank?" + +"Did you see what became of my sister Bessie?" + +"Oh, Bill! I say, Bill! Where are you?" + +Many of the scenes were most affecting. Women would rush into each other's +arms, crying with joy to find that the lost ones were safe. + +"I can tell you it's a grand good thing that panic was stopped so +quickly," remarked one man to another, as he gazed admiringly at the hero +of the occasion. + +As Joe and his folks were leaving, a tall, well-dressed man stepped up to +Joe and extended his hand. + +"Let me congratulate you, Mr. Matson," he said effusively. "That was a +splendid thing you did to-night. I never saw anything finer." + +"I'm afraid you exaggerate it," deprecated Joe. + +"Not at all," said the stranger. "By the way, Mr. Matson, it's a +coincidence that I came to town with the express purpose of seeing you on +a business matter. But I didn't expect that my first meeting with you +would be under such exciting circumstances." + +He took a card from his pocket and handed it to Joe. + +"My name, as you see, is Westland," he continued. "I'm stopping at the +hotel, and I would be glad to see you there or at any place that may be +convenient to you some time to-morrow." + +"Suppose you call at my home to-morrow morning," said Joe. "It's only +about five minutes' walk from the hotel." + +"You needn't bother about giving me the directions," said Westland, with +an ingratiating smile. "Everybody in Riverside knows where Baseball Joe +lives. I'll be around at eleven o'clock." + +He lifted his hat and departed, while Joe and the others walked toward +home. + +"What do you suppose he wants of you, Joe?" asked Clara, with lively +curiosity. + +"Oh, I don't know," answered her brother carelessly. "Some reporter +probably who wants to get the sad story of my life." + +"If it is, he'll have something to write about after to-night," put in +Jim. "Great Scott! Joe, if that had happened in New York it would be +spread all over the front page of to-morrow's papers." + +"Oh, Joe, I'm so proud of you," sighed his mother happily. + +"You're a brother worth having!" exclaimed Clara warmly. + +Jim was on the point of saying that Joe was a brother-in-law worth having, +but checked himself in time. + +They had almost reached the house when Clara began to laugh. + +"What's the joke?" inquired Jim. + +But Clara only laughed the harder until they became a little alarmed. + +"No, I'm not hysterical," she said, when she could speak. "I only happened +to remember what tune it was the orchestra played. I suppose it was the +first thing the leader thought of, and he didn't have time to pick out +another. Do you remember what it was?" + +They cudgeled their brains, but could not recall it. + +"What was it?" asked Jim. + +"'There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town To-night!'" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE STRANGER'S VISIT + + +Promptly the next morning at eleven, Westland put in an appearance at the +Matson home. He was carefully groomed and everything about him indicated +money. He fairly exuded prosperity. + +He greeted Joe with a cordiality that seemed a trifle overdone, +considering their brief acquaintance. + +"By George, Mr. Matson," he said, "this town has fallen for you all right. +The whole place is buzzing with that affair of last night, and I don't +wonder. If it hadn't been for you, the coroner and undertaker would be +busy this morning." + +"Oh, I don't know," responded Joe. "If I hadn't got to it someone else +would. It wasn't much of a blaze anyway, and ten to one it would have gone +out of itself." + +"Modest I see," laughed Westland. "They say that all great men are. But +you can't get anyone in this town to take such a slighting view of it as +you do yourself." + +"You said last night that you had a business matter you wanted to see me +about," suggested Joe, in order to change the subject. + +"So I have," replied Westland, "and I've traveled over a thousand miles to +talk to you personally about it." + +He lighted a fresh cigar while Joe waited indifferently. He had been +interviewed so much in the last year or two on all conceivable subjects +that his curiosity was scarcely awakened. + +"Of course, Mr. Matson," began Westland, "you've heard of the new major +league that has just been organized and----" + +Joe's bored feeling vanished and he was wide-awake in an instant. So this +was what the visit meant! Jim's prediction was coming true sooner than he +had expected. + +"Pardon me, Mr. Westland," he interrupted, "but if this is about baseball, +I have a friend visiting me who is as much interested in the game as I am. +In fact, he's a player himself. It's Jim Barclay of the Giants. You've +heard of him, of course. Hello there, Jim!" he called, as he threw open +the door into the adjoining room, where Jim was watching a distracting +dimple come and go in Clara's cheek as they chatted together. + +"Really, Mr. Matson," said Westland, visibly flustered, "much as I would +like to meet Mr. Barclay, I would rather----" + +But just then Jim came strolling in, and Joe hastened to introduce him. He +had used the stratagem in order to have a witness at hand. He was +determined that no false or twisted version of the interview should be +given out broadcast in the interest of the new league. + +Despite his annoyance, Westland was diplomat enough to make the best of +the situation, and he acknowledged the introduction graciously. + +"Mr. Westland called in connection with the new league we were reading +about yesterday, Jim," explained Joe, "and I knew that you would be +interested and so I called you in." + +Jim's jaw set a trifle, but he only nodded and Westland went on: + +"I'm a business man, Mr. Matson, and so are you. So I won't beat around +the bush, but come straight to the point. You're the greatest pitcher in +the country, and we want to secure your services for the new league. We've +got oceans of money behind us, and we're prepared to let you name your own +terms. We'll give you anything in reason--or out of reason for that +matter--if you'll sign up with us." + +He delivered himself of this with the air of a man sure of having his +offer accepted. But if he had expected Joe to gasp with astonishment and +delight, he was disappointed. + +"Well," said Joe quietly, after a moment's pause, "that's certainly a very +liberal proposition----" + +"Oh, we're no pikers," put in Westland complacently. + +"But there's one little thing in the way," Joe went on; "and that is that +I'm already signed up with the Giants for the next two years." + +Westland saw that he was in for a tussle and braced himself. + +"Of course, of course," he said, with the tolerant smile of a man of the +world. "I didn't think for a minute that McRae would let his kingpin run +around loose without being signed up. But you know what baseball contracts +are. They're so jug handled that no court would uphold them for a minute. +In fact, McRae wouldn't dare to bring it into court. He may threaten and +bluster, but that will be the end of it. That ten-day clause alone would +kill it with any judge." + +"Even admitting that I could break my contract with the Giants and get +away with it," said Joe, leading him on, "what guarantee would you have +that I wouldn't do the same thing with you if I should want to?" + +"The guarantee of your own self-interest," replied Westland, flicking the +ash from his cigar. "We'd make it so much worth your while to stay with us +that there wouldn't be any inducement to go anywhere else." + +"In other words," said Joe, with a touch of sarcasm, "if you once bought +me you'd rely on your money to see that I'd stay bought." + +"Now, now, Mr. Matson," put in Westland deprecatingly, "there's no use +putting it in so harsh a way as that. This is simply business I'm talking +to you, and in this world every man has got to look out for Number One. +Now I don't know how much money McRae pays you, but I make a guess that +it's about five thousand a year, a little more or a little less. Now I'll +tell you what we're prepared to do. We'll hand you twenty thousand dollars +the day you put your signature to a contract with us. Then we'll agree to +pay you fifteen thousand dollars a year for a three-years' term. And to +make the whole thing copper riveted, we'll put the whole amount in the +bank now, subject to your order as you go along. So that even if the new +league should break up, you could loaf for three years and be sixty-five +thousand dollars to the good." + +With the air of one who had played his trump card and felt sure of taking +the trick, Westland from out his pocket drew a fountain pen. + +"Put up your pen, Mr. Westland," said Joe calmly, "unless you want to +write to those who sent you here that there's nothing doing." + +Jim brought his fist down on the arm of his chair with a bang. + +"That's the stuff, Joe!" he cried jubilantly. "You knocked a home run that +time." + +A look of blended astonishment and vexation came into Westland's eyes. He +seemed to doubt the evidence of his ears. + +"Surely you're joking, Mr. Matson," he said. "No man in his senses would +turn down such an offer as that." + +"I must be out of my senses then," replied Joe, "for that's exactly what +I'm doing." + +"Perhaps you think we're bluffing," said Westland, "but money talks, and +here is where it fairly shouts." + +He drew from his pocket a roll of bills of large denominations and laid it +on the table. + +"There's the signing-up money," he explained. "They wanted me to bring a +certified check, but I insisted on the actual cash. Count it if you like +and take it to the bank if you doubt that it's good. There's twenty +thousand dollars in that roll, and every cent of it's yours if you put +your name at the bottom of this contract." + +He laid an official-looking document on the table beside the bills, and +leaned back in his chair, ostensibly intent on the end of his cigar, but +watching Joe keenly from the corner of his eyes. + +That pile of crisp yellowbacks was more money than Joe had ever seen at +one time in his life, except through the bars of a cashier's cage. And all +he had to do was to reach out, sign his name, and the next minute thrust +the bills into his pocket. They meant independence. They meant security. +They meant the power and comfort and luxury that money can give. + +But they also meant treachery and dishonor, and Joe never wavered for an +instant. + +"It's a lot of money, Mr. Westland," he agreed, "but it isn't enough." + +A look of relief came into Westland's eyes. Perhaps his task wasn't +hopeless after all. + +"If that's the case, perhaps we can raise the figures a little," he said +eagerly, "although we thought we were making a very liberal offer. But as +I said before, we're no pikers, and we wouldn't let a few thousands stand +between us. State your terms." + +"You don't understand," replied Joe. "What I meant was that there isn't +money enough in your whole crowd to make me go back on my word and jump my +contract." + +"Hot off the bat!" exclaimed Jim. "Gee, I wish McRae and Robbie and the +rest of the Giant bunch could have heard this pow-wow." + +Westland evidently had all he could do to contain himself. He had felt so +serenely confident in the power of his money that he had scarcely allowed +himself to think of failure. Yet here was his money flouted as though it +were counterfeit, and he himself, instead of being greeted with open arms, +was being treated with scorn and contempt. + +"Upon my word, Mr. Matson," he said, with an evident effort to keep cool, +"you have a queer way of meeting a legitimate business proposition." + +"That's just the trouble," retorted Joe. "It isn't legitimate and you know +it. In the first place you're offering me a good deal more than I'm +worth." + +"Oh, I don't know about that," expostulated Jim loyally. "There's at least +one man in the league getting that much, and he never saw the day when he +was a better man than you are." + +"More than I'm worth," repeated Joe. "Still, if that were all, and you +were simply trying to buy my baseball ability, it would be your own affair +if you were bidding too high. But you don't want to give me all this money +because I'm a good pitcher. It's because you want to make me a good liar. +You think that every man has his price and it's only a matter of bidding +to find out mine." + +"Now, now!" said Westland, spots of color coming into his cheeks. + +"And more than that," went on Joe, not heeding the interruption, "you want +to make me a tool to lead others to break their contracts, too. I'm to be +the bellwether of the flock. You figure that if it's once spread abroad +that Matson has jumped into the new league, it will start a stampede of +contract breakers. I tell you straight, Westland, it's dirty business. If +you want to start a new league, go ahead and do it in a decent way. Get +new players and develop them, or get star players whose contracts have +expired. Play the game, but do it without marked cards or loaded dice." + +Westland saw that he had lost, and he threw diplomacy to the winds. + +"Keep your advice till it's asked for!" he snarled, snatching up the money +and jamming it viciously into his pocket. "I didn't come to this jay town +to be lectured by a hick----" + +"What's that?" cried Joe, springing to his feet. + +Westland was so startled by the sudden motion that he almost swallowed his +cigar. Before Joe's sinewy figure he stepped back and mumbled an apology. +Then he reached for his hat, and without another word stalked out of the +house, his features convulsed with anger and chagrin. + +As he flung himself out of the gate, he almost collided with a messenger +boy bringing a telegram to Joe. + +The latter signed for it and tore it open hastily. It was from the Giants' +manager and read: + + "I hear the new league is coming after you hotfoot. But I'm betting + on you, Joe. + + "McRae." + +He handed it over to Jim who read it with a smile. + +"Betting on me, is he?" said Joe. "Well, Mac, you win!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE TOP OF THE WAVE + + +While they were still discussing the telegram, Joe's father came home to +lunch from the harvester works where he was employed. He seemed ten years +younger than he had before the trip to the World's Series, which he in his +quiet way had enjoyed quite as much as the rest of the family. + +He greeted the young men cordially. + +"I met a man a little way down the street who seemed to have come from +here," he said, as he hung up his hat. "He had his hat jammed down on his +head, and was muttering to himself as though he were sore about +something." + +"He was," replied Jim with a grin. "He laid twenty-five thousand dollars +on the table, and he was sore because Joe wouldn't take it up." + +Mr. Matson looked bewildered, but his astonishment was not as great as +that of Clara, who at that moment put her head in the door to announce +that lunch was ready. + +"What are you millionaires talking about?" she asked. + +"What do millionaires usually talk about?" answered Jim loftily. +"Money--the long green--iron men--filthy lucre--yellowbacks----" + +"If you don't stop your nonsense you sha'n't have any lunch," threatened +Clara, "and that means something, too, for mother has spread herself in +getting it up." + +"Take it all back," said Jim promptly. "I'm as sober as a judge. Lead me +to this lunch, fair maiden, and I'll tell you nothing but the plain, +unvarnished truth. But even at that, I'm afraid you'll think I'm +romancing." + +The merry group seated themselves at the table, and Clara, all alive with +curiosity, demanded the fulfilment of Jim's promise. + +"Well," said Jim, "the simple truth is that that fellow who was here this +morning offered Joe sixty-five thousand dollars for three years' work." + +Mrs. Matson almost dropped her knife and fork in her amazement. Mr. Matson +sat up with a jerk, and Clara's eyes opened to their widest extent. + +"Sixty-five thousand dollars!" gasped Joe's father. + +"For three years' work!" exclaimed Mrs. Matson. + +"Why," stammered Clara, "that's--that's--let me see--why, that's more than +twenty-one thousand dollars a year." + +"That's what," replied Jim, keenly relishing the sensation he was causing. +"And it wasn't stage money either. He had brought twenty thousand dollars +with him in bills, and he laid it down on the table as carelessly as +though it was twenty cents. And all that this modest youth, who sits +beside me and isn't saying a word, had to do to get that money was to put +his name on a piece of paper." + +"Joe," exclaimed Clara, "do tell us what all this means! Jim is just +trying to tantalize us." + +"Stung!" grinned Jim. "That's what comes from mixing in family matters." + +"Why, it's this way, Sis," laughed Joe. "That fellow traveled a thousand +miles to call me a hick. I wouldn't stand for it and made him take it back +and then he got mad and skipped." + +"Momsey," begged Clara in desperation, "can't you make these idiots tell +us just what happened?" + +"Them cruel woids!" ejaculated Jim mournfully. + +"Do tell us, Joe!" entreated his mother. "I'm just dying to know all about +it." + +Teasing his mother was a very different thing from teasing Clara, who was +an adept at that art herself, and Joe surrendered immediately. + +They forgot to eat--all except Jim, who seldom carried forgetfulness so +far--while he told them about Westland's call and his proposition to Joe +to break his contract and jump to the new league. + +Sixty-five thousand dollars was a staggering amount of money, a fortune, +in fact, in that quiet town, and yet there was not one of that little +family who didn't rejoice that Joe had turned the offer down. + +"You did the right thing, Joe," said his father heartily; "and the fact +that lots of people would call you foolish doesn't change things in the +least. A man who sells himself for a hundred thousand dollars is just as +contemptible as one who sells himself for a dollar. I'm proud of you, my +boy." + +"I could have told beforehand just what Joe would do," said Mrs. Matson, +wiping her eyes. + +"You're the darlingest brother ever!" exclaimed Clara, coming round the +table and giving him a hug and a kiss. + +The thought of Clara being a sister to him had never appealed to Jim +before, but just at that moment it would have had its advantages. + +For the rest of the meal all were engrossed in talking of the great event +of the morning--that is, all but Joe, who kept casting surreptitious +glances at the clock. + +"Don't get worried, Joe," said his sister mischievously, as she +intercepted one of his glances. "Mabel's train doesn't get in until +half-past two, and it isn't one o'clock yet." + +Joe flushed a little and Jim laughed. + +"Can you blame him?" he asked. + +"Not a bit," answered Clara. "Mabel's a darling and I'm crazy to get hold +of her. After Joe, though, of course," she added. + +Joe threw his napkin at her but missed. + +"Sixty-five thousand dollars for a baseball player who can't throw any +straighter than that," she mocked. "It's a lucky thing for the new league +that you didn't take their money." + +"Maybe I had better take their money after all!" cried Joe tantalizingly. + +At these words Clara threw up her hands in mock horror. + +"You just dare, Joe Matson, and I'll disown you!" + +"Ah-ha! And now I'm disowned and cast out of my home!" exclaimed the young +baseball player tragically. "Woe is me!" + +"I don't believe any decent player would ever have anything to say to you, +Joe, if you did such a mean thing as that," went on Clara seriously. And +at this Joe nodded affirmatively. + +An hour later, all three, chatting merrily, were on their way to the +train. But their progress was slow, for at almost every turn they were +stopped by friends who wanted to shake hands with Joe and congratulate him +on his presence of mind the night before. + +"One of the penalties of having a famous brother," sighed Clara, when this +had happened for the twentieth time. + +"You little hypocrite," laughed Jim. "You know that you're just bursting +with pride. You're tickled to death to be walking alongside of him. Stop +your sighing. Follow my example. I'm tickled to death to be walking +alongside of you and you don't hear _me_ sighing. I feel more like +singing." + +"For goodness' sake, don't," retorted Clara in mock alarm. "Oh, dear, +here's another one!" + +"Were you addressing me when you said 'dear'?" asked Jim politely. + +Clara flashed him an indignant glance, just as Professor Enoch Crabbe, of +the Riverside Academy, stepped up and greeted Joe. He was earnest in his +congratulations, but his manner was so stilted that they looked at each +other with an amused smile, as he stalked pompously away. + +"I wonder if he believes now that I can throw a curve," laughed Joe. + +"He ought to ask some of the Red Sox who whiffed away at them in the World +Series," said Jim with a grin. "They didn't have any doubt about it." + +"Professor Crabbe had very serious doubts," explained Joe. "In fact, he +said it was impossible. Against all the laws of motion and all that sort +of thing. I had to rig up a couple of bamboo rods in a line, and get Dick +Talbot, a friend of mine in the moving-picture business, to take a picture +of the ball as it curved around the rods, before I could prove my point." + +"Did it convince him?" queried Jim. + +"It stumped him, anyway," replied Joe. "But sometimes I have a sneaking +notion that he thinks yet that Dick and I played some kind of a bunco game +on him by doctoring the film." + +"Well, I hope that nobody else stops us," remarked Clara. "It seems to me +that almost everybody in Riverside is on the street this afternoon." + +"It wouldn't be such an awful mob at that," replied Jim. "But it's a safe +bet that one man at least won't stop Joe to shake hands with him." + +"Who is that?" asked Clara. + +"The fellow who yelled 'Fire' in the hall last night," answered Jim with a +grin. + +"I hope I didn't hurt him," observed Joe, thoughtfully. + +"Perish the thought," replied Jim. "You just caressed him. He was a big +fellow, and he probably sat down just to take a load off his feet." + +"I'm glad he wasn't a Riverside man, anyway," remarked Joe, loyal to his +home town. "I never saw him before. Probably he came from some place near +by." + +"Oh, then, of course he won't mind it," chaffed Jim. + +"Of all the nonsense----" Clara was beginning, when her eye caught sight +of a figure she recognized on the station platform which they had nearly +reached. + +She nudged her brother's elbow. + +"There's the man you were talking to this morning," she said in a low +voice. + +"By George, so it is!" replied Joe, as he followed her glance. "And he's +talking to Altman. Trying to make him a convert." + +"A renegade, you mean," growled Jim. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +LUCKY JOE + + +Westland saw the party coming, and with a scowl turned his back upon +them. + +Altman, however, greeted Joe with a smile and, excusing himself to +Westland, went over to meet him with extended hand. + +"How are you, old scout?" he exclaimed. "You sure batted .300 last +night." + +Joe greeted him cordially, while Jim and Clara strolled on toward the end +of the platform. It was astonishing what good company those two were to +each other, and how well they bore the absence of anybody else from their +conversation. + +"I'm feeling fine as silk," was Joe's response to Altman's question. + +"Didn't sprain your salary wing, or anything like that?" grinned Altman. +"You fetched that fellow an awful hit in the jaw." + +"I hated to do it, but it was coming to him," laughed Joe. + +"Well, if there are any doctors' bills, I guess the Riverside people will +be willing to take up a collection to pay them," replied Altman. "It's +mighty lucky for the town that you happened to be in the crowd last +night." + +"I suppose you're off to keep your next engagement," said Joe, to change +the subject. "By the way, Nick, that was a mighty nifty skit of yours at +the hall last night. It brought down the house. It ought to pull big +everywhere." + +"I'm glad you liked it," replied Altman. "I'm booked for twenty weeks and +I'm drawing down good money." + +"I suppose you'll be with the White Sox next year, as usual," said Joe. + +Altman hesitated. + +"W-why, I suppose so," he said slowly. "My contract with them has another +year to run. To tell the truth, though, Joe, I'm somewhat unsettled." + +"Why," said Joe, "you're not going to give up the game for the stage, are +you?" + +"Oh, nothing like that," replied Altman. "I'd rather play ball than eat, +and I'll stick to the game as long as this old wing of mine can put them +over the plate. But whether I'll be with the White Sox or not is another +question." + +"Some other team in the American league trying to make a dicker for you?" +asked Joe. + +"Not that I've heard anything about," responded Altman. "But the American +League isn't the whole cheese in baseball--nor the National League, +either, for that matter." + +"I see Westland has been talking to you," said Joe. "I don't want to butt +in, Nick, but don't let him put one over on you." + +"The new league seems to have barrels of money," replied Altman, evading a +direct answer. "This fellow Westland seems aching to throw it to the +birds--he's got a wad in his pocket that would choke a horse." + +"Yes," said Joe dryly, "I've seen that wad before. But take a fool's +advice, Nick, and stick to the old ship." + +"That's all very well," said Altman. "But a man's worth all that he will +bring in any other line of work--and why shouldn't it be so in baseball? +Who is it that brings the money in at the gate, anyway? We're the ones +that the public come to see, but it's the bosses that get all the money." + +"Lay off on that 'poor, down-trodden slave' talk, Nick," said Joe +earnestly. "You know as well as I do that there are mighty few fellows who +get as well paid for six months' work as we ball players do. But, leave +that out of the question for a minute--don't you suppose the backers of +this new league are just as eager to make money out of us as anybody +else? Do you think they're in the game for the sport of it? And don't you +know that the coming of a new league just now is likely to wreck the game? +You know how it was in the old Brotherhood days--they did the same crooked +work then that they're trying to do now--bribing men to jump their +contracts by offers of big money. The game got a blow then that it took +years to recover from, and there wasn't a single major league player that +in the long run, didn't suffer from it. Play the game, Nick--and let's +show these fellows that they can't buy us as they would so many cattle." + +Altman was visibly impressed, and Westland, who had been watching +proceedings out of the corner of his eye, thought it time to intervene. He +strolled down toward them and without looking at Joe, spoke directly to +Altman. + +"Train's coming, Nick," he said. "I just heard the whistle. I'll stay with +you so that we can get seats together in the smoker." + +"Well, good-bye, Joe!" said Altman. "I'm glad to have seen you again, +anyway, and I'll promise not to do anything hastily." + +And as Jim and Clara came hurrying up at that moment, Joe had to be +content with the hope that, at least, he had put a spoke in Westland's +wheel. + +The train was in sight now, and all thoughts of baseball were banished +for the moment at the thought of what that train was bringing to him. + +With a rush and a roar the train drew up at the station. The colored +porter jumped down the steps of the parlor car to assist the descending +passengers. + +Joe uttered an exclamation, and Clara gave a little squeal of delight as +two young people, whom a family resemblance proclaimed to be brother and +sister, came hurriedly down the steps. + +In a moment they were the center of an eager and tumultuous group. + +"Mabel!" exclaimed Joe,--at least that was all that they heard him say +just then. What he said to her later on is none of our business. + +The girls hugged and kissed each other, much to the aggravation of the +masculine contingent, while Reggie Varley extended his two hands, which +were grasped cordially by Joe and Jim. + +The romance which had culminated in the engagement of Mabel Varley and Joe +dated back two years earlier. Joe had been in a southern training camp, in +spring practice with his team, when one day he had been lucky enough to +stop a runaway horse which Mabel had been driving, and thus saved her from +imminent danger and possible death. The acquaintance, so established, +rapidly deepened into friendship and then into something stronger. + +Mabel was a charming girl with lustrous brown eyes, wonderful complexion +and dimples that came and went in a distracting fashion, and it was no +wonder that Joe before long was a helpless but willing captive. She, on +her part, developed a sudden fondness for the great national game to which +she had hitherto been indifferent. + +They had met many times during the season, and with every meeting her +witchery over Joe had become more potent. He had stolen a glove from her +during one of his visits to Goldsboro, her home town in the South, and +during the exciting games of the last World's Series he had worn it close +to his heart when he had pitched his team to victory. + +And when he told her this on the night following the famous game that had +set the whole country wild with excitement, and told her too, that victory +meant nothing, unless she shared it with him, she had capitulated and +promised to become his wife. + +Reggie, her brother, had formed Joe's acquaintance earlier than Mabel and +in a less pleasant way. He was a rather foppish young man who cultivated a +mustache that the girls called "darling," and affected what he fondly +believed to be an English accent. + +In a railway station he had left his valise near where Joe was sitting, +and, on his return, found that the valise had been opened and some +valuable jewelry stolen from it. He had rashly accused Joe of the theft, +and had narrowly escaped a thrashing from that indignant young man, in +consequence. + +The matter had been patched up at the time, and afterward, when Joe +learned that he was Mabel's brother, had been forgiven entirely. The men +were now on the most cordial of terms, for Reggie, despite his +peculiarities and though he would never "set the river on fire" with his +intellectual ability, was by no means a bad fellow. + +There was a merry hubbub of greetings and exclamations while the men +arranged for the baggage and the girls asked each other twenty questions +at once and then the party paired off for the walk to the Matson +home--that is, Joe and Mabel and Jim and Clara, formed the pairs, while +Reggie was, so to speak, a fifth wheel to the coach! + +Not that this bothered Reggie in the least. He ambled along amiably, +dividing his talk and attentions impartially, serenely unconscious that +each pair was willing to bestow him upon the other. + +"We ought to have a band playing 'See, the Conquering Hero Comes,'" +remarked Jim to Mabel, who was walking in front with Joe. + +"I know he's a hero," said Mabel, her eyes eloquent as she looked at Joe. +"I can hardly pick up the paper but what it calls him the hero of the +World's Series." + +"I don't mean a baseball hero," said Jim, "but a real, honest-to-goodness +hero--the life-saver and all that kind of stuff, you know." + +"Yes," joined in Clara, "you came a day too late, Mabel. You ought to have +seen Joe at the Opera House last night. He was simply great." + +"At the Opera House?" Mabel repeated, in some bewilderment. + +"Sure," chaffed Jim. "Didn't you know Joe'd gone on the stage?" + +"Yes," said Clara, carrying out the mystification. "He made a hit, too." + +"There was at least one man in the audience he made a hit with," chuckled +Jim. + +"Don't let them fool you, Mabel," said Joe, tenderly. "There was just a +little excitement at the Opera House last night and Jim and I took a hand +in stopping it. They're making an awful lot of a very simple matter." + +"You've no idea what a voice Joe has for public speaking," persisted the +irrepressible Jim. "Last night he was a howling success." + +"Clara, dear, tell me all about it," entreated Mabel. "We girls are the +only ones who can talk sense." + +Thus appealed to, Clara told about the circumstances of the night before, +and, as may be imagined, Joe did not suffer in the telling. If the latter +had needed any other reward for his exploit he found it in Mabel's eyes as +she looked at him. + +"I thought I knew all about you before," she said, in a half whisper, "but +I'm learning all the time!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +CIRCLING THE GLOBE + + +When the party reached the Matson home, motherly Mrs. Matson took Mabel +into her arms as she had long since taken her into her heart. Then Clara +took her up to her room to refresh herself after the journey, while Jim +and Joe took care of Reggie and his belongings. + +"Oh, I'm so glad that you've got here at last!" exclaimed Clara, as she +placed an affectionate hand on Mabel's shoulder. + +"And you may be sure that I'm glad that I am here," was the happy +response. "I declare, this place almost feels like home to me." + +"Well, you know, we want it to feel like home to you, Mabel," answered +Joe's sister, and looked so knowingly at the visitor that Mabel suddenly +began to blush. + +In the meantime, Joe had taken Reggie to the room which the young man was +to occupy during his stay. Joe carried both of the bags, which were +rather heavy, for the fashionable young man was in the habit of taking a +good share of his wardrobe along whenever he left home. + +"Some weight to one of these bags, Reggie," remarked Joe good-naturedly, +as he deposited the big Gladstone on the floor with a thud. "You must have +about three hundred and fifteen new neckties in there." + +"Bah Jove, that's a good joke, Joe, don't you know!" drawled Reggie. "But +you're wrong, my boy; I haven't more than ten neckties with me on this +trip." + +"Say, I'm glad to know you've got so many. Maybe I'll want to borrow one," +went on Joe, continuing his joke. + +"Of course you can have one of my neckties if you want it, Joe," returned +the fashionable young man quickly. "I've got a beautiful lavender one that +ought to just suit you. And then there is a fancy striped one, red and +green and gold, which is the most stunning thing, don't you know, you ever +saw. I purchased it at a fashionable shop on Fifth Avenue the last time I +was in New York. If you wore that tie, Joe, you would certainly make a +hit." + +"Well, you see, I'm not so much of a hitter as I am of a pitcher," +returned Joe; "so I guess I'd better not rob you of that tie. Come to +think of it, I got several new ties myself last Christmas and on my +birthday. I think they'll see me through very nicely. But I'm much obliged +just the same. And now, Reggie, make yourself thoroughly at home." + +"Oh, I'll be sure to do that," returned Mabel's brother. "You're a fine +fellow, Joe; and I often wonder how it was I quarreled with you the first +time we met." + +"We'll forget about that," answered Joe shortly. + +Naturally the men returned to the living room first, and while they were +waiting impatiently for the girls to rejoin them, Joe caught sight of a +letter resting against the clock on the mantelpiece. + +He took it up and saw that it was addressed to himself, and that it bore +the postmark of New York. He recognized the handwriting at once. + +"It's from McRae," he said. "The second message I've received from the old +boy to-day, counting the telegram this morning. Excuse me, fellows, while +I look it over." + +He tore it open hastily and read with glowing interest and excitement. + +"The World Tour's a go!" he cried, handing the letter over to Jim. "Mac's +got it all settled at last. When we said good-bye to him in New York it +was all up in the air. But trust Mac to hustle--he's got enough promises +to make up the two teams and now he's calling on us, Jim, to keep our word +and go with the party. We're all to meet in Chicago for the start on the +nineteenth of the month." + +"Gee!" exclaimed Jim. "That doesn't give us very much time. Let's see," as +he snatched up a newspaper and scanned the top line. "To-day's the +sixteenth. We'll have to get a wiggle on." + +"Bah Jove," lisped Reggie. "It's bally short notice, don't you know? How +long will you fellows be gone?" + +"Just about six months," said Joe, his face lengthening as he reflected on +what it meant to be all that time away from Mabel. + +"What's all this pow-wow about?" came a merry voice from the door, as the +girls tripped in, their arms about each other's waist. + +"I'm glad we girls aren't as talkative as you men," said Clara, +mischievously. + +"When we do talk we at least say something," added Mabel. "What is it, +Joe?" + +"I'm afraid it's rather bad news in a way," said Joe. "I've just got a +letter from McRae in which he tells me that he's completed all +arrangements for a baseball tour around the world. You know, Mabel, that I +spoke to you about it just before we left New York. But it was only a +vague idea then and something of the kind is talked about at the end of +every baseball season. Usually though, it only ends in talk, and the teams +make a barnstorming trip to San Francisco or to Cuba. But this time it +seems to have gone through all right. And now Mac is calling upon Jim and +me to go along." + +"My word!" broke in Reggie, "anyone would think it was a bally funeral to +hear you talk and see your face. I should think you'd be no-end pleased to +have a chance to go." + +To tell the truth, neither Joe nor Jim seemed elated at the prospect. +Joe's eyes sought Mabel, while Jim's rested on Clara, and neither one of +those young ladies was so obtuse as not to know what the young men were +thinking. + +"When do you have to go?" asked Clara, soberly. + +"We have to be in Chicago by the nineteenth," answered Joe, "and we'll +have to leave here the day before. To-day's the sixteenth and you can see +for yourself how much time that gives us to stay in Riverside." + +"No rest for the wicked," said Reggie, jocularly. "'Pon honor, you boys +have earned a rest after the work you did against the Red Sox." + +Clara was very far from her vivacious self as she thought of the coming +separation, but Joe was surprised and the least bit hurt to see how +lightly Mabel seemed to regard it. + +"It's too bad, of course," she said, cheerfully, "but we'll have to make +the best of these two days at least. It's a pity, though, that it wasn't +November nineteenth instead of October." + +"We could have started a bit later if it were only for the foreign trip," +explained Jim, "but we're going to play a series of exhibition games +between here and the Coast, and we've got to take advantage of what good +weather there is left. If we can only get to the Rockies before it's too +cold to play, we'll be all right, because in California they're able to +play all the year round." + +"My word!" exclaimed Reggie, "I don't see why they don't cut out the +exhibition games altogether. I should think this country had had baseball +enough for one season." + +"Not when the Giants and an All-American team are the players," replied +Joe. "The people will come out in crowds--they'll fairly beg us to take +their money." + +"And it will be worth taking," chimed in Jim. "Do you know how much money +the teams took in before they reached the coast on their last World's +Trip? Ninety-seven thousand dollars. Count them, ladies and +gentlemen--ninety-seven thousand dollars in good American dollars!" he +added grandly. + +"That sounds like a lot of money," said Reggie, thoughtfully. + +"And they'll need every cent of it too," said Joe. "It's the only way a +trip of that kind can be carried on. The teams travel in first-class +style, have the finest quarters on the ship, and stay at the best hotels. +In the games abroad there won't be money enough taken in, probably, to +cover expenses. Then the money we've taken in from the exhibition games +will come in handy." + +"How many men are going in the two teams?" inquired Clara. + +"I imagine each team will carry about fourteen men," replied Joe. "That +will give them three pitchers, two catchers, an extra infielder and +outfielder, beside the other members of the team. That ought to be enough +to allow for sickness or accident." + +"How much do you fellows expect to get out of it for yourselves?" asked +Reggie. + +"That's just a matter of guess work," Joe replied. "I understand that what +is left after all expenses are paid will be divided equally among the +players. On the last World's Trip I think it amounted to about a thousand +dollars apiece. But then again, it may not be a thousand cents. All we +really know is that we'll have a chance to see the world in first-class +style without its actually costing us a dollar." + +"Oh, you lucky men!" said Clara, with a sigh. "You can go trotting all +over the world, while we poor girls have to stay at home and look for an +occasional letter from your highnesses--that is, if you deign to write to +us at all." + +"I'll guarantee to keep the postman busy," said Jim, fervently. + +"Same here," said Joe, emphatically, as his eyes met Mabel's. + +"Do you know just what route you'll follow?" Reggie asked. + +"Our first stop will be at Hawaii," replied Joe, consulting his letter. +"So that the first game we play outside of the States will still be under +the American flag. We'll see Old Glory again, too, when we strike the +Philippines. But that will come a little later. After we leave Hawaii, we +won't see dry land again until we get to Japan." + +"I fancy we'll get some good games there, too," broke in Jim. "Those +little Japs have gone in for the game with a vengeance. Do you remember +the time when their Waseda and Keio University teams came over to this +country? They gave our Princeton and Yale fellows all they could do to +beat them." + +"Yes," said Joe, "they're nifty players when it comes to fielding and +they're fleet as jack rabbits on the bases--but they're a little light at +the bat. When it comes to playing before their home crowds they'll be a +pretty stiff proposition." + +"Do you take in China at all?" asked Reggie. + +"We'll probably stop at Shanghai and Hongkong," replied Joe. "I don't +imagine the Chinks can scrape up any kind of a baseball team, but there +are big foreign colonies at both of those places and they'll turn out in +force to see players from the States. Then after touching at Manila, we'll +go to Australia, taking in all the big towns like Sydney, Melbourne and +Adelaide. While of course the Australians are crazy about cricket, like +all Englishmen, they're keen for every kind of athletic sport, and we're +sure of big crowds there. After that we sail for Ceylon and from there to +Egypt." + +"I'd like to see Egypt better than any other place," broke in Clara. "I've +always been crazy to go there." + +"It's full of curiosities," remarked Jim. "There's the Sphinx, for +instance--a woman who hasn't said a word for five thousand years." + +Clara flashed a withering glance at him, under which he wilted. + +"Don't mix your Greek fable and your Egyptian facts, Jim," chuckled Joe. + +"Huh?" + +"Fact. Since this trip's been in the wind, I've been reading up. Those +Egyptian sphinxes--those that haven't a ram's or a hawk's head--have a +man's, not a woman's, head." + +"That's why they've been able to keep still so long, then!" exclaimed +Jim. + +"You mean thing!" cried Mabel. + +"Don't lay that up against me," he begged, penitently, "and I'll send you +back a little crocodile from the Nile." + +"Oh, the horrid thing!" cried Clara with a shudder. + +"I'm doing the best I can," said Jim, plaintively. "I can't send you one +of the pyramids." + +"That's the last we'll see of Africa," went on Joe. "After that, we set +sail for Italy and land at Naples. Then we work our way up through Rome, +Florence, Milan, Monte Carlo, Marseilles, Paris and London. We'll stay +about a month in Great Britain, visiting Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dublin. +Then we'll make tracks for home, and maybe we won't be glad to get here!" + +The vision conjured up by this array of famous cities offered such scope +for endless surmise and speculation that they were surprised at the flight +of time when Mrs. Matson smilingly summoned them to supper. + +Of course, Joe sat beside Mabel and Jim beside Clara. If, in the course of +the evening meal, Joe's hand and Mabel's met beneath the table, it was +purely by accident. Jim, on his side would cheerfully have risked such an +accident, but had no such luck. + +Joe was happy, supremely happy in the presence by his side of the dearest +girl in all the world. Yet there was a queer little ache at his heart +because of the apparent indifference with which Mabel had viewed their +coming separation. + +"You haven't said once," he said to her in a low tone, with a touch of +tender reproach, "that you were sorry I was going." + +"Why should I," answered Mabel, demurely, "since I am going with you?" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS + + +If Mabel had counted on creating a sensation, she succeeded beyond her +wildest hopes. + +For a moment, Joe thought that he must have taken leave of his senses. + +"What!" he cried, incredulously, half rising to his feet. + +This sudden ejaculation drew the attention of all the others seated at the +table. + +"Land sakes, Joe!" expostulated his mother, "you almost made me upset my +tea cup. What's the matter?" + +"Enough's the matter," responded Joe, jubilantly. "That is, if Mabel +really means what she said just now." + +"What was it you said, Mabel dear?" asked Clara. + +"Come, 'fess up," invited Jim. + +"I guess I'll let Reggie tell the rest of it," said Mabel, blushing under +the battery of eyes turned upon her. + +"All right, Sis," said Reggie, affably. "Bah Jove, I give you credit for +holding in as long as you have. The fact is," he continued, beaming +amiably upon all the party, "the governor asked me to take a trip to Japan +and China, and Mabel put in to come along. I didn't twig what the little +minx was up to, until she said we could go on the same steamer that took +the baseball party. Lots of other women--wives of the managers and players +and so on--will go along, I understand. So there's the whole bally story +in a nutshell. Rippin' good idea I call it--what?" + +"Glory hallelujah!" cried Joe, grasping Mabel's hand, openly this time. + +"It's simply great!" cried Jim, enthusiastically. + +"You darling, lucky girl!" exclaimed Clara, while Mr. and Mrs. Matson +smiled their pleasure. + +"Had you up in the air for a minute, didn't it, old top?" grinned Reggie. + +"I should say it did," Joe admitted. "I thought for a minute I was going +crazy. Somebody pinch me." + +Jim reached over and accommodated him. + +"Ouch!" cried Joe, rubbing his arm. "You needn't be so literal." + +"There's nothing I wouldn't do for my friends," said Jim, piously. + +Questions poured in thick and fast. + +"How can you possibly get ready in time?" asked Clara. "It's the +sixteenth now, and the teams leave Chicago on the nineteenth." + +"Oh, we're not going to make the trip across the country," explained +Mabel, flushed with happiness. "Reggie and I will join the party in San +Francisco or Seattle, or wherever they start from. So that will give us +nearly a month, and I'm going to spend most of that right here--if you can +stand me that long." + +Clara came round the table and gave her an impulsive hug. + +"I'd be glad to have you stay here forever," said Mrs. Matson fervently. + +Just here a thought struck Joe. + +"It's the greatest thing ever that you're going as far as Japan," he said. +"But why can't you keep on with us and swing right around the circle?" + +"You greedy boy!" murmured Mabel. + +"We've thought of that too," explained Reggie. "The governor promised +Mabel a trip round the world as soon as she got through with the finishing +school. She could have gone last year if she had chosen, but she got so +interested in baseball----" + +"Reggie!" murmured Mabel, warningly. + +"Well, anyway," said Reggie a little lamely, "she didn't go, and so I put +it up to the governor that there was no reason she couldn't go now. He +saw it the same way--he's a rippin' good sort, the governor is--and he's +left it to us to make the trip all the way round--that is, if I can get +through my business in Japan in time." + +"If you don't get through in time, there'll be murder done," threatened +Joe. + +In the animated talk that ensued all took a part. But toward the end of +the meal, Joe noticed that Jim was a little more subdued than was usual +with him, and that some of the sparkle and vivacity had vanished from +Clara's eyes and voice. + +He glanced from one to the other and knew the reason. He knew how deep the +feeling was growing between the two and realized what the coming +six-months' separation would mean to them. A generous impulse came to him +like a flash. + +"Listen folks," he said. "Surprises seem to be in fashion, so here's +another one. Clara's going along with us." + +Astonishment and delight held Clara speechless--then she rose and flung +her arms impulsively about her brother's neck, and for the second time +that day Jim would have been willing to let her be a sister to him also. + +Jim reached his brawny hand across the table. + +"Put her there, Joe, old boy!" he said. "You're the finest fellow that +ever wore shoe leather." + +"Won't it be just glorious!" exulted Mabel. + +"There never was such a boy in all the world," murmured Joe's mother. + +"But, Joe dear, won't it be too great an expense?" suggested Clara. "You +know it's less than a month since you sent us that thousand-dollar bill +that took us to the World's Series." + +"That's all right, Sis," reassured Joe, patting her hand. "Remember I +cleared nearly four thousand dollars extra in the World's Series, and this +won't put much of a dent in that. You just go ahead and doll yourself +up--and hang the expense." + +And so it was settled, and it is safe to say that a group of happier young +people could not be found anywhere than those who discussed excitedly, +until late into the night, the coming trip with all its marvelous +possibilities. + +The next two days flew by all too rapidly. The girls, of course, had +plenty of time, but Joe and Jim had a host of things to attend to and a +very limited time to do them in. But somehow, Joe made time enough to say +a lot of things to Mabel that, to lovers at least, seem important, and +Jim, though not daring to go quite so far, looked and said quite enough to +deepen the roses in Clara's cheeks and the loveliness in her eyes. + +It was hard to part when the time for parting came, but this time there +was no long six-months' separation to be dreaded--that is, as far as the +young folks were concerned. + +Mr. and Mrs. Matson had counted on having their son with them throughout +the fall and winter, but they had been accustomed for so long to merge +their own happiness in that of their children that they kept up bright +faces while they said good-bye, although Mrs. Matson's smile was +tremulous. + +A day and night of traveling and the ball players reached Chicago, where, +at the Blackstone, they found McRae awaiting them--the same old McRae, +aggressive, pugnacious, masterful, and yet with a glint of worry in his +eyes that had not been there at the close of the World's Series. + +Robbie was there too, rotund and rubicund, but not just the Robbie who had +danced the tango with McRae before the clubhouse on the occasion of the +great victory. + +But if worry and anxiety had set their mark upon the manager and trainer +of the Giants, it had not affected the players, who were lounging about +the corridor of the hotel. + +A bunch of them, including Burkett and Denton and good old Larry, gave the +newcomers a tumultuous welcome. + +"Cheer, cheer, the gang's all here!" cried Larry. + +McRae clasped Joe's hand in a grip that almost made him wince. + +"So the new league hasn't got you yet, Joe?" he cried. + +"No," laughed Joe, returning his clasp; "and it never will!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE RIVAL TEAMS + + +Robbie, who had come up just in time to hear Joe's last words, gave him a +resounding thump on the back. + +"That's the way to talk, Joe, old boy!" he cried. "I've been telling Mac +all along that no matter who else weakens he could bet his last dollar on +you." + +"Not that I needed any bracing up," declared McRae. "I know a man when I +see one, and I count on you to the limit. I didn't send that telegram +because I had any doubt, but I knew that they'd make a break for you first +of all and I didn't want you to be taken by surprise. By the way, have any +of them turned up yet?" + +"A chap named Westland came to see me the very day I got your telegram," +replied Joe. + +"And he came well heeled, too," put in Jim. "Money was fairly dripping +from him. He just ached to give it away. It was only up to Joe to become a +bloated plutocrat on the spot." + +"Offered good money, did he?" asked McRae, with quickened interest. + +"Twenty thousand dollars right off the bat," replied Jim. "Fifteen +thousand dollars a year for a three-year contract. And as if that weren't +enough, he offered to put the money in the bank in advance and let Joe +draw against it as he went along." + +McRae and Robbie exchanged glances. Here was proof that the new league +meant business right from the start. It was a competitor to be dreaded and +it was up to them to get their fighting clothes on at once. + +"That's a whale of an offer," ejaculated Robbie. + +"They've thrown their hat into the ring," remarked McRae. "From now on +it's a fight for blood." + +"There's no need of asking what Joe said to that," said Robbie. + +"I wish you'd been behind the door to hear it," grinned Jim. "The way Joe +lighted into him was a sin and a shame. He fairly skinned him alive. It +looked at one time as if there would be a scrap sure." + +"It would have been a tremendous card for them to get the star pitcher of +the World's Series," said McRae with a sigh of relief. "And in these days, +when so many rumors are flying round it's a comfort to know there's one +man, at least, that money can't buy. There isn't a bit of shoddy in you, +Joe. You're all wool and a yard wide." + +At this moment, Hughson, the famous pitcher who had been a tower of +strength to the Giants for ten years past, came strolling up, and Joe and +Jim fell upon him with a shout. + +"How are you, Hughson, old man?" cried Joe. "How's that wing of yours +getting along?" + +"All to the good," replied Hughson. "I stopped off for a day or two at +Youngstown and had it treated by Bonesetter Reese. I tell you, that old +chap's a wonder. He tells me it will be as good as ever when the season +opens." + +"I'm mighty glad you're going along with us on this trip," said Jim, +heartily. "It wouldn't seem like the Giant team with you out of it." + +"I'm going through as far as the coast anyway," answered Hughson. "More +for the fun of being with the boys than anything else. But I don't think +I'll make the trip around the world. I made a half promise some time ago +to coach the Yale team this coming spring, and they don't seem inclined to +let me out of it. And I don't know if after all it may not be best to rest +up this winter and get in shape for next year." + +The three strolled on down the corridor, leaving McRae and Robbie in +earnest conversation. + +"How many of the boys is Mac taking along?" asked Joe. + +"I think he figures on about fourteen men," replied Hughson. "That will +give him three pitchers, two catchers, an extra infielder and outfielder, +besides the seven other men in their regular positions. That'll allow for +accident or sickness and ought to be enough." + +"Just as I doped it out," remarked Joe. + +"On a pinch, McRae could play himself," laughed Jim. "No better player +ever held down the third bag than Mac when he was on the old Orioles. The +old boy could give the youngsters points even now on winging them down to +first." + +"For that matter, Robbie himself might go in behind the bat," grinned Joe. +"No ball could get by him without hitting him somewhere." + +"It would be worth the price of admission to see Robbie running down to +first," admitted Hughson, with a smile. + +"What kind of a team has Brennan got together for the All-American?" asked +Joe. + +"Believe me; it's a good one," replied Hughson. "He's got a bunch of the +sweetest hitters that he could get from either league. They're a bunch of +fence breakers, all right. When those birds once get going, they're apt to +send any pitcher to the shower. You'll have all you want to do, Joe, to +keep them from straightening out your curves." + +"I don't ask anything better," replied Joe, with a laugh. "I'd get soft if +they were too easy. But who are these ball killers? Let me know the +worst." + +"Well," said Hughson, "there's Wallie Schalk behind the bat--you know how +he can line them out. Then there's Miller at first, Ebers at second, +McBride at short and Chapman at third. The outfielders will probably be +Cooper and Murray and Lange. For pitchers Brennan will have Hamilton, +Fraser and Ellis,--although Ellis was troubled with the charley-horse +toward the end of the season, and Banks may take his place." + +"It's a strong team," commented Jim, "and they can certainly make the ball +scream when they hit it. They're a nifty lot of fielders, too. I guess +we'll have our work cut out for us, all right." + +"Both Mac and Brennan have got the right idea," said Hughson. "Too many of +these barnstorming trips have been made up of second string men, and when +people came to see the teams play and didn't find the real stars in the +line-up they naturally felt sore. But they're going to get the simon-pure +article this time and the games are to be for blood. Anyone that lays +down on his job is going to get fired. It'll be easy enough to pick up a +good man to take his place." + +"What's the scheme?" asked Joe. "Are we two teams to play against each +other all the time, or are we to take on some of the local nines?" + +"I don't think that's been fully worked out yet," replied Hughson. "I know +we're going to play the Denver nine and some of the crack California +teams." + +"Easy meat," commented Jim with a grin. + +"Don't you believe it," rejoined Hughson. "Don't you remember how the Waco +team trimmed us last spring? Those fellows will play their heads off to +beat us--and they'll own the town if they succeed. They figure that +they'll catch us off our guard and get the Indian sign on us before we +wake up." + +"Yes. But do you think they can get the Indian sign so easily?" + +"No, I don't." + +"Of course, those minor teams will play their very best, because it would +be a feather in their cap if they could take a game away from us. They'll +probably look around and pick up the very best players they can, even if +they have to put up some money for the purpose. Just the same, we ought to +be able to polish them off with these." + +"Well, of course, we've got to expect to lose some games. It would be a +remarkable thing to go around the world and win every game." + +"Yet it might be done," broke in Jim. + +"I suppose there'll be quite a party going along with the teams, just for +the sake of the trip," observed Joe. + +"You've said it," replied Hughson. "At least half of the men will have +their wives along, and then there's a whole bunch of fans who have been +meaning to go round the world anyway who will think this a good chance to +mix baseball and globe trotting. Altogether I shouldn't wonder if there +would be about a hundred in the party. Some of the fellows will have their +sisters with them, and you boys had better look out or you'll lose your +hearts to them. But perhaps," he added, as he saw a look of quick +intelligence pass between the chums, "you're already past praying for." + +Neither one of them denied the soft impeachment. + +"By the way," said Hughson, changing the subject, "while I think of it, +Joe, I want to give you a tip to be on your guard against 'Bugs' +Hartley." + +"Why, what's he up to, now?" inquired Joe. + +"I don't know," Hughson replied. "But I do know that he's sore at you +through and through. He's got the idea in that twisted brain of his that +you got him off the Giant team. I met him in the street the other +day----" + +"Half drunk, I suppose," interjected Jim. + +"More than half," replied Hughson. "He's got to be a regular +panhandler--struck me for a loan, and while I was getting it for him, he +talked in a rambling way of how he was going to get even with you. Of +course I shut him up, but I couldn't talk him out of his fixed idea. He'll +do you a mischief if he ever gets the chance." + +"He's tried it before," said Joe. "He nearly knocked me out when he doped +my coffee. Poor old 'Bugs'--he's his own worst enemy." + +"But he's your enemy too," persisted Hughson. "And don't forget that a +crazy man is a dangerous man." + +"Thanks for the tip," replied Joe. "But 'threatened men live long' and I +guess I'm no exception to the rule!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE UNDER DOG + + +"Talking of angels!" exclaimed Jim, giving Joe a sharp nudge in the ribs. + +Joe looked up quickly and saw Hartley coming down the corridor. + +"It's 'Bugs,' sure enough," he said. "And, for a wonder, he's walking +straight." + +"Guess he's on his good behavior," remarked Hughson. "There's a big +meeting of the American League here just now, winding up the affairs of +the league, now that the playing season is over. Maybe Hartley thinks he +has a chance to catch on somewhere. Like everybody else that's played in +the big leagues, he hates to go back to the bushes. He'd be a find, too, +if he'd only cut out the booze--there's lots of good baseball in him +yet." + +"He's a natural player," said Joe, generously. "And one of the best +pitchers I ever saw. You know how Mac tried to hold on to him." + +"I don't think he has a Chinaman's chance, though, of staying in big +league company," observed Jim. "After the way he tried to give away our +signals in that game at Boston, the Nationals wouldn't touch him with a +ten-foot pole, and I don't think the American has any use for him either. +You might forgive him for being a drunkard, but not for being a traitor." + +Hartley had caught sight of the group, and at first seemed rather +undecided whether to go on or stop. The bitter feeling he had for Joe, +however, was too strong to resist, and he came over to where they were. He +paid no attention to Jim, and gave a curt nod to Hughson and fixed a +malignant stare on Joe. + +"All dolled up," he said, with a sneer, as he noted the quiet but handsome +suit that Joe was wearing. "I could have glad rags, too, if you hadn't +bilked me out of four thousand dollars." + +"Cut out that talk, Bugs," said Joe, though not unkindly. "I never did you +out of anything and you know it." + +"Yes, you did," snarled Hartley. "You got me fired from the Giants and did +me out of my share of the World's Series money." + +"You did yourself out of it, Bugs," said Joe, patiently. "I did my best to +have Mac hold on to you. I never was anything but your friend. Do you +remember how Jim and I put you to bed that night in St. Louis when you +were drunk? We took you up the back way so Mac wouldn't get next. Take a +fool's advice, Bugs--cut out the liquor and play the game." + +"I don't want any advice from you!" sneered Hartley. "And take it from me, +I'll get you yet." + +"Beat it, Bugs!" Jim broke in sternly, "while the going's good. Roll your +hoop now, or I'll help you." + +Hartley hesitated a moment, but took Jim's advice and with a muttered +threat went on his way. + +"Mad as a March hare," murmured Jim, as they watched the retreating +figure. + +"Do a man a favor and he'll never forgive you," quoted Joe. + +"Where did he get his grouch against you?" asked Hughson, curiously. + +"Search me," replied Joe. "I think it dates from the time when he was +batted out of the box and Mac sent me in to take his place. I won the game +and Bugs has been sore at me ever since. He figured that I tried to show +him up." + +"I wonder how he got here?" mused Hughson. "The last time I saw him was in +New York, and the money I lent him wasn't enough to bring him on." + +"Perhaps Mac gave him transportation," suggested Jim. + +"Not on your life," rejoined Hughson. "Mac's got a heart as big as a +house, but he hates a traitor. You see, though, Joe, I was right in giving +you the tip. Keep your eyes open, old man." + +Joe was about to make a laughing reply, but just at that moment Larry and +Denton came along with broad smiles of welcome on their faces, and the +unpleasant episode was forgotten. + +It was a jolly party that left Chicago the next morning for the trip +around the world. The managers had chartered a special train which was +made up wholly of Pullman sleepers, a dining car and a smoker. + +It was travel _de luxe_, and the sumptuous train was to be their home for +the full month that would elapse before they reached the coast. + +"Rather soft, eh, for the poor baseball slaves," grinned Jim, as he +stretched out his long legs luxuriously and gazed out of the window at the +flying telegraph poles. + +"This is the life," chanted Larry Barrett. + +"Nothing to do till to-morrow," chimed in Denton. "And not much even +then." + +"Don't you boys go patting yourselves on the back," smiled Robbie, looking +more like a cherub than ever, as he stopped beside their seats on his way +along the aisle. "These games, remember, are to be the real thing--there's +going to be no sloppy or careless work just because you're not playing +for the championship. They're going to be fights from the time the gong +rings till the last man is out in the ninth inning." + +If Robbie wanted action, he got it, and the first games had a snap and vim +about them that augured well for the success of the trip. It is true that +the players had not the stimulus that comes from a fight for the pennant, +but other motives were not lacking. + +There was one game which was a nip-and-tuck affair from start to finish. +At the end of the fourth inning the score stood 1 to 1, and at the end of +the sixth inning the score had advanced so that it stood 2 to 2. + +"Say, we don't seem to be getting anywhere in this game," remarked Jim to +Joe. + +"Oh, well, we've got three more innings to play," was the answer. + +In the seventh inning a most remarkable happening occurred. The +All-Americans had three men on bases with nobody out. It looked as if they +might score, but Joe took a sudden brace and pitched the next man at the +bat out in one-two-three order. + +The next man up knocked a pop fly, which Joe gathered in with ease. + +"That's the way to do it, Joe!" sang out one of his companions. "Now go +for the third man!" + +The third fellow to the bat was a notable hitter, and nearly every one +thought he would lace out at least a two-bagger, bringing in probably +three runs. Instead, however, he knocked two fouls, and then sent a liner +down to first base, which the baseman caught with ease; and that ended the +chance for scoring. + +"That's pulling it out of the fire!" cried McRae. The showing had been a +good one, but what made the inning so remarkable was the fact that in +one-two-three order the Giants got the bases filled exactly as they had +been filled before. Then, more amazing still, the next man was pitched +out, the second man knocked a pop fly to the pitcher, and it was Joe +himself, coming to the bat, hit out a liner to third base, which was +gathered in by the baseman, thus ending the Giants hope of scoring. + +"Well, what do you know about that!" cried Brennan. "The inning on each +side was exactly alike, with the exception that our third man out flied to +first base, while your man flied to third." + +But that ended the similarity both in batting and in scoring, for in the +eighth inning the Giants added another run to their score, and held this +lead to the end, even though the All-Americans fought desperately in the +effort to tie the score. + +"Oh, we had to win," said one of the Giants. "Too many of our folks +looking at us to lose." + +Many members of the teams had their wives or sisters with them, and +defeat would have been galling under the eyes of the fair spectators. + +Then, too, the Giants had their reputation to sustain as the Champions of +the World. On the other hand, the All-Americans were anxious to show that +even though they had not been in the World's Series, they ought to have +been--and it was a keen delight to them to make their adversaries bite the +dust. + +Add to this the fact that there was a strong spirit of rivalry, +good-natured but intense, between the scrappy McRae and the equally +pugnacious Brennan, whose team had been nosed out by the Giants in that +last desperate race down the stretch for the pennant, and it is no wonder +that the crowds kept getting larger in every city they played, that the +gate receipts made the managers chuckle, that the great city papers gave +extended reports of the games and that the baseball trip around the world +began to engross the attention of every lover of sports in the country. + +Joe had never been in finer fettle. His fast balls went over the plate +like bullets from a gatling gun. His fadeaway was working to a charm. He +wound the ball near the batters' necks and curved it out of reach of their +bats with an ease and precision that explained to the applauding crowds +why he was rated as the foremost pitcher of the day. + +Jim, too, showed the effect of his season's work and Joe's helpful +coaching, and between the two they accounted for three of the games won by +the Giants before they reached Colorado. Two other games had gone to the +All-Americans in slap-dash, ding-dong finishes, and it was an even thing +as to which team would have the most games to its credit by the time they +had reached the Pacific coast. + +The tension was relaxed somewhat when they reached Denver, where, for the +first time, instead of fighting it out between themselves a team picked +from both nines was to play the local club. + +"Here's where we get a rest," sighed Mylert, the burly catcher of the +Giant team. + +"It will be no trick at all to wipe up the earth with these bushers," +laughed Larry Barrett. + +"What we'll do to them will be a sin and a shame," agreed "Red" Curry, he +of the flaming mop, who was accustomed to play the "sun field" at the Polo +Grounds. + +"It's almost a crime to show them up before their home crowd," chimed in +Iredell, the Giant shortstop. + +But if the local club was in for a beating, they showed no special +trepidation as they came out on the field for practice. If the haughty +major leaguers had expected their humble adversaries to roll over and play +dead in advance of the game itself, they were certainly doomed to +disappointment. + +The home team went through its preliminary work in a snappy, finished way +that brought frequent applause from the crowds that thronged the stand. + +Before the game, Brennan, of the Chicagos, sauntered over to Thorpe, the +local manager, who chanced to be an old acquaintance. + +"Got a dandy crowd here to-day, Bill," he said. "We ought to give them a +run for their money. Suppose I lend you one of our star pitchers, just to +make things more interesting." + +"Thank you, Roger," Thorpe replied, with a slow smile, "but I think we're +going to make it interesting for you fellows, anyway." + +"Quit your kidding," grinned Brennan, with a facetious poke in the ribs, +and strolled back to the bench. + +The gong rang, the field cleared, and the visiting team came to the bat. +Larry, who had finished the season in a blaze of glory as the leading +batsman of the National League came up to the plate, swinging three bats. +He threw away two of them, tapped his heels for luck and grinned +complacently at the Denver pitcher. + +"Trot out the best you've got, kid," he called, "and if you can put it +over the plate I'll murder it." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +BY A HAIR + + +The pitcher, a dark-skinned, rangy fellow, wound up deliberately and shot +the ball over. It split the plate clean. Larry swung at it--and missed it +by two inches. + +He looked mildly surprised, but set it down to the luck of the game and +squared himself for a second attempt. This time he figured on a curve, but +the boxman out-guessed him with a slow one that floated up to the plate as +big as a balloon. + +Larry almost broke his back in reaching for it, but again fanned the air. +The visiting players, who had looked on rather languidly, straightened up +on the bench. + +"Some class to that pitcher," ejaculated Willis. + +"It isn't often that a bush leaguer makes a monkey out of Larry," replied +Burkett. + +"I've seen these minor league pitchers before," grinned "Red" Curry. "They +start off like a house afire, but about the fifth inning they begin to +crumple up." + +The third ball pitched was a wide outcurve at which Larry refused to bite. +He fouled off the next two and then swung savagely at a wicked drop that +got away from him. + +"You're out," called the umpire as the ball thudded into the catcher's +mitt, and Larry came back a little sheepishly to his grinning comrades on +the bench. + +"What's the matter, Larry?" queried Iredell, as he moved up to make room +for him. "Off your feed to-day?" + +"You'll find out what the matter is when you face that bird," snorted +Larry. "He's the real goods, and don't you forget it." + +Denton, the second man in the batting order, took a ball and a strike, and +then dribbled an easy roller to the box, which the swarthy pitcher had no +trouble in getting to first on time. + +Burkett, who followed, had better luck and sent a clean single between +first and second. A shout went up from the Giant bench, which became a +groan a moment later, when a snap throw by the pitcher nailed Burkett +three feet off the bag. + +The half inning had been smartly played and the Giants took the field with +a slightly greater respect for their opponents. + +Joe had pitched the day before, and it was up to Fraser to take his turn +in the box. He walked out to his position with easy confidence. He was +one of the best pitchers in either league, and it was he who had faced Joe +in that last battle royal of the World's Series and had gone down +defeated, but not disgraced. + +But to-day from the start, it was evident that he was not himself. His +speed was there and the curves, but control was lacking. + +"Wild as a hawk," muttered McRae, as the first Denver man trotted down to +base on balls. + +"Can't seem to locate the plate at all," grunted Robbie. + +"He'll pull himself together all right," remarked Brennan, hopefully. + +But the prophecy proved false, and the next two men up waited him out and +were also rewarded with passes. The bases were full without a hit having +been made, and the crowds in the stand were roaring like mad. + +Brennan from the coaching lines at first waved to Fraser and the latter, +drawing off his glove, walked disgustedly to the bench. + +"What's the matter with you to-day?" queried McRae. "You seemed to think +the plate was up in the grandstand." + +"Couldn't get the hang of it, somehow," Fraser excused himself. "Just my +off day, I guess." + +Hamilton succeeded him in the box, and from the way he started out it +seemed as though he were going to redeem the poor work of his predecessor. +He struck out the first man on three pitched balls, made the second send +up a towering foul that Mylert caught after a long run, and the major +leaguers began to breathe more freely. + +"Guess he'll pull out of the hole all right," remarked Robbie. + +But for the next batter, Hamilton, grown perhaps a trifle too confident, +put one over in the groove, and the batter banged out a tremendous +three-bagger to right field. Curry made a gallant try for it but could not +quite reach. + +Three runs came over the plate, while the panting batsman slid to third. +The crowd in the stands went wild then, and Thorpe, the manager of the +local team, grinned in a mocking way at Brennan. + +"Is this interesting enough?" he drawled, referring to Brennan's +patronizing offer to lend him a player. + +"Just a bit of luck," growled Brennan. "A few inches more and Curry would +have got his hooks on the ball. Beside, the game's young yet. We've got +the class and that's bound to tell." + +Hamilton, whose blood was up, put on more steam, and the third player went +out on an infield fly. But the damage had been done, and those three runs +at the very start loomed up as a serious handicap. + +"Three big juicy ones," mourned McRae. + +"And all of them on passes," groaned Robbie. "Too bad we didn't put +Hamilton in right at the start." + +Neither team scored in the second inning, and the third also passed +without result. + +Hamilton was mowing down the opposing batters with ease and grace. But the +swarthy flinger for the local club was not a bit behind him. The heavy +sluggers of the visiting teams seemed as helpless before him as so many +school-boys. + +"That fellow won't be in the minors long," commented Brennan. "I wonder +some of my scouts haven't gone after him before this. Who is he, anyway?" + +"I'll tell you who he is," broke in Robbie, suddenly. "I knew I'd seen him +before somewhere, and I've been puzzling all this time to place him. Now +I've tumbled. It's Alvarez, the crack pitcher of Cuba." + +"Do you mean the fellow that stood the Athletics on their heads when they +made that winter trip to Cuba a couple of years ago?" asked McRae. + +"The same one," affirmed Robbie. "I happened to be there at one of the +games, and he showed them up--hundred thousand dollar infield and all. +Connie was fairly dancing as he saw his pets slaughtered. I tell you, that +fellow's a wonder--he'd have been in a major league long ago if it hadn't +been for his color. He may be only a Cuban, and he says he is, but he's so +dark-skinned that there'd be some prejudice against him and that's barred +him out." + +"That's what made Thorpe so confident," growled Brennan. "He's worked in a +'ringer' on us. We ought to make a kick." + +"That would put us in a nice light, wouldn't it?" replied McRae, stormily. +"We'd like to see it in the papers, that the major leagues played the baby +act because they couldn't bat a bush pitcher. Not on your life! Thorpe +would be tickled to death to have us make a squeal. We'll simply have to +lick him." + +But if the promised licking was yet to come, it was not in evidence in the +next two innings. Alvarez seemed as fresh as at the beginning, and his arm +worked with the force and precision of a piston rod. + +"What's the matter with you fellows, anyway?" raged McRae, when the end of +the fifth inning saw the score remain unchanged. "You ought to be in the +old ladies' home. It's a joke to call you ball players." + +"It must be this Denver air," ventured Willis. "It's so high up here that +a fellow finds it hard to breathe. These Denver boobs are used to it and +we're not." + +"Air! air!" snapped McRae. "I notice you've got plenty of hot air. Go in +and play the game, you bunch of false alarms." + +Whether it was owing to his rasping tongue or their own growing resentment +at the impudence of the minor leaguers, the All-Americans broke the ice in +the sixth. + +Burkett lined out a beauty between left and center that was good for two +bases. Willis followed with a towering sky scraper to right, which, +although it was caught after a long run, enabled Burkett to get to third +before the ball was returned. Then Becker who had perished twice before on +feeble taps to the infield, whaled out a home run to the intense +jubilation of his mates. + +"We've got his number!" yelled Larry, doing a jig on the coaching lines. + +"He's going up," sang out "Red" Curry. + +"I knew he couldn't last," taunted Iredell, as he threw his cap in the +air. + +But Alvarez was not through, by any means. Undaunted by that tremendous +home run which might have taken the heart out of any pitcher, he braced +himself, and the next two men went out on fouls. + +"I thought we had them on the run that time," observed McRae, "but he's +got the old comeback right with him." + +"Never mind," exulted Robbie. "We're beginning to find him now, and we've +cut down that big lead of theirs to one run. The boys will get after him +the next inning." + +But even the lucky seventh passed without bringing any luck to the +visitors, and although the major leaguers got two men on bases in the +eighth, the inning ended with the score still three to two in favor of the +local club. + +"Looks as though we were up against it," said Jim, anxiously, as the +Giants went to bat for the last time. + +"It sure does," responded Joe. "I'll hate to look at the papers to-morrow +morning. The whole country will have the laugh on us." + +"The boys will want to keep away from McRae if they lose," said Jim. +"He'll be as peeved as a bear with a sore head for the next three days or +so." + +"Now, Larry, show them where you live," sang out Curry, as the head of the +Giant batting order strode to the plate. + +"Kill it," entreated Willis. "Hit it on the seam." + +"Send it a mile," exhorted Becker. + +It was not a mile that Larry sent it, but it looked so to the left and +center fielders who chased it as it went on a line between the two. A +cleaner home run had probably never been knocked out on the Denver +grounds. + +Larry came galloping in to be mauled and pounded by his exulting mates, +while McRae brought down his hand on Robbie's knee with a force that made +that worthy wince. + +"That ties it up," he cried. "Now, boys, for a whirlwind finish!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A CLOSE CALL + + +The crowds in the stand, which had been uproarious a few moments before, +were quiet now. The lead which the local club had held throughout the game +had vanished; the visitors had played an uphill game worthy of their +reputation, and now they had at least an even chance. + +Denton came to the bat, eager to emulate Larry's feat, but Alvarez was +unsteady now--that last home run had taken something out of him. He found +it hard to locate the plate, and Denton trotted down to first on balls. + +As no man was out and only one run was needed to gain the lead, a +sacrifice was the proper play, and Burkett laid down a neat bunt in front +of the plate that carried Denton to second, although the batter died at +first. + +Alvarez purposely passed Willis on the chance of the next batter hitting +into a double play, which would have retired the side. Becker made a +mighty effort to bring his comrades in, but hit under the ball, and it +went high in the air and was caught by Alvarez as it came down, without +the pitcher moving from his tracks. + +With two out, there was no need of a double play and the infielders, who +had been playing close in, resumed their usual positions. Iredell, the +next man up caught the ball square on the end of his bat and sent it +whistling between center and third. The shortstop leaped up and knocked +the ball down, but it was going too fast for him to hold. + +Denton had left second at the crack of the bat, and by the time the +infielder regained the ball had rounded third and was tearing like a +racehorse toward the plate. There was little time to get set and the +hurried throw home went over the catcher's head. Denton slid feet first +over the plate, scoring the run that put his team in the lead. + +Willis tried to make it good measure by coming close behind him, but by +this time the catcher had recovered the ball and shot it back to Alvarez +who was guarding the plate. He nipped Willis by three feet and the side +was out. + +But that one run in the lead looked as big as a house at that stage in the +game. + +"All you've got to do now, Hamilton, old man, is to hold them down in +their half," said Brennan. + +"Cinch," grinned Hamilton. "I'll have them eating out of my hand." + +But the uncertainty that makes the national game the most fascinating one +in the world was demonstrated when the Denver team came in to do-or-die in +their half of the ninth. + +Hamilton fed the first batter a snaky curve, which he lashed at savagely +but vainly. The next was a slow one and resulted in a chop to the infield +which Larry would have ordinarily gobbled up without trouble. But the ball +took an ugly bound just as he was all set for it and went over his head +toward right. Before Curry could get the ball the batter had reached +second and the stands were once more in an uproar. + +The uproar increased when Hamilton, somewhat shaken by the incident, gave +the next batter a base on balls, and the broad smiles which had suffused +the faces of Robbie and McRae began to fade. + +"Is Hamilton going up, do you think?" asked the Giant manager, anxiously. + +"Looks something like it," replied Robbie, "but he'll probably brace. You +see Denton's talking to him now, to give him a chance to rest up a +little." + +The third baseman had strolled over to Hamilton on pretense of discussing +some point of play, but the crowd saw through the subterfuge, and shouts +of protest went up: + +"Hire a hall!" + +"Write him a letter!" + +"Play ball!" + +Not a bit flustered by the shouts, Denton took his time, and after +encouraging his team mate sauntered slowly back to his position. + +But Hamilton's good right arm had lost its cunning. His first ball was +wild, and the batter, seeing this, waited him out and was given a pass. +His comrades moved up and the bags were full, with none out and the +heaviest sluggers of the team coming to the bat. + +McRae and Brennan had been holding an earnest conference, and now on a +signal from them Hamilton came in from the box. + +"It's no use," said McRae to Brennan, while the crowd howled in derision. +"We'll have to play our trump and put Matson in to hold them down." + +"But he hasn't warmed up," said Brennan dubiously. + +"That makes no difference," replied McRae. "I'd rather put him in cold +than anyone else warm." + +"All right; do as you please," responded the other manager. + +McRae called over to where Joe was sitting. The crack pitcher had been +watching the progress of the game with keen interest, although making +comparatively few comments. As McRae approached Joe, the crowd howled +louder than ever at Hamilton. + +"Why don't you learn how to pitch?" + +"Say, let us send one of the high-school boys into the box for you!" + +"Too bad, old man, but I guess we've got your goat all right!" + +"I guess you know what I want, Joe," cried McRae. "I want you to get in +the box for us." + +"All right, Mac," was the young pitcher's answer. + +"And, Joe," went on the other earnestly, "try to think for the next five +minutes that you're pitching for the pennant." + +"I'll do anything you say," was Joe's reply; and then he drew on his glove +and walked out upon the ball field. + +"Hello! what do you know about that?" + +"Matson is going to pitch for them!" + +"I guess they've enough of that other dub!" + +"Oh, Hamilton isn't a dub, by any means," replied one of the spectators +sharply. "He's a good player, but a pitcher can't always be at his best." + +"But just you wait and see how we do up Matson!" cried a local +sympathizer. + +At a signal the next man to bat stepped away from the plate, and Joe had +the privilege of warming up by sending three hot ones to the catcher. + +"He'll put 'em over all right enough!" cried one of his friends. + +"That's what he will!" returned another. + +"Not much! He'll be snowed under!" + +"This is our winning day!" + +So the cries continued until the umpire held up his hand for silence. + +"He's going to make an announcement!" cried a number of the spectators. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," roared the umpire, removing his cap, "Matson now +pitching for the All-Americans." + +A howl went up from the stands, made up in about equal parts of derision +and applause. Derision because the All-American team must, they figured, +be scared to death when they had to send their greatest player into the +game. Whether they won or lost it was a great compliment to the Denver +team. The applause came from the genuine sportsmen who knew the famous +pitcher by reputation and welcomed the chance to see him in action. + +The three men on the bases were dancing about like dervishes in the hope +of rattling the newcomer. They did not know Joe. + +Never cooler than when the strain was greatest and the need most urgent, +Joe bent down to pick up the ball. As he did so, he touched it, apparently +accidentally, against his right heel. + +It was a signal meant for Denton, the third baseman, who was watching him +like a hawk. + +Joe took up his position in the box, took a grip on the ball, but instead +of delivering it to the batter turned suddenly on his left heel, as though +to snap it down to first. The Denver player at that bag, who had taken a +lead of several feet, made a frantic slide back to safety. + +But the ball never got to first, for Joe had swung himself all the way +round and shot the ball like a bullet to Denton at third. The local player +at third had been watching eagerly the outcome of the supposed throw to +first and was caught completely unawares. + +Down came Denton's hand, clapping the ball on his back, while the victim +stood dazed as though in a trance. + +It was the prettiest kind of "inside work," and even the home crowd went +into convulsions of laughter as the trapped player came sheepishly in from +third to the bench. + +McRae was beaming, and Robbie's rubicund face became several degrees +redder under the strain of his emotion. + +"Say, is that boy class, John?" Robbie gurgled, as soon as he could +speak. + +"Never saw a niftier thing on the ball field," responded McRae warmly. +"When that boy thinks, he runs rings around lightning." + +"And he's thinking all the time," chimed in Jim. + +But the peril was not yet over. The man at the most dangerous corner had +been disposed of, yet there was still a man on first and another on +second. A safe hit would tie the game at least, and possibly win it. + +Joe wound up deliberately and shot a high fast one over the plate. It came +so swiftly that the batter did not offer at it, and looked aggrieved when +the umpire called it a strike. + +The next was a crafty outcurve which went as a ball. The batsman fouled +off the next. + +With two strikes on and only one ball called, Joe was on "easy street" and +could afford to "waste a few." Twice in succession he tempted the batsman +with balls that were wide of the plate, but the batter was wary and +refused them. + +Now the count was "two and three," and the crowd broke into a roar. + +"Good eye, old man!" they shouted to the batter. + +"You've got him in a hole!" + +"It only takes one to do it!" + +"He's got to put it over!" + +With all the force of his sinewy arm, Joe "put it over." + +The batsman made a wicked drive at it and sent it hurtling to the box +about two feet over Joe's head. + +Joe saw it coming, leaped into the air and speared it with his gloved +hand. The men on bases had started to run, thinking it a sure hit. Joe +wheeled and sent the ball down to Burkett at first. + +"Look at that!" + +"Some speed, eh?" + +"I should say so." + +"Matson has got them going!" + +The man who had left the bag strove desperately to get back, but he was +too late. That rattling double play had ended the game with the +All-American team a victor by a score of four to three. + +Joe's fingers tingled as he pulled off the glove, for that terrific drive +had stung. The crowd had been stunned for a moment by the suddenness with +which the game and their hopes of victory had gone glimmering. But it had +been a remarkable play and the first silence was followed by a round of +sportsmanlike applause--though of course it was nothing to what would have +greeted the victory of the home team. + +"Fine work, Matson!" + +"Best I ever saw!" + +"You're the boy to do it." + +"Best pitcher in the world!" + +Joe found himself the center of a joyous crowd when he reached his own +bench. All were jubilant that they had escaped the humiliation of being +whipped by a minor league team. + +"You've brought home the bacon, Joe!" chortled McRae. + +"We all did," replied Joe. "But we almost dropped it on the way!" he +added, with a grin. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A DASTARDLY ATTACK + + +The tourists' train was scheduled to leave Denver at eleven-thirty that +night, so that there was ample time after the game for a leisurely meal +and a few hours for recreation for any of the party that felt so +inclined. + +Some went to the theater, others played cards, while others sat about the +lobby of the leading hotel and discussed the exciting events of the +afternoon's game. + +As for Joe and Jim, their recreation took the form of long letters to two +charming young ladies whose address, by coincidence, happened to be +Riverside. Both seemed to have much to write about, for it was nearly ten +o'clock before the bulky letters were ready for mailing. + +"Give them to me and I'll take them down to the hotel lobby and mail +them," said Jim, as they rose from the writing table. + +"I don't know," replied Joe, as he looked at his watch. "Perhaps the last +collection for the outgoing eastbound mail has already been made. What do +you say to going down to the post-office itself and dropping them in +there? Then they'll be sure to go." + +"All right," Jim acquiesced. "It's a dandy night anyway for a walk and I'd +like to stretch my legs a little. Come along." + +They went out into the brilliantly lighted streets, which at that hour +were still full of people, and turned toward the post-office which was +about half a mile distant. + +As they were passing a corner, Jim suddenly clutched Joe's arm. + +"Did you see that fellow who went into that saloon just now?" he asked, +indicating a rather pretentious cafe. + +"No," said Joe, dryly. "But it isn't such an unusual thing that I'd pay a +nickel to see it." + +"Quit your fooling," said Jim. "If that fellow wasn't Bugs Hartley, then +my eyes are going back on me." + +"You're dreaming," Joe retorted. "What in the world would Bugs be doing in +Denver?" + +"Panhandling, maybe," returned Jim. "Drinking, certainly. But it isn't +what he's doing that interests me. It's the fact that he's here." + +"Let's take a look," suggested Joe, impressed by his friend's +earnestness. + +They went up to the swinging door, pushed it open and looked in. There +were perhaps a dozen men in the place, but Hartley was not among them. + +"Barking up the wrong tree, Jim," chaffed Joe. + +"Maybe," agreed Jim a little perplexed, "but if it wasn't Bugs it was his +double." + +They reached the post-office and after mailing their letters turned back +towards the hotel. + +"It's taken us a little longer than I thought," remarked Jim, looking at +his watch. "We won't have any more than time to get our traps together and +get down to the train." + +"This looks like a short cut," said Joe, indicating a side street which +though rather dark and deserted cut into the main thoroughfare, as they +could see by the bright lights at the further end. "We'll save something +by going this way." + +They had gone perhaps a couple of blocks when they reached a part of the +street which had no dwelling houses on it. On one side was a factory, dark +and forbidding, and on the side where the young men were walking was a +high board fence enclosing a coal yard. + +"Wait a minute, Jim," said Joe. "It feels as though my shoe lace had come +untied." + +He stooped down to fasten the lace, and just as he did so, a jagged piece +of rock came whizzing past where his head had been a second before and +crashed against the fence. + +Joe straightened up with a jerk. + +"Who threw that?" he exclaimed. + +Jim's face was white at the peril his friend had so narrowly escaped. + +"Somebody who knew how to throw," he cried, "and I can make a guess at who +it was. There he is now!" he shouted, as he caught sight of a dim figure +slinking away in the darkness on the further side of the factory. + +They darted across the street in pursuit, but when they turned the corner +there was no one to be seen. Several alleys branched off from the street, +up any one of which the fugitive might have made his escape. Although they +tried them one after the other they could find no trace of the rascal. + +Baffled and chagrined, they made their way back to the scene of the +attack. Joe picked up the piece of rock and weighed it in his hand. + +"About half a pound," he judged. "And look at those rough edges! It would +have been all up with me, if it had landed." + +"Do you notice that that's about the weight of a baseball?" asked Jim +significantly. "And it went for your head as straight as a bullet. It +would have caught you square if you hadn't stooped just as you did. You +can thank your lucky stars that your shoelace came untied. That fellow +knew just how to throw, as I said before." + +"You don't mean," replied Joe, "that Bugs----" + +"Just that," affirmed Jim grimly. "Now maybe you'll believe me when I say +that I saw him to-night. That skunk thought that I had seen him, and +slipped into the saloon to get out of sight. Probably he went out through +a rear door and has been following us ever since." + +"But why----" began Joe. + +"Why?" repeated Jim. "Why does a crazy man do crazy things? Just because +he is crazy. He doesn't have to have a reason. If he thinks you've injured +him he's just as bitter as though you really had. Hughson's tip was a good +one, Joe. The fellow's deadly dangerous. It's only luck that he isn't a +murderer this minute." + +"It's good for him I didn't lay my hands on him," replied Joe. "I wouldn't +have hit him, because I don't think he's responsible for what he does. But +I'd have had him put where he couldn't do any more mischief for a while." + +"It gives me the creeps to think of what a close call that was," said Jim, +as they walked along. + +"Don't say anything about it to the boys," cautioned Joe. "The thing would +get out, and before we knew it the folks at home would have heard of it. +And they wouldn't have an easy minute for all the rest of the trip." + +They made quick time to the hotel, and as most of their luggage had +remained on the train, they had only to gather a few things together in a +small hand bag and start out for the station. + +Their special train had been standing on a side track a few hundred yards +east of the main platform. They were picking their way toward it across a +network of tracks, when, just as they rounded the corner of a freight car, +they came face to face with Hartley. + +They almost dropped their handbags at the unexpectedness of the meeting. +But if they were startled, Bugs was frightened and turned on his heel to +run. In an instant Joe had him by the collar in a grip of iron, while Jim +stood on the alert to stop him should he break away. + +"Let me go!" cried Hartley in stifled tones, for Joe's grip was almost +choking him. + +"Not until you tell me why you tried to murder me to-night," said Joe, +grimly. + +"I don't know what you're talking about," snarled Bugs, trying to wrench +himself loose from Joe's hold on his collar. + +"You know well enough," replied his captor. "Own up." + +"You might as well, Bugs," put in Jim. "We've got the goods on you." + +"You fellows are crazy," replied Bugs. "I've never laid eyes on you since +I saw you in Chicago. And you can't prove that I did either." + +"You're the only enemy I have in the world," declared Joe. "And the man +who threw that rock at me to-night was a practiced thrower. Besides, +you're all in a sweat--that's from running away when we chased you." + +"Swell proof that is," sneered Hartley. "Tell that to a judge and see what +good it will do you." + +The point was well taken, and Joe and Jim knew in their hearts that they +had no legal proof, although they were morally certain Bugs was guilty. +Besides, they had no time to have him arrested, for their train was +scheduled to start in ten minutes. + +"Now listen, Bugs," said Joe, at the same time shaking him so that his +teeth rattled. "I know perfectly well that you're lying, and I'm giving +you warning for the last time. You've had it in for me from the time you +doped my coffee and nearly put me out of the game altogether. Ever since +that you've bothered me, and to-night you've tried to kill me. I tell you +straight, I've had enough of it. If I didn't think that your brain was +twisted, I'd thrash you now within an inch of your life. But I'm telling +you now, and you let it sink in, that the next time you try to do me, I'm +going to put you where the dogs won't bite you." + +He dug his knuckles into Bugs' neck and gave him a fling that sent him +several yards away. The fellow kept his feet with an effort, and then with +a muttered threat slunk away into the darkness. + +They watched him for a minute, and then picked up their handbags and +started toward the train. + +"Hope that's the last we see of him," remarked Joe. + +"So do I," Jim replied. "But we felt that way before and he's turned up +just the same. I won't feel easy till I know that he's behind the bars." + +"He's usually in front of the bars," joked Joe. "But I'm glad anyway that +we had a chance to throw a scare into him. He knows now that we'll be on +our guard and perhaps even he will have sense enough to let us alone." + +Jim consulted his watch. + +"Great Scott!" he ejaculated. + +"What's the matter, Jim?" + +"We haven't any time to spare if we want to catch that train." + +"All right, let's run for it." + +As best they could, they began sprinting in the direction of the railroad +station, but their handbags were somewhat heavy, and this impeded their +progress. Then, turning a corner, they suddenly found themselves +confronted by a long sewer trench, lit up here and there by red lanterns. + +"We've got to get over that trench somehow!" cried Joe. + +"Can you jump it?" questioned Jim anxiously. + +"I'm going to try," returned the crack pitcher. + +He threw his handbag to the other side of the sewer trench, and then, +backing up a few steps, ran forward and took the leap in good shape. His +chum followed him, but Jim might have slipped back into the sewer trench +had not Joe been watching, and grabbed him by one hand. + +"Gosh, that was a close shave!" panted Jim, when he felt himself safe. + +"Don't waste time thinking about it. We have still a couple of blocks to +go," Joe returned, and set off once more on the run, with Jim at his +heels. + +Soon they rounded another corner, and came in sight of the railroad +station. There stood their train, and the conductor was signaling to +start. + +"Wait! Wait!" yelled Joe. But in the general confusion around the railroad +station nobody seemed to notice him. + +"We've got to make that train--we've just got to!" cried Joe, and dashed +forward faster than ever, with Jim beside him. + +They scrambled up the steps just as a warning whistle sounded; and a few +moments later the train drew out on its climb over the Rockies. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +DANGER SIGNALS + + +The travelers were now in the most picturesque part of their journey, and +the magnificent views that spread before them as they topped the ridges of +the continent and dropped down on the other side into the land of flowers +and eternal summer were a source of unending interest and pleasure. + +"I'll tell you what, Joe," remarked Jim: "I never had an idea that this +section of our country was so truly grand." + +"It certainly is magnificent scenery," was Joe's answer. "Just look at +those mountain tops, will you? Some height there, believe me!" + +"Yes. And just see the depth of some of those canyons, will you? Say! if a +fellow ever fell over into one of those, he'd never know what happened to +him." + +"I've been watching this particular bit of scenery for some time," +remarked Joe. "It somehow had a familiar look to it, and now I know why." + +"And why is it, Joe?" + +"I'll tell you. Some time ago I saw a moving picture with the scene laid +in the Rocky Mountains, and, unless I'm greatly mistaken, some of the +scenes were taken right in this locality." + +"Was that a photo-play called 'The Girl From Mountain Pass?'" questioned +another player who was present. + +"It was." + +"Then you're right, Matson; because I was speaking about that film to the +conductor of this train, and he said that some of the pictures were taken +right around here. His train was used in one of the scenes." + +This matter was talked over for several minutes, but then the conversation +changed; and, presently, the chums went off to talk about other matters. + +Joe and Jim were lounging in the rear of the observation car, talking over +the stirring events of the night before, when McRae happened along and +dropped into a seat beside them. + +"Some game that was yesterday, boys," he remarked genially. "Those Denver +fellows were curly bears, but we trimmed them just the same." + +"Yes," grinned Jim. "But we weren't comfortable while we were doing it." + +"They sure did worry us," acquiesced Joe. "They made us know at least that +we'd been in a fight." + +"It was that ninth-inning work of yours that pulled us through, Joe," +declared McRae. "That stunt you pulled of whirling on your heel and +shooting it over to third was a pretty bit of inside stuff. And there +wasn't anything slow either about spearing that ball that Thompson hit." + +"I'd have let the fielders take care of that," admitted Joe, "if there +hadn't been so much at stake. My hand stung for an hour afterward. But I'd +have hated to let those fellows crow over us." + +"That fellow, Alvarez, that Thorpe rang in on us was a sure-enough +pitcher," observed McRae. "I'd sign him up in a minute if it weren't for +that dark skin of his. But it wouldn't work. We had a second baseman like +that one time, and although he was a rattling good player it nearly broke +up the team. It's too bad that color should stand in the way of a man's +advancement, but it can't be helped. + +"By the way," he continued, drawing a paper from his pocket, "here's +something that may interest you. It's the official record of the National +League of the pitching averages for this season. It made me feel good when +I read it and you'll see the reason why." + +He handed them the paper, which they opened eagerly to the sporting page. + +Joe's heart felt a thrill of satisfaction as he saw that his name stood at +the head of the list, and Jim, too, was elated, as he noted that although +this was his first year in a major league his name was among the first +fifteen--a rare distinction for a "rookie." + +"Some class to the Giants, eh?" grinned McRae. "There's sixty names in +that list and no single team has as many in the first twelve as we have. +That average of yours, Joe, of 1.53 earned runs per game is a hummer. +Hughson is close on your heels with 1.56. The Rube, you see, is eighth in +the list with 1.95, and Jim's eleventh with 2.09. I tell you, boys, that's +class, and to cap it all we won the pennant." + +"Two pennants, you mean," corrected Jim with a smile. + +"And neither one to be sneezed at," grinned Joe. + +"We sure had a great season," observed McRae. "If we start next year with +the same team we ought to go through the league like a prairie fire. I +have every reason to think that Hughson will be in tip-top shape when the +season opens, and if he is, there won't be any pitching staff that can +hold a candle to ours. But----" + +He paused uncertainly and looked at Joe as though he wanted to speak to +him privately. Jim saw the look and took the hint. + +"I guess I'll go into the smoker and see what the rest of the fellows are +doing, if you'll excuse me," he said, rising and strolling back. + +McRae greeted his departure with evident satisfaction. + +"I'm glad to have a chance to talk to you alone, Joe," he said. "You're my +right bower and I can talk to you more freely than to anyone else, except +Hughson. I don't mind telling you that this new league is worrying me a +lot." + +"What is it?" asked Joe with quick interest. "Anything happened lately?" + +"Plenty," replied McRae. "I've kidded myself with the idea that the thing +was going to peter out of its own accord. Every few seasons something of +the kind crops up, but it usually comes to nothing. Usually the men who +put up the coin get scared when they see what a big proposition it is +they've tackled and back out. Sometimes, too, they go about it in such a +blundering way that it's bound to fail from the start. + +"But this time it's different. They've got barrels of money behind them, +and they're spending it like water. There's one of them named Fleming, +whose father is a millionaire many times over, and he seems to have money +to burn. They certainly are making big offers to star players all over the +country. You saw the way they came at you, and they're doing the same in +other places. There isn't a paper that I pick up that doesn't give the +name of some big player that they're tampering with. The last one I saw +was Altman of the Chicago White Sox. I guess though, that is a wrong +steer, for Altman has come out flat for his old team and denies any +intention of jumping his contract." + +"Bully for Nick!" exclaimed Joe. "I guess I helped to queer that deal. I +saw Westland talking to him, and he seemed to have him going, but I put a +few things straight to Nick and he seems to have come to his senses before +it's too late." + +"There's Munsey of the Cincinnatis, he's left his reservation," continued +McRae. "He's the crack shortstop of the country. They've got a line out, +too, for Wilson of the Bostons, and you know they don't make any better +outfielders than he is. In fact, they're biting into the teams everywhere, +and none of them know where they're at. If I'd known they were going at it +so seriously, and hadn't got so far in my preparations for this trip, I +think I wouldn't have gone on this world's tour. It looks to me as though +the major leagues would be backed up against the wall and fighting for +their lives before this winter's over." + +"It may not be as bad as you think," said Joe consolingly. "Even if they +get a lot of the stars, there will be a great many left. And, besides, +they may have trouble in finding suitable grounds to play on." + +"But they will," declared McRae. "They've got the refusal of first-class +locations in every big city of the major league. I tell you, there's +brains behind this new league and that's what's worrying me. I don't know +whether it's Fleming----" + +"No," interrupted Joe, smiling contemptuously, as he thought of the +dissipated young fellow whom he had thrashed so soundly. "It isn't +Fleming. He's got money enough, but there's a vacuum where his brains +ought to be." + +"Then it's his partners," deduced McRae. "And their brains with his money +make a strong combination." + +"Well," comforted Joe, "there's one good thing about this trip, anyway. +You've got the Giants out of reach of their schemes." + +McRae looked around to see if anyone were within earshot, and then leaned +over toward Joe. + +"Don't fool yourself," he said earnestly. "I'm afraid right now there are +traitors in the camp!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A WEIRD GAME + + +Baseball Joe was startled and showed it plainly. + +"What do you mean?" he asked, as his mind ran over the names of his +team-mates. + +"Just what I say," replied McRae. "I tell you, Joe, somebody's getting in +his fine work with our boys and I know it." + +"Where's your proof?" asked Joe. "I hate to think that any of our fellows +would welch on their contracts." + +"So do I," returned McRae. "We've been like one big family, and I've +always tried to treat the boys right. I've got a rough tongue, as +everybody knows, and in a hot game I've called them down many a time when +they've made bonehead plays. But at the same time I've tried to be just, +and I've never given any of them the worst end of the deal. They've been +paid good money, and I've carried them along sometimes when other managers +would have let them go." + +"You've been white all right," assented Joe warmly. He recalled an +occasion when a muff by a luckless center-fielder had lost a World Series +and fifty thousand dollars for the team, and yet McRae had "stood the +gaff" and never said a word, because he knew the man was trying to do his +best. + +"I'm telling this to you, Joe," went on McRae, "because I want you to help +me out. You've proved yourself true blue when you were put to the test. I +know you'll do all you can to hold the boys in the traces. They all like +you and feel that they owe you a lot because it was your pitching that +pulled us through the World's Series. Besides, they'll be more impressed +by what you say than by the talk I'd give them. They figure that I'm the +manager and am only looking after my own interests, and for that reason +what I say has less effect." + +"I'll stand by you, Mac," returned Joe, "and help you in any way I can. +Who are the boys that you think are trying to break loose?" + +"There are three of them," replied McRae. "Iredell, Curry and Burkett, and +all three of them are stars, as you know as well as I do." + +"They're cracks, every one of them," agreed Joe. "And they're among the +last men that I'd suspect of doing anything of the kind. What makes you +think they've been approached?" + +"A lot of things," replied McRae. "In the first place, I have noticed that +they are stiff and offish in their manner when I speak to them. Then, too, +I've come across them several times lately with their heads together, and +when they saw me coming they'd break apart and start talking of something +else, as if I had interrupted them. Beside that, all three have struck me +lately for a raise in salary next season." + +"That's nothing new for ball players," said Joe, with a smile. + +"No," admitted McRae, an answering smile relieving the gravity of his face +for the moment. "And I stand ready of my own accord to give the boys a +substantial increase on last year's pay because of their winning the +pennant. But what these three asked for was beyond all reason, and made me +think there was a nigger in the woodpile. They either had had a big offer +from somebody else and were using that as a club to hold me up with, or +else they were just trying to give themselves a better excuse for +jumping." + +"How long do their contracts have to run?" asked Joe. + +"Iredell has one year more and Curry and Burkett are signed up for two +years yet," replied the Giants' manager. "Of course I could try to hold +them to their contracts, but you know as well as I do that baseball +contracts are more a matter of honesty than of legal obligation. If a man +is straight, he'll keep it, if he's crooked, he'll break it. And you know +what a hole it would leave in the Giant team if those three men went over +the fence. There isn't a heavier slugger in the team than Burkett, except +Larry. His batting average this year was .332, and as a fielding first +baseman he's the class of the league." + +"You're right there," acquiesced Joe, as he recalled the ease and +precision with which Burkett took them on either side and dug them out of +the dirt. "He's saved a game for me many and many a time." + +"As for Iredell," went on McRae, "he hasn't his equal in playing short and +in covering second as the pivot for a double play. And nobody has played +the infield as Curry does since I've been manager of the team." + +"It would certainly break the Giants all up to lose the three of them," +agreed Joe. "But we haven't lost them yet. Remember that the game isn't +over till the last man is out in the ninth inning." + +"I know that. You've helped me win two fights this year, Joe, one for the +championship of the league and the other for the championship of the +world. Now I'm counting on you to help me win a third, perhaps the hardest +of them all." + +"Put 'er there, Mac," said Joe, extending his hand. "Shake--I'm with you +till the cows come home." + +"Of course, they'll be willing to put up big money, Joe. You know that +already." + +"It doesn't make a particle of difference, Mac, how much money they put +up," returned the crack pitcher warmly. "There isn't enough cash in the +U. S. treasury to tempt me." + +"I know that, Joe. And I only wish that I could be as certain of the rest +of the players." + +"Well, of course, I can't speak for the others. But you can be sure that +I'll use my influence on the right side every time. Some of them may +weaken and break away, but I doubt very much if they'll be any of your +main-stays. If I were you, Mac, I wouldn't let this worry me too much." + +"Yes, I know it's getting on my nerves, Joe, because, you see, it means so +much to me. But having you on my side has braced me up a good deal," went +on the manager. + +They shook hands warmly, and McRae, evidently encouraged and braced by the +talk with his star pitcher, made his way back to his own immediate party. + +The teams were slated to play in Salt Lake City and in Ogden. In both +places they "cleaned up" easily, and it was not until a few days later +when they reached the slope that they encountered opposition that made +them exert themselves to win. + +At Bakersfield, with Jim in the box, the game went to eleven innings +before it was finally placed to the credit of the Giants by a score of +three to two. The 'Frisco team also put up a stiff fight for eight +innings, but were overwhelmed by a storm of hits which rained from Giant +bats in the ninth. + +The game with Oakland was the last on the schedule before the teams left +for the Orient, and an enormous crowd was in attendance. + +Joe was in the box for the All-American team. He was in fine form, and +held the home team down easily until the fifth inning, but the Oaklands +also, undaunted by the reputation of their adversaries, and under the +guidance of a manager who had formerly been a famous first baseman of the +Chicago team, were also out to win if possible, and with first-class +pitching and supported by errorless fielding, they held their redoubtable +opponents on even terms. + +At the end of the fifth, neither team had scored, although the Giants had +threatened to do so on two separate occasions. A singular condition +developed in the sixth. It was the Giants' turn at bat and Curry had +reached first on a clean single to right. A neat sacrifice by Joe advanced +him to second. A minute later he stole third, sliding feet first into the +bag and narrowly escaping the ball in the third baseman's hand. + +With only one out and Larry coming to the bat, the prospects for a run +were bright. + +Larry let the first go by, but swung at the second, which was coming +straight to the plate. His savage lunge caught the ball on the underside, +and it went soaring through the air to a tremendous height. + +Both the second and third baseman started for the ball. It looked as +though neither would be able to reach it, and Curry ran half-way down the +line between third and home, awaiting the result. If the ball were caught +he figured that he would easily have time to get back to third. If it were +dropped, he could make home and score. + +The third baseman got under the descending ball, but it was coming from +such a height that it was difficult to judge. It slipped through his +fingers, but instead of falling to the ground, went plump into the pocket +of his baseball shirt. + +He tugged desperately to get it out, at the same time running toward +Curry, who danced about on the line between third and home in an agony of +indecision. Was the ball caught or not? If it were, he would have to +return to third. If it were not, he must make a break for home. + +The teams were all shouting now, while the crowd went into convulsions. +The third baseman reached Curry and grabbed him with one hand, while with +the other he frantically tried to get the ball from his pocket and clap +it on him. But the ball stuck, and in the mixup both players fell to the +ground and rolled over and over. + +Larry, in the meanwhile, was tearing round the bases, but he himself +wasn't sure whether he was really out or whether he ought to strike for +home. He reached third and pulled up there, still in the throes of doubt. +He could have easily gone on past the struggling combatants, but in that +case, if Curry were finally declared not out, Larry would also be out for +having passed him and got home first. + +On the other hand, if Curry should finally escape and get back to third, +one of them would still be out because he was occupying the bag to which +his comrade was entitled. He did not really know whether he was running +for exercise or to score a run. + +It was the funniest mixup that even the veteran players had ever seen on a +ball field, and as for the crowd they were wild with joy. + +The third baseman, finding that Curry was about to get away from him and +unable to get the ball out of his pocket, finally threw his arms about him +and hugged him close in the wild hope that some part of the protruding +ball would touch his prisoner's person and thus put him out. + +The sight of those burly gladiators, locked in a fond embrace, threatened +the sanity of the onlookers, but the farce was ended when Curry finally +wriggled out from the anaconda grasp of his opponent and took a chance for +the plate. + +Then there was a hot debate, as the umpire, himself laughing until the +tears ran down his face, tried to solve the situation. Had Curry been +touched by the ball, or had he not? Had the ball been caught or not? + +Players on both sides tugged at him as they debated the matter _pro_ and +_con_. + +"I don't know what that umpire's name is," grinned Jim to Joe, who was +weak with laughter, "but I know what it ought to be." + +"What?" asked Joe. + +"Solomon," chuckled Jim. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE BEWILDERED UMPIRE + + +But whatever the umpire's name might have been, he only resembled Solomon +in one respect. He was inclined to compromise and cut the play in two, +giving one part to the major leaguers and the other to the Oakland team. + +He was not to blame for being bewildered, for the baseball magnates who +had framed the rules had never contemplated the special case of a player +catching the ball in his pocket. + +Between the opposing claims he pulled out his book and scanned it +carefully but with no result. + +"It's easy enough," rasped McRae. "He tried to catch a ball and muffed it. +It goes for a hit and Curry scores." + +"Not on your life," barked Everett, the manager of the Oakland team. "He +got the ball and it never touched the ground." + +"Got it," sneered McRae. "This is baseball, not pool. He can't pocket the +ball." + +There was a laugh at this, and Mackay, the third baseman, looked a little +sheepish. The baited umpire suggested that the whole play be called off +and that Curry go back to third while Larry resumed his place at the bat. + +Larry set up a howl at this, as he saw his perfectly good three-baser go +glimmering. + +"Oh, hire a hall," snapped Everett. "Even if the umpire decides against +the catch it was only an error and you ought to have been out anyway." + +"You can't crawl out of it that way," said McRae to the umpire. "A play is +a play and you've got to settle it one way or the other, even if you +settle it wrong." + +The umpire hesitated, wiped his brow and finally decided that the ball was +caught. That put Larry out, and he retreated, growling, to the bench, +while Everett grinned his satisfaction. + +"That's all right, Ump," said the latter. "But how about Curry? Mackay put +the ball on him all right and that makes three out." + +"Say, what do you want, the earth?" queried McRae. "He didn't put the ball +on him. He didn't have the ball to put. It was in his pocket all the +time." + +"Of course I put the ball on him," declared Mackay. "I must have. When I +fell on him I hit him everywhere at once." + +The umpire finally decided that Mackay had not put the ball on Curry, and +the red-headed right-fielder chuckled at the thought of the run he had +scored. + +"That makes it horse and horse," said the umpire. "Get back to your +places." + +If he thought he was at the end of his troubles he was mistaken, for +Everett suddenly cried out: + +"Look here. You said that Mackay caught that ball, didn't you?" + +"That's what I said," snorted the umpire. + +"Well, then," crowed Everett triumphantly, "why didn't Curry go back to +third and touch the bag before he lit out for home? He has to do that on a +caught fly ball, hasn't he?" + +The umpire looked fairly stumped. Here was something on which the rules +were explicit. It was certain that Curry should have returned to the base +and it was equally certain that he hadn't. Mackay had caught him half-way +between third and home. + +But McRae was equal to the occasion. + +"Suppose he did have to," he cried. "You said that Mackay hadn't touched +him and he's free to go back yet." + +"And I'm free to touch him with the ball," Mackay came back at him. + +"But the ball isn't in play," put in Robbie, adding his mite to the +general confusion. "You called time when you came in to settle this." + +"Who wouldn't be an umpire?" laughed Jim to Joe, as he saw the look of +despair on that worried individual's face. + +"The most glorious mixup I ever saw on the ball field," answered Joe. + +"'How happy he could be with either were 'tother dear charmer away,'" +chuckled Jim, pointing to the two pugnacious disputants on either side of +the umpire. + +"Curry's out--Curry isn't out. Love me--love me not," responded Joe. + +By this time the crowd had got over their laugh and impatiently demanded +action. The umpire cut the Gordian knot by sending Curry back to third, +where he and Mackay chaffed each other and the game went on. + +It was not much of a game after that, however, as the laughable incident +had put all the players in a more or less frivolous mood. It finally ended +in a score of six to three in favor of the All-Americans, and the teams +made a break for the showers. + +"The last game we play on American soil for many moons," remarked Joe, as, +having bathed and dressed, the two young athletes strolled toward their +hotel. + +"And every one of them a victory," observed Jim. "Not a single mark on +the wrong side of the ledger!" + +"That game at Denver was the closest call we had," said Joe. "The trip so +far has been a big money-maker, too. McRae was telling me yesterday that +we'd already topped ninety-five thousand, and there was ten thousand in +that crowd to-day if there was a penny." + +"I guess Mac won't have any trouble in buying steamship tickets," laughed +Jim. "By the way, we haven't had a look at the old boat yet. Let's go down +to-morrow and inspect her." + +"Why not make it the day after to-morrow?" suggested Joe. "The girls will +be here by that time and we'll take them with us." + +"That will suit me, Joe." + +"I've been thinking of something, Jim," went on the crack pitcher, after a +pause. "It won't be long now before we leave America. What do you say if +we do a little shopping, and buy some things for ourselves and for the +girls?" + +"Say, that's queer! I was thinking the same thing." Jim paused for a +moment. "Won't it be fine to have the others with us again?" + +"Yes; I'll be very glad to see Mabel, and glad to see Clara, too. I +suppose you've been getting letters pretty regularly, eh, Jim?" + +"I don't believe I've been getting any more letters than you have, Joe," +returned the other. + +"Well, you're welcome to them, Jim. I wish you luck!" said Joe, and placed +a hand on his chum's shoulder. For a moment they looked into each other's +eyes, and each understood perfectly what was passing in the other's mind. +But Jim just then did not feel he could say too much. + +"I'll be glad to see Reggie again, too," remarked Joe, after a moment of +silence. "He's something of a queer stick, but pretty good at that." + +"Oh, he's all right, Joe," answered Jim. "As he grows older and sees more +of the seamy side of life, he'll get some of that nonsense knocked out of +him." + +They ate their supper that night with a sense of relaxation to which they +had long been strangers. For the first time since they had gone to the +training camp at Texas in the spring, they were out of harness. There had +been the fierce, tense race for the pennant that had strained them to the +utmost. + +Then, with only a few days intervening, had come the still more exciting +battle for the championship of the world. They had won and won gloriously, +but even then they had not felt wholly free, for the long trip across the +continent which they had just finished was then before them, and although +this struggle had been less close and important, it had still kept them on +edge and in training. + +But now their strenuous year had ended. Before them lay a glorious trip +around the world, a voyage over summer seas, a pilgrimage through lands of +mystery and romance, the fulfillment of cherished dreams, and with them +were to go the two charming girls who represented to them all that was +worth while in life and who even now were hurrying toward them as fast as +steam could bring them. + +"This is the end of a perfect day," hummed Jim, as he sat back and lighted +a cigar. + +"You're wrong there, Jim," replied Joe, with a smile. "The perfect day +will be to-morrow." + +"Right you are!" + +Yet little did Baseball Joe and his chum dream of the many adventures and +perils which lay ahead of them. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +PUTTING THEM OVER + + +As the two baseball players sauntered down the corridor after supper they +chanced upon Iredell. He was sitting at a reading table, intent upon a +letter which had attached to it what looked like an official document of +some kind. + +It was a chance for which Joe had been looking, and he gave Jim a sign to +go on while he himself dropped into a seat beside the famous shortstop. + +"How are you, Dell, old boy?" he said, genially. + +"Able to sit up and take nourishment," replied the other, at the same time +thrusting the document into his pocket with what seemed like unnecessary +haste. + +"Most of the boys are that way," laughed Joe. "There are just two things +that every ball player is ready to do, take nourishment and nag the +umpire." + +Iredell laughed as he bit off the end of a cigar. + +"That poor umpire got his this afternoon," he said. "With McRae on one +side and Everett on the other I thought he'd be pulled to pieces." + +"He was sure up against a hard proposition," agreed Joe. "The next hardest +was in a play that happened when I was on the Pittston team. A fellow +poled out a hit that went down like a shot between left and center. A lot +of carriages were parked at the end of the field and a big coach dog ran +after the ball, got it in his mouth and skipped down among the carriages +where the fielders couldn't get at him. It would have doubled you up to +have seen them coaxing the brute to be a good dog and give the ball up. In +the meantime, the batter was tearing around the bases and made home before +the ball got back." + +"And how did his Umps decide it?" asked Iredell, with interest. + +"He was flabbergasted for a while," replied Joe, "but he finally called it +a two-base hit and let it go at that." + +"An umpire's life is not a happy one," laughed Iredell. "He earns every +dollar that he gets. I suppose that's what some of us fellows will be +doing, too, when we begin to go back." + +"It will be a good while before you come to that, Dell," Joe replied. +"You've played a rattling game at short this year, and you're a fixture +with the Giants." + +"I don't know about that," said the shortstop slowly. "Fixtures sometimes +work loose, you know." + +"It won't be so in this case," said Joe, purposely misunderstanding him. +"McRae wouldn't let go of you." + +"Not if he could help it," responded Iredell. + +"Well, he doesn't have to worry about that just yet," said Joe. "How long +does your contract have to run?" + +"A year yet," replied Iredell. "But contracts, you know, are like pie +crust, they're easily broken." + +"What do you mean by that?" demanded Joe sharply. + +"Oh, nothing, nothing at all," said Iredell, a little nervously, as though +he had said more than he intended. "But to tell the truth, Joe, I'm sore +on this whole question of contracts. It's like a yoke that galls me." + +"Oh, I don't know," responded Joe. "A good many folks would like to be +galled that way. A good big salary, traveling on Pullmans, stopping at the +best hotels, posing for pictures, and having six months of the year to +ourselves. If that's a yoke, it's lined with velvet." + +"But it's a yoke, just the same," persisted Iredell stubbornly. "Most men +in business are free to accept any offer that's made to them. We can't. We +may be offered twice as much as we're getting, but we have to stay where +we are just the same." + +"Well, that's simply because it's baseball," argued Joe. "You know just as +well as I do that that's the only way the game can be carried on. It +wouldn't last a month if players started jumping from one team to another, +or from one league to another. The public would lose all interest in it, +and it's the public that pays our salaries." + +"Pays our salaries!" snapped Iredell. "Puts money in the hands of the +owners, you mean. They get the feast and we get the crumbs. What's our +measly salary compared with what they get? I was just reading in the paper +that the Giants cleaned up two hundred thousand dollars this year, net +profit, and yet it's the players that bring this money in at the gate." + +"Yes," Joe admitted. "But they are the men who put up the capital and take +the chances. Suppose they had lost two hundred thousand dollars this year. +We'd have had our salaries just the same." + +Just then Burkett and Curry came along and dropped into seats beside the +pair. + +"Hello, Red," greeted Joe, at the same time nodding to Burkett. "How are +your ribs feeling, after that bear hug you got this afternoon?" + +Curry grinned. + +"That's all right," he said. "But he never touched me with the ball. And +that umpire was a boob not to give me the run." + +"What were you fellows talking about so earnestly?" asked Burkett, with +some curiosity. + +"Oh, jug-handled things like baseball contracts," responded Iredell. + +"They're the bunk all right," declared Burkett, emphatically. + +"Bunk is right," said Curry. + +"What's the use of quarreling with your bread and butter?" asked Joe +good-naturedly. + +"What's the use of bread and butter, if you can have cake and ought to +have it?" Iredell came back at him. + +"Cake is good," agreed Joe, "but the point is that if a man has agreed to +take bread and butter, it's up to him to stand by his agreement. A man's +word is the best thing he has, and if he is a man he'll hold to it." + +"You seem to be taking a lot for granted, Joe," said Burkett, a little +stiffly. "Who is talking of breaking his word? We've got a right to talk +about our contracts, haven't we, when we think the owners are getting the +best end of the deal?" + +"Sure thing," said Joe genially. "It's every man's privilege to kick, but +the time to kick is before one makes an agreement, not when kicking won't +do any good." + +"Maybe it can do some good," said Curry significantly. + +"How so?" asked Joe innocently. "No other club in the American or National +League would take us if we broke away from the Giants." + +"There are other leagues," remarked Iredell. + +"Surely. The minors," replied Joe, again purposely misunderstanding. "But +who wants to be a busher?" + +"There's the All-Star League that's just forming," suggested Burkett, with +a swift look at his two companions. + +"'All-Star,'" repeated Joe, a little contemptuously. "That sounds good, +but where are they going to get the stars?" + +"They're getting them all right," said Iredell. "The papers are full of +the names of players who have jumped or are going to jump." + +"You don't mean players," said Joe. "You mean traitors." + +The others winced a little at this. + +"'Traitors' is a pretty hard word," objected Curry. + +"It's the only word," returned Joe stiffly. + +"You can't call a man a traitor who simply tries to better himself," +remarked Burkett defensively. + +"Benedict Arnold tried to better himself," returned Joe. "But it didn't +get him very far. The fellows that jumped, in the old Brotherhood days, +thought they were going to better themselves, but they simply got in bad +with the public and nearly ruined the game. This new league will promise +all sorts of things, but how do you know it will keep them? What faith can +you put in men who try to induce other men to be crooked?" + +"Well, you know, with most men business is business, as they put it." + +"I admit business is business. But so far as I am concerned, it is no +business at all if it isn't on the level," answered Joe earnestly. "A +great many men think they can do something that is shady and get away with +it, and sometimes at first it looks as if they were right about it. But +sooner or later they get tripped up and are exposed." + +"Well, everybody has got a right to make a living," grumbled Curry. + +"Sure he has--and I'm not denying it." + +"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 passed great fleets with their precious argosies bound for the +Orient, for immobile China, for restless and awakened Japan, for the +islands of the sea, for the lands of the lotus and the palm, of minaret +and mosque and pagoda, 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 pronounced 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 passed 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 anticipation +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 snobbery 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 pronounced a hit +this made with the "fans" of both sexes. 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 Japan_!" 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 +senobite, 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 +God's country when we reach Hawaii seven days from now." + +The first two days of the voyage passed delightfully. The girls proved +good sailors, and had the laugh on many of the so-called stronger sex, +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!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +ONE STRIKE AND OUT + + +The two young baseball players and the girls joined the throng that was +racing toward the stern. + +A number of people were pointing wildly over the port side at a small +object some distance behind the ship. + +They followed the pointing fingers and saw the head of a man who was +swimming desperately toward the receding ship. + +The steamer, which had been taking advantage of the favorable weather and +had been ploughing ahead under full steam, found it hard to stop, although +orders had been given at once to shut off steam. + +It was maddening to the onlookers to see the distance increase between the +giant ship and that bobbing, lonely speck far out in the waste of waters. + +With all the celerity possible the great steamer swung round in a circle +and bore down upon the struggling swimmer, while at the same time +preparations were made to lower a boat as soon as they should be near +enough. + +"They're going to save him!" cried Mabel, half-sobbing in her excitement. +"Oh, Joe, they're going to save him after all!" + +It seemed as though there were no doubt of this now, for the man was +evidently a strong swimmer and seemed to be maintaining himself without +great effort, and it was certain that within the next few minutes the +boat, already filled with oarsmen and swaying at the davits, ready to be +lowered, would reach him. + +Suddenly Clara, with a stifled scream, clutched at Jim's arm. + +"Oh, Jim!" she cried, "what is that? Look, look----" + +Jim looked and turned pale under his tan. + +"Great heavens!" he cried. "It's a shark!" + +The cry was taken up by scores. + +"A shark! A shark!" + +There, cleaving the water and coming toward the swimmer like an arrow at +its mark, was a great black dorsal fin which bespoke the presence of the +pirate of the seas. + +The steamer had lessened speed in order to lower its boat, but the +momentum under which it was carried it within twenty yards of the +castaway. + +Almost instantly the ship's boat struck the water, and the sinewy backs of +the sailors bent almost double as they drove it toward the swimmer. + +From the crowded deck they could see his face now, pale and dripping, but +lighted with a gleam of hope as he saw the boat approaching. But the +horrified onlookers saw something else, that ominous, awful fin, that came +rushing on like a relentless fate toward its intended prey. + +Some of the women were sobbing, others almost fainting, while the men, +pale and with gritted teeth, groaned at their helplessness. + +It was a question now of which would reach the luckless man first, the +boat or the shark. The boat was nearer and the men were rowing like +demons, but the shark was swifter, coming on like an express train. + +There must have been something in those faces high above him that warned +the man of some impending peril. He cast a swift look behind him, and then +in frantic terror redoubled his efforts to reach the boat. + +"Oh, Joe, they'll be too late! They'll never reach him in time!" sobbed +Mabel. "Oh, can't we do anything to help him?" + +Joe, as frantic as she, looked wildly about him. His eyes fell on a heavy +piece of iron, left on the deck by some seaman who had been repairing the +windlass. Like a flash he grabbed it. + +It seemed as though the swimmer were doomed, and a gasp of horror went up +from the spectators as they saw that the boat would be too late. + +For now the fin had disappeared, and they saw a hideous shape take form as +the monster came into plain sight, a foot beneath the surface, and turned +over upon its back to seize its prey. + +Then Joe took a chance--a long chance, a desperate chance, an almost +hopeless chance--and yet, a chance. + +With all the force of his powerful arm he sent the jagged piece of iron +hurtling at the fiendish open jaws. + +And the chance became a certainty. + +The missile crashed into the monster's nose, its most sensitive point. The +brute was so near the surface that the thin sheet of water was no +protection. + +The effect was startling. There was a tremendous plunging and leaping that +lashed the waters into foam, and then the crippled monster sank slowly +into the ocean depths. + +The next instant the ship's boat had reached the castaway, and strong arms +pulled him aboard, where he sank panting and exhausted across a thwart. + +It had all happened with the speed of light. There was a moment of stunned +surprise, a gasp from the crowd, and then a roar went up that swelled into +a deafening thunder of applause. + +Joe had reversed the baseball rule of "three strikes and out." This time +it was just one strike--and the shark was out! + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +BRAXTON JOINS THE PARTY + + +The passengers crowded around Joe in wild delight and exhilaration, +reaching for his hand, pounding him on the back, vociferous in their +praise and congratulations, until he was almost ready to pray to be +rescued from his friends. + +Mabel, starry-eyed, slipped a hand within his arm and the pressure was +eloquent. Jim almost wrenched his arm from the shoulder, and Clara hugged +her brother openly. + +Naturally, Joe's great feat appealed especially to the baseball players of +the party. They felt that he had honored the craft to which they belonged. +He had justified his reputation as the star pitcher of the country, and +they felt that they shared in the reflected glory. + +"Great Scott, Joe!" beamed Larry. "You put it all over his sharklet that +time." + +"Straight over the plate!" chuckled Burkett. + +"Against the rules, though," grinned Denton. "You know that the 'bean +ball' is barred." + +The rescued man had now been brought on board. He had been too excited and +confused to understand how he had been snatched from the jaws of +death--and such a death! + +He proved to be a member of the crew, a Lascar, whose knowledge of the +English language was limited, and whose ignorance of the great national +game was fathomless. + +But when he had recovered and had learned the name of his rescuer, he +sought Joe out and thanked him in accents that were none the less sincere +because broken and imperfect, and from that time on throughout the trip he +was almost doglike in his devotion. + +A few days more and the ship reached Hawaii, that far-flung outpost of +Uncle Sam's dominions, which breaks the long ocean journey between America +and Japan. + +The hearts of the tourists leaped as the ship drew near the harbor and +they caught sight of the Stars and Stripes, floating proudly in the +breeze. + +"I never knew how I loved that flag before," cried Mabel +enthusiastically. + +"The most beautiful flag that floats," chimed in Clara. + +"The flag that stands for liberty everywhere," remarked Jim. + +"Yes," was Joe's tribute. "The flag that when it has gone up anywhere has +never been pulled down." + +As the ship drew near the shore the beauty of the island paradise brought +exclamations of delight from the passengers who thronged the steamer's +rails. + +The harbor was a scene of busy life and animation. The instant the ship +dropped anchor she was surrounded by native boats, paddled by Hawaiian +youngsters, who indulged in exhibitions of diving and swimming that were a +revelation of skill. + +"They've got it all over the fishes when it comes to swimming," remarked +Jim with a grin. "Cough up all your spare coin, Joe, and see these little +beggars dive for it." + +They tossed coin after coin into the transparent waters and swiftly as +each piece sank, the young swimmer was swifter. Every one was caught +before it reached bottom, and came up clutched in some dusky hand or +shining between ivory teeth. + +"I'll be bankrupt if this keeps up long," laughed Joe. + +"Yes," said Jim. "You'll wish you'd joined the All-Star League and copped +that twenty thousand." + +"How do they ever do it?" marveled Clara. + +"In the blood I suppose," replied Joe. "Their folks throw them into the +water when they're babies, and like puppies, they have to swim or drown." + +"They're more at home in the water than they are on land," remarked Jim. +"Those fellows will swim out in the ocean and stay there all day long." + +"I should think they'd be afraid of sharks," remarked Mabel, with a +shudder, as she thought of the recent incident in which that hideous brute +had figured. + +"Sharks are easy meat for them," replied Jim. "You ought to pity the +sharks instead of wasting it on these fellows. Give them a knife, and the +shark hasn't a Chinaman's chance." + +"Not even a knife," chimed in Joe. "A stick sharpened at both ends is +enough." + +"A stick?" exclaimed Mabel, wonderingly. + +"Sure thing," replied Joe. "They simply wait until the shark turns over to +grab them and then thrust it right into the open jaws. You've no idea how +effective that can be." + +"It's a case of misplaced confidence," laughed Jim. "The poor trustful +shark lets his jaws come together with a snap, or rather he thinks he +does, and instead of a nice juicy human, those guileless jaws of his close +on the two ends of the pointed stick and stay there. He can't close his +mouth and he drowns." + +"Poor thing," murmured Clara involuntarily, while the boys put up a shout. +"I don't care," she added, flushing. "I'm always sorry for the +underdog----" + +"That's why she's taken such a fancy to you, Jim, old man," laughed Joe. + +"Well, as long as pity is akin to----" began Joe, when Mabel, tired with +laughing, interrupted him: + +"But suppose the stick should break," she said. + +"Then there would be just one less native," answered Jim, solemnly. "By +the way, Joe," he added, "speaking of sharks--what's the difference +between a dog and a shark?" + +"Give it up," replied Joe promptly. + +"Because," chuckled Jim, "a dog's bark is worse than his bite, but a +shark's bite is--is--worse than his--er----" + +"Go ahead," said Joe bitterly, while the girls giggled. "Perpetrate it. +What shark has a bark?" + +"A dog-faced shark," crowed Jim triumphantly. + +"Of all the idiots," lisped Reggie, joining them at the rail. "'Pon honor, +you know, I never heard such bally nonsense." + +The gibe that followed this remark was cut short by the approach of the +lighter on which the passengers were to be carried to the shore. + +They were to spend two days in Hawaii while the steamer discharged its +cargo, but they would have gladly made it two weeks or two months. + +Only one game was played, and that was between the Giant and the +All-American teams. There was no native talent which was quite strong +enough to stand a chance against the seasoned veterans, although Hawaii +boasts of many ball teams. + +There was a big crowd present, made up chiefly of government officials and +representatives of foreign commercial houses from all over the world who +had established branches on the island. + +The contests between the two teams had been waxing hotter and hotter, +despite the fact that there was nothing at stake except the pleasure of +winning. + +But this was enough for these high-strung athletes, to whom the cry "play +ball" was like a bugle call. The fight was close from start to finish, and +resulted in a victory for the All-Americans by a score of three to two. + +"That makes it 'even Stephen,'" chortled Brennan to his friend and rival, +McRae. "We've won just as many games as you have, now." + +"It's hoss and hoss," admitted McRae. "But just wait; what we'll do to you +fellows before we get to the end of the trip will be a crime." + +The time that still remained before the steamer resumed its journey was +one of unalloyed delight. The scenery was wonderful and the weather +superb. + +Jim and Joe hired a touring car and with Joe at the wheel--it is +unnecessary to state who sat beside him--they visited all the most +picturesque and romantic spots in that glorious bit of Nature's +handiwork. + +"Do you remember our last ride in an automobile, Mabel?" asked Joe with a +smile, as she snuggled into the seat beside him. + +"Indeed I do," replied Mabel. "It was the day that horrid Fleming carried +me off and you chased us." + +"I caught you all right, anyway," Joe replied. + +"Yes," said Mabel saucily. "Only to spend all your spare moments afterward +in regretting it." + +Joe's reproachful denial both in words and looks was eloquent. + +They visited the famous volcano with its crater Kilaeua, and watched in +awe and wonder the great sea of flame that surged hideously and writhed +like a chain of fiery serpents. + +They saw the famous battlefield where Kamehameha, "the Napoleon of the +Pacific," had won the great victory that made him undisputed ruler of the +island. They saw the steep precipice where the three thousand Aohu, +fighting to the last gasp, had made their final stand, and had at last +been driven over the cliff to the death awaiting them below. + +It was with a feeling of genuine regret that they finally bade farewell to +the enchanting island and again took ship to pursue their journey. + +A large number of new passengers had come on board at Honolulu, and among +them was a man who soon attached himself to the baseball party. He was +tall and distinguished in appearance, smooth and plausible in his +conversation, and seemed to be thoroughly versed in the great national +game. + +His ingratiating manners soon made him a favorite with the women of the +party also, and he spared no pains to deepen this impression. + +Reggie liked him immensely, largely, no doubt, owing to the hints that +Braxton, which was the stranger's name, had dropped of having aristocratic +connections. He had traveled widely, and the names of distinguished +personages fell from his lips with ease and familiarity. + +"How do you like the new fan, Joe?" Jim asked, a day or two later. + +"I can't say that I'm stuck on him much," responded Joe. "He seems to be +pretty well up in baseball dope, and that in itself I suppose ought to be +a recommendation, to a ball player especially, but somehow or other, he +doesn't hit me very hard." + +"I think he's very handsome," remarked Mabel, with a mischievous glance at +Joe, and that young man's instinctive dislike of the newcomer became +immediately more pronounced. + +"He seems very friendly and pleasant," put in Clara. "Why don't you like +him, Joe?" + +"How can I tell?" replied her brother. "I simply know I don't." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +IN MIKADO LAND + + +But if Braxton sensed the slight feeling of antipathy which Joe felt for +him, he gave no sign of it, and Joe himself, who wanted to be strictly +just, took pains to conceal it. + +Braxton had a fund of anecdotes that made him good company, and the +friendship that Reggie felt for him made him often a member of Joe's +party. + +"Fine fellow, that Mr. Matson of yours," he remarked one afternoon, when +he and Reggie and Mabel were sitting together under an awning, which the +growing heat of every day, as the vessel made its way deeper into the +tropics, made very grateful for its shade and coolness. + +"Indeed he is," remarked Mabel, warmly, to whom praise of Joe was always +sweet. + +"He's a ripper, don't you know," agreed Reggie. + +"Not only as a man but as a player," continued Braxton. "Hughson used to +be king pin once, but I think it can be fairly said that Matson has taken +his place as the star pitcher of America. Hughson's arm will probably +never be entirely well again." + +"Joe thinks that Hughson is a prince," remarked Mabel. "He says he stands +head and shoulders above everybody else." + +"He used to," admitted Braxton. "For ten years there was nobody to be +compared with him. But now it's Matson's turn to wear the crown." + +"Have you ever seen Joe pitch?" asked Mabel. + +"I should say I have," replied Braxton. "And it's always been a treat to +see the way he did his work. I saw him at the Polo Grounds when in that +last, heartbreaking game he won the championship for the Giants. And I saw +him, too, in that last game of the World's Series, when it seemed as +though only a miracle could save the day. That triple play was the most +wonderful thing I ever beheld. The way he nailed that ball and shot it +over to Denton was a thing the fans will talk over for many years to +come." + +"Wasn't it great?" cried Mabel, enthusiastically, at the same time +privately resolving to tell all this to Joe and show him how unjust he was +in feeling the way he did toward this generous admirer. + +"The fact is," continued Braxton, "that Matson's in a class by himself. +He's the big cog in the Giant machinery. It's a pity they don't +appreciate him more." + +"Why, they do appreciate him!" cried Mabel, her eyes opening wide with +wonder. "Mr. McRae thinks nothing's too good for him." + +"Nothing's too good except money," suggested Braxton. + +"They give him plenty of that, too," put in Mabel, loyally. + +"He gets a ripping salary, don't you know," put in Reggie. "And he almost +doubled it in this last World's Series." + +"A man's worth what he can get," returned Braxton. "Now, of course, I +don't know and perhaps it might be an impertinence for me even to guess +what his salary is, but I should say that it isn't a bit more than ten +thousand a year." + +"Oh, it isn't anything like that," said Reggie, a little chop fallen. + +Braxton raised his eyebrows in apparent surprise. + +"I didn't think the Giants were so niggardly," he remarked, with a touch +of contempt. "It's simply robbery for them to hold his services at such a +figure. Mr. Matson could demand vastly more than that." + +"Where?" asked Reggie. "He's under contract with the Giants and they +wouldn't let him go to any other club." + +"Why doesn't he go without asking leave?" asked Braxton. + +"But no other club in the big leagues would take him if he broke his +contract with the Giants," said Mabel, a little bewildered. + +"I've heard there was a new league forming," said Braxton, carelessly. +"Let's see, what is it they call it? The All-Star League. There would be +no trouble with Matson's getting an engagement with them. They'd welcome +him with open arms." + +"They've already tried to get him," cried Mabel, proudly. + +"Is that so? I suppose they made him a pretty good offer. I've heard +they're doing things on a big scale." + +"It was a wonderful offer," said Mabel. + +"It certainly was, 'pon honor," chimed in Reggie. + +"Would it be indiscreet to ask the amount?" said Braxton. + +"I don't think there's any bally secret 'bout it," complied Reggie. "They +offered him twenty thousand dollars to sign a contract and fifteen +thousand dollars a year for a three years' term. Many a bank or railroad +president doesn't get that much, don't you know." + +"And Matson refused it?" asked Braxton, incredulously. + +"How could he help it?" replied Mabel. "His contract with the Giants has +two years yet to run." + +"My dear young lady," said Braxton, "don't you know that a baseball +contract isn't as binding as the ordinary kind? In the first place, it's +one-sided, and that itself makes it worthless." + +"In what way is it so one-sided?" asked Mabel. + +"Well, just to take one instance," replied Braxton. "A baseball club may +engage a man for a year and yet if it gets tired of its bargain, it can +let him go on ten days' notice. That doesn't seem fair, does it?" + +"No-o, it doesn't," admitted Mabel slowly. + +"It would be all right," continued Braxton, "if the player also could +leave his club by giving ten days' notice. But he can't. That's what makes +it unfair. The club can do to the player what the player can't do to the +club. So the supposed contract is only a bit of paper. It's no contract at +all." + +"Not in the legal sense, perhaps," said Reggie, dubiously. + +"Well, if not in the legal sense, then in no sense at all," persisted +Braxton. "The law is supposed to be based on justice, isn't it, and to do +what is right? + +"Of course," he went on, "it's none of my business; but if I were in Mr. +Matson's place, I shouldn't hesitate a moment in going where my services +were in the most demand." + +Mabel felt there was sophistry somewhere in the argument, but could hardly +point out where it was. + +"I wouldn't like to be quoted in this matter, of course," said Braxton, +suavely. "And it might be just as well not to mention to Mr. Matson that I +have spoken about it. He might think I was trying to pry into his +affairs." + +As Joe and Jim came up just then from the engine-room of the ship which +they had been inspecting, the subject, of course, was dropped, and after a +while Braxton strode away with a self-satisfied smile on his lips. + +The travelers were now in the heart of the typhoon region but luckily for +them it was the winter season when such storms are least frequent and +although they met a half gale that for two days kept them in their cabins, +they were favored on the whole by fair weather and at the appointed time +dropped anchor in the harbor of Yokohama. + +Now they were on the very threshold of the Oriental world of whose wonders +they had heard and dreamed, and all were on tiptoe with curiosity and +interest. + +The sights and scenes were as strange almost as though they were on +another planet. Everything was new to their young blood and unjaded senses +in this "Land of the Rising Sun." + +The great city itself, teeming with commerce and busy life, had countless +places of interest, but far more enchanting were the trips they took in +the jinrikishas drawn by tireless coolies which carried them to the little +dreaming, rustic towns with their tiny houses, their quaint pagodas, their +charming gardens and their unhurried life, so different from the feverish, +restless tumult of western lands. + +"Really, this seems to be a different world from ours," was Clara's +comment. + +"It certainly is vastly different from anything we have in America," +replied Mabel. + +"It's interesting--I'll admit that," said Joe. "Just the same, I like +things the way we have them much better." + +"To me these people--or at least a large part of them--seem to lead a +dreamlike existence," was Jim's comment. "They don't seem to belong to the +hurry and bustle of life such as we know it." + +"And yet there is noise enough, goodness knows!" answered Clara. + +"I think I really prefer the good old U. S. A., don't you know," drawled +Reggie. "There may be society here, but really it's so different from ours +that I shouldn't like to take part in it." + +"Yes, there is plenty of noise, but, at the same time, there is a good +deal of calm and quiet," said Joe. + +But the calm and quiet that seemed to be prevailing features of Japanese +life were wholly absent from the ball games where the visiting teams met +the nines of Keio and Waseda Universities. + +The Giants were to play the first named team, while later on the +All-Americans were slated to tackle the Waseda men. + +In the first game the contrast was laughable between the sturdy Giant +players and their diminutive opponents. + +"What are we playing against?" laughed Larry to Denton. "A bunch of +kids?" + +"It would take two of them to make a mouthful," grinned Denton. + +"I feel almost ashamed of myself," chimed in Burkett. "We ought to tackle +fellows of our own size." + +"You don't find many of that kind in Japan," said Joe. "But don't you hold +these fellows too cheap. They may have a surprise in store for us." + +The snap and vim that the Japs put into their practice before the game +seemed to add point to his prophecy. They shot the ball around the bases +with a speed and precision that would have done credit to seasoned +veterans and made McRae, who watched them keenly, give his men a word of +caution. + +"Don't get too gay, boys," he warned. + +The game that followed was "for blood." The universities had poured out +their crowds to a man to cheer their players on to victory. + +And for the first five innings the scales hung in the balance. The Keio +pitcher had a world of speed and a tantalizing drop, and only two safe +hits were made off him. Behind him his team mates fielded like demons. No +ball seemed too hard for them to get, and even when a Giant got to first +base he found it difficult to advance against the accurate throwing to +second of the Jap catcher. + +At the bat the home players were less fortunate. They hit the ball often +enough but they couldn't "lean against it" with the power of their +sturdier rivals. + +They were skillful bunters, however, and had the Giant players "standing +on their heads" in trying to field the balls that the clever Jap players +laid deftly in front of the plate. + +By these tactics they scored a run in the sixth inning, against which the +Giants had only a string of goose eggs. + +"It's like a bear against a wildcat," muttered Robbie to McRae, as the +little Jap scurried over the plate. + +"And it looks as if the wildcat might win," grunted the Giant manager, not +at all pleased at the possibility. + +"Not a bit of it," denied Robbie sturdily. "A good big man is better than +a good little man any time." + +And his faith was justified when, in the seventh inning, the Giants, stung +by the taunts of their manager, really woke up and got into action. A +perfect storm of hits broke from their bats and had the Japanese players +running after the ball until their tongues hung out. + +Five runs came in and it was "all over but the shouting." There was not +much shouting, however, for the home crowd had seen its dream of victory +shattered. + +But though the Giants won handily in the end by a score of six to two, it +had been a red-hot game, and had taken some of the conceit out of the +major leaguers. It was a tip, too, to the All-Americans, who, when they +played the Waseda team a little later, went in with determination to win +the game from the start and trimmed their opponents handsomely. + +"Those Japs are the goods all right," conceded McRae, when at last they +were ready to embark for Hongkong. + +"You're right they are," agreed Robbie. + +"We call ourselves the world's champions," grinned Jim. "But, after all, +we're only champions of the United States. The time may come when there +will be a real World's Series and then the pennant will mean something +more than it does now." + +"It would be some big jump between the games," said Joe. + +"Lots of queer things happen," said Larry sagely. "The time yet may come +when the umpire will take off his hat, bow to the crowd and say-- + +"'Ladies and gentlemen: the batteries for to-day's game are Matsuda and +Nagawiki for the All-Japans, Matson and Mylert for the All-Americans.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +RUNNING AMUCK + + +If Japan had been a revelation to the tourists, China was a still greater +one. For Japan, however much she clung to the dreamy life of former times, +had at last awakened and was fast adapting herself to modern, civilized +conditions. + +If Japan was still half dreaming, China was sound asleep. This, of course, +was not true of the foreign quarter, where the great English government +buildings and commercial houses might have been those of Paris or London. + +But just behind this lay the real China, looking probably the same as +three hundred thousand years ago. The little streets, so narrow in places +that the houses almost touched and a carriage could not pass! That strange +medley of sounds and smells and noises! Here a tinker mending his pans on +the sidewalk! There a dentist, pulling a tooth in the open street, +jugglers performing their tricks, snake charmers exhibiting their slimy +pets. + +There was a bewildering jumble of trades, occupations and amusements, so +utterly different from what the tourists had ever before seen that it held +their curiosity unabated and their interest stimulated to its highest +pitch during the period of their stay. + +"Everything is so topsy turvy!" exclaimed Mabel, as she threaded the +noisome streets, clinging close to Joe's arm. "I feel like Alice in +Wonderland." + +"It's not surprising that things should be upside down when we're in the +Antipodes," laughed Joe. + +"If we saw men walking on their heads it would seem natural out here," +said Jim. "All that a Chinaman wants to know is what other people do, then +he does something different." + +"Sure thing," said Joe. "See those fellows across the street. They're +evidently old friends and each one is shaking hands with himself." + +"You can't dope out anything here," said Jim. "When an American's puzzled +he scratches his head--the Chinaman scratches his foot. We wear black for +mourning, they wear white. We pay the doctor when we're sick----" + +"If the doctor's lucky," interrupted Joe. + +"They pay him only while they're well. They figure that it's to his +interest then to keep them well. We think what few brains we have are in +our head. The Chinaman thinks they're in the stomach. Whenever he gets off +what he thinks is a good thing he pats his stomach in approval. We put a +guest of honor on our right, the Chinaman puts him on his left." + +"Anything else?" asked Clara laughingly. + +"Lots of things," replied Joe. "And we'll probably find them out before we +go away." + +As they passed a corner they saw a man standing there, rigged out in a +queer fashion. About him was what seemed to be a tree box, from which only +his head protruded. + +"Why is he going around that way?" asked Mabel, curiously. + +"You wouldn't care to know that," said Joe, hurrying her along, but Mabel +was not to be disposed of in so cavalier a fashion. + +"But I do want to know," she persisted. + +"Might as well tell her," said Jim, "and let her suffer." + +"Well," said Joe, reluctantly, "that fellow's being executed." + +"What do you mean?" exclaimed Mabel, in horror. + +"Just that," replied Joe. "That thing that looked like a tree box is what +they call a cangue. They put him in there so that he's standing on thin +slabs of wood that just enable him to keep his head above that narrow +opening around his neck. Every little while they take one of the slabs of +wood from underneath him; then he has to stand on tiptoe. By and by his +feet can't touch the slabs at all, and then he chokes to death." + +The girls shuddered and Mabel regretted her ill-timed curiosity. + +"What a hideous thing!" exclaimed Clara. + +"And what cruel people!" added Mabel. + +"One of the most cruel on God's earth," replied Jim. "You see in all this +crowd there is nobody looking at that fellow with pity. They don't seem to +have the slightest tincture of it." + +"Let's go back to our hotel," pleaded Mabel. "I've seen all I want to for +to-day." + +The games at Hong Kong were interesting and largely attended. There was +one rattling contest between the major leaguers that after an +eleventh-inning fight was won by the Giants. + +A few days later a second game was played in which a picked team from the +visitors opposed a nine of husky "Jackies" selected from the United States +battleships that lay in the harbor. + +To make the game more even, the Giants loaned them a catcher and second +baseman, and a contest ensued that was full of fun and excitement. + +Of course, the Jackies were full of naval slang, and sometimes their talk +was utterly unintelligible to the landsmen. At the end of the third +inning the Giants had three runs to their credit, while the boys from the +navy had nothing. + +"Say there, Longneck, we've got to get some runs," howled one Jackie to +his mate. "Give 'em a shot from a twelve-inch gun!" + +"Aye! aye! Give it 'em." + +In the next inning the Jackies took a brace, and, as a consequence, got +two runs. Immediately they and their friends began to cheer wildly. + +"Down with the pirates!" + +"Let's feed 'em to the sharks!" + +"A double portion of plum duff for every man on our side who makes a run!" +cried one enthusiastic sailor boy. + +Several of the Jackies were quite good when it came to batting the ball, +but hardly any of them could do any efficient running, for the reason that +they got but scant practice while on shipboard. The way that some of them +wabbled around the bases was truly amusing, and set the crowd to laughing +loudly. + +"Our men don't like this running," declared one sailor, who sat watching +the contest. "If, instead of running around those bases, you fellows had +to climb a mast, you'd see who would come out ahead." + +The Jackies managed to get two more runs, due almost entirely to the lax +playing of the Giants. This, however, was as far as they were able to go, +and, when the game came to an end, the score stood 12 to 5 in favor of the +Giants. + +A visit to Shanghai followed, where only one game was played, and this by +a rally in the last inning went to the All-Americans, thus keeping the +total score of won and lost even between the rival teams. + +They spent a few more days in sightseeing, and then set sail for the +Philippines, glad at the prospect of soon being once more under the flag +of their own country. + +"Look at those queer little boats!" exclaimed Mabel, as they stood at the +rail while the ship was weighing anchor and looked at the native sampans +with their bright colors and lateen sails as they darted to and fro like +so many gaudy butterflies. + +"What are those things they have on each side of the bow?" asked Clara. +"They look like eyes." + +"That's what they are," replied Jim, seriously. + +Clara looked at him to see if he were joking. + +"Honest to goodness, cross my heart, hope to die," returned Jim. + +"But why do they put eyes there?" asked Clara, mystified. + +"So that the boat can see where it's going," replied Jim. + +"Well," said Mabel, with a gasp, "whatever else I take away from this +country, I'll have a choice collection of nightmares." + +The steamer made splendid weather of the trip to the Philippines, and in a +few days they were steaming into Manila bay. Their hearts swelled with +pride as they recalled the splendid achievement of Admiral Dewey, when, +with his battle fleet, scorning mines and torpedoes, like Farragut at +Mobile, he had signaled for "full speed ahead." + +"That fellow was the real stuff," remarked Jim. + +"As good as they make them," agreed Joe. "And foxy, too. Remember how he +kept that cable cut because he didn't want the folks at Washington to +queer his game. He had his work cut out and he wasn't going to be +interfered with." + +"Something like Nelson, when his chief ran up the signal to withdraw," +suggested Denton. "He looked at it with that blind eye of his and said he +couldn't see it." + +"Dewey was a good deal like Nelson," said Joe. "Do you remember how he +trod on the corns of that German admiral who tried to butt in?" + +"Do I?" said Jim. "You bet I do." + +The party met with a warm welcome when they went ashore at Manila. +American officers and men from the garrison thronged the dock to meet the +veterans of the diamond, whose coming had been widely heralded. + +Many of them knew the players personally and all knew them by reputation. + +The baseball teams went to their hotel and after they were comfortably +settled in their new quarters, the two chums accompanied by the girls went +out for a stroll. But they had not gone far before they were startled by +excited shouts a little way ahead of them and saw groups of people +scattering right and left in wild panic and confusion. + +Down the street came a savage figure, running with the speed of a hare, +and holding in either hand a knife with which he slashed savagely right +and left at all that stood in his way. + +His eyes were flaming with demoniacal fury, foam stood out upon his lips, +and from those lips issued a wailing cry that ended in a shriek: + +"Amuck! Amuck!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +TAKING A CHANCE + + +There was a scream from the frightened girls and a gasp from the young men +as they saw this messenger of death bearing down upon them. + +They knew at a glance what had happened. A Malay, yielding to the +insidious mental malady that seems peculiar to his race, had suddenly gone +mad and started out to kill. That he himself would inevitably be killed +did not deter him for a moment. He wanted to die, but he wanted at the +same time to take as many with him as possible. + +He had made his offering to the infernal gods, had blackened his teeth and +anointed his head with cocoa oil, and had started out to slay. + +With his eyes blazing, his head rolling from side to side like a mad dog, +and with that blood-chilling cry coming from his foam-flecked lips, he was +like a figure from a nightmare. + +For a moment the Americans stood rooted to the spot. That instant past, +Baseball Joe, as usual, took the lead. + +"Look after the girls, Jim!" he cried, and started full tilt toward the +awful figure that came plunging down the street. + +Mabel and Clara screamed to him to stop, but he only quickened his pace, +running like a deer, as though bent on suicide. The Malay saw him coming, +and for a second hesitated. He had seen everyone else scurry from him in +fear. What did this man mean by coming to meet him? + +It was just this instant of indecision upon which Joe had counted, and +like a flash he seized it. + +When within twenty feet of the Malay, Joe launched himself into the air, +and came down flat on the hard dirt road, as he had done many a time +before when sliding to base. + +The Malay, confused by the unlooked-for action, slashed down at him. Had +Joe gone straight toward him, the knife would have been buried in him. But +here again his quickness and the tactics of the ballfield came into play. + +Instead of going straight toward his antagonist, his slide had been a +"fall away." + +Many a time when sliding to second he had thrown himself this way out of +the reach of the ball, while his extended hand just clutched the bag. + +So now, his sinewy arm caught the Malay by the leg, while his body swung +round to the right. Down went the Malay with a crash, his blood-stained +knives clattering on the ground and the next instant Joe was on his back. + +His hands closed upon the man's throat with an iron grip. + +But there was no more fight left in the would-be murderer. The fall had +jarred and partially stunned him. In an instant Jim had joined Joe, other +men came rushing up; and the danger was over. + +The crazed man was secured with ropes and carried away, while Joe, +perspiring, panting and covered with dust, received the enthusiastic +congratulations of the rapidly gathering crowd. + +"Pluckiest thing I ever saw in my life!" exclaimed the colonel of the army +command, who had witnessed the exploit. + +"That fall-away slide of yours was great, Joe!" cried Larry Barrett, who +had come up. "I never saw a niftier one on the ballfield." + +"You made the bag all right!" grinned Denton. + +"He never touched you!" chuckled Burkett. + +"If he had it would have been some touch," declared McRae, as he picked up +one murderous-looking knife and passed it round for inspection. + +It was a wicked weapon, nearly a foot in length, with a handle so +contrived as to get all the weight behind the stroke and a wavy blade +capable of inflicting a fearful wound. + +"Has a bowie knife skinned a mile!" ejaculated Curry, expressing the +general sentiment. + +Joe hated to pose as a hero but it was some time before the crowd would +let him get away and rejoin the girls who were waiting for him. + +All the plaudits of the throng were tame compared with what he read in the +eyes of Mabel and his sister. + +The baseball teams stayed nearly a week in Manila, making short excursions +in the suburbs as far as it could be done with safety. Two games were +played, one between the Giants and All-Americans, which resulted in favor +of the latter, and another between the Giants and a picked nine from the +army post. + +Many of Uncle Sam's army boys had been fine amateur players and a few had +come from professional teams, so that they were able to put up a gallant +fight, although they were, of course, no match for the champions of the +world. + +"But they certainly put up a fine game," was Joe's comment. "They had two +pitchers who had some good stuff in 'em." + +"That's just what I was thinking," returned Jim. + +"One of those pitchers used to play ball on a professional team from Los +Angeles," said McRae, who was standing near. "I understand he had quite a +record." + +"I wonder what made him give up pitching and join the army," remarked Jim +curiously. + +"Oh, I suppose it was the love of adventure," answered the manager. + +"That might be it," said Joe. "Some fellows get tired of doing the same +thing, and when they have a chance to leave home and see strange places, +they grab it." + +While warming up prior to this last game, Joe's attention was attracted by +a muscular Chinaman, who was standing in the crowd that fringed the +diamond, interestedly watching the players at practice. He recognized him +as a famous wrestler who had taken part in a bout at a performance the +night before and who had thrown his opponents with ease. + +"Some muscles on that fellow," Joe remarked to Jim. + +"Biggest Chink I ever saw," replied Jim, "and not a bit of it is fat +either. He'd make a dandy highbinder. You saw what he did to the Terrible +Turk in that match last night. He just played with him. And the Turk was +no slouch either." + +"Look at those arms," joined in Larry, gazing with admiration at the +swelling biceps of the wrestler. "What a slugger he'd make if he knew how +to play ball. He'd break all the fences in the league." + +"He sure would kill the ball if he ever caught it on the end of his bat," +declared Red Curry. + +"I've half a mind to give him a chance," laughed Joe. + +"Go ahead," grinned Larry. "I'd like to see him break his back reaching +for one of your curves." + +"He might land on it at that," replied Joe. "A wrestler has to have an eye +like a hawk." + +He beckoned to the wrestler, who came toward him at once with a smile on +his keen but good-natured face. + +"Want to hit the ball?" asked Joe, piecing out his question by going +through the motions of swinging a bat that he picked up. + +The wrestler "caught on" at once, and the smile on his face broadened into +a grin as he nodded his head understandingly. + +"Me tly," he said in the "pidgin English" he had picked up in his travels, +and reached out his hand for the bat. + +"Have a heart, Joe," laughed Larry. "Don't show the poor gink up before +the crowd. At any rate let me show him how it's done." + +"All right," responded Joe. "You lead off and he can follow." + +Larry took up his position at the plate and motioned to the wrestler to +watch him. The latter nodded and followed every motion. + +Joe put over a swift high one that Larry swung at and missed. He "bit" +again at an outcurve with no better result. + +"Look out, Larry," chaffed Jim, "or it's you that will be shown up instead +of the Chink." + +A little nettled, Larry caught the next one full and square and it sailed +far out into right field. + +"There," he said complacently, as he handed the bat to the wrestler, +"that's the way it's done." + +The latter went awkwardly to the plate and a laugh ran through the crowd +at the unusual sight. + +Joe lobbed one over and the Chinaman swung listlessly a foot below the +ball. + +"Easy money," laughed Denton. + +"Where's that good eye you said this fellow had?" sang out Willis. + +The second ball floated up to the plate as big as a balloon, and again the +wrestler whiffed, coming nowhere near the sphere. + +But as Joe wound up for the third ball, the listlessness vanished from the +Chinaman. A glint came into his eyes and every muscle was tense. + +The ball sped toward the plate. The wrestler caught it fair "on the seam" +with all his powerful body behind the blow. + +The ball soared high and far over center field, looking as though it were +never going to stop. In a regular game it would have been the easiest of +home runs. + +The wrestler sauntered away from the plate with the same bland smile on +his yellow face while the crowd cheered him. He had turned the tables, and +the laugh was on Joe and his fellow players. + +"But why," asked Jim, after the game had resulted in a victory for the +visitors by a one-sided score, and he was walking back with Joe to the +hotel, "did he make such a miserable flunk at the first two balls? Was he +kidding us?" + +"Not at all," grinned Joe. "It's because the Chinamen are the greatest +imitators on earth. He saw that Larry missed the first two and so he did +the same. He thought it was part of the game!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +AN EMBARRASSED RESCUER + + +On the long trip to Australia the tourists encountered the most severe +storm of the journey. In fact, it was almost equal to the dreaded typhoon, +and there were times when, despite the staunchness of the vessel, the +faces of the captain and the officers were lined with anxiety. + +After two days and nights, however, of peril, the storm blew itself out +and the rest of the journey was made over serene seas and under cloudless +skies. + +One night after the girls had retired, Joe and Jim, together with McRae +and Braxton, were sitting in the smoking room. The conversation had been +of the kind that always prevails when baseball "fans" get together. + +After a while Jim accompanied McRae to the latter's cabin to discuss some +details of Jim's contract for the coming season, leaving Joe and Braxton +as the sole occupants of the room. + +Joe had never been able to overcome the instinctive antipathy that he had +felt toward Braxton from the first, but he had kept this under restraint, +and Braxton himself, though he might have suspected this feeling, was +always suave and urbane. + +There was no denying that he was good company and always interesting. In +an apparently accidental way, Braxton, who had been scribbling aimlessly +upon some pieces of paper that lay on the table, led the talk toward the +subject of handwriting. + +"It's a gift to write a good hand," he remarked. "It's got to be born in +you. Some men can do it naturally, others can't. I'm one of the fellows +that can't. I'll bet Horace Greeley himself never wrote a worse hand than +I do." + +"I've heard that he was a weird writer," smiled Joe. + +"The worst ever," rejoined Braxton. "I've heard that he wrote to his +foreman once, ordering him to discharge a printer who had set up a bad +copy. The printer hated to lose his job and an idea struck him. He got +hold of the letter discharging him and took it to Greeley, who didn't know +him by sight, and told him it was a letter of recommendation from his last +employer. Greeley tried to read it, but couldn't, so he said he guessed it +was all right and told him he was engaged." + +Joe laughed, and Braxton tossed over to him a sheet of paper on which he +had written his name. + +"Greeley has nothing on me," he said. "If you didn't know my name was +Braxton, I'll bet you wouldn't recognize these hen tracks." + +"You're right," said Joe. "I'm no dabster myself at writing and I can +sympathize with you." + +"It couldn't be as bad as this," challenged Braxton, slipping a pen over +to Joe, together with a fresh piece of paper. + +"No," said Joe, as he took up the pen, "I guess at least you could make +mine out." + +He scribbled his name and Braxton picked up the paper with a laugh. + +"I win," he said. "You're bad, but I'm worse. You see I am proud even of +my defects." + +He dropped the subject then and talked of other things until Joe, stifling +a yawn, excused himself and went to his cabin. + +The reception of the party in Australia went far beyond their +expectations. That remote continent has always been noted for its sporting +spirit and although of course the English blood made cricket their +favorite game, the crowds were quick to detect and appreciate the merits +of the great American pastime. + +As a rule they would not concede that the batting was any better than that +shown by their own cricketers, but there was no question as to the +superiority of the fielding. + +The lightning throws, the double plays, the marvelous catches in the +outfield and the speed shown on the bases were freely admitted to be far +and away beyond that shown by their elevens. And the crowds grew larger +and larger as the visiting teams made their triumphal progress through the +great cities of Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne. + +Inspired by their reception and put upon their mettle by the great +outpouring of spectators, the teams themselves played like demons. One +might almost have thought that they were fighting for the pennant. + +They were so evenly matched that first one and then the other was on top, +and by the time they reached Melbourne the Giants were only one game in +the lead of the total that had been played since the trip began. + +Melbourne itself with its romantic history and magic growth proved very +attractive. But Joe was destined to remember it for very different +reasons. + +While walking with Jim one day outside the town near the Yarra Yarra +river, they were startled by hearing a cry for help, and racing toward the +sound they saw a young girl struggling in the water. + +Trained by their vocation to act quickly, they threw off their coats, +plunging into the water almost at the same instant. They swam fiercely, +lashed on by that frantic wail, sounding fainter each time it was +repeated. + +The race for a life was almost neck and neck until Joe, showing his +tremendous reserve strength, shot ahead at the very end, grasping the +struggling figure as it was sinking for the last time. + +Jim helped, and together they brought the rescued girl--the long dank +black hair testified to her sex--back to shore, where a group of the +native blacks, attracted by the cries, had gathered to welcome them. + +Dripping and exhausted, the two heroes of the occasion staggered up the +bank while willing hands relieved them of their burden. + +"Let's beat it," whispered Jim, as the crowd of natives closed around the +unconscious object of their heroism, "while the going's good. If that girl +ever finds out that you rescued her she'll want to attach herself to you +for life. That seems to be the fool custom of these parts." + +"She'd find it pretty hard work," said Joe, with a wry smile. "Besides, we +don't even know that the girl's alive. It would be pretty heartless to +clear out without learning." + +"Oh, all right," said Jim, uneasily. "But remember, if there are any +consequences you've got to take 'em." + +At that moment the crowd opened and the boys saw a remarkably good-looking +black girl standing dizzily and supported by another native who might have +been her father. + +She looked dazedly from one to the other of the young men and Jim promptly +"stepped out from under." + +"It's him," said Jim, neglecting grammar in his eagerness to shift the +burden of credit to Joe's broad shoulders. "He did it all." + +The girl walked unsteadily up to Joe and said, submissively: "My life is +yours! Me your slave!" + +Joe started, stared, and gulped, then turned to Jim to make sure he was +awake, and not a victim of some bad dream. But Jim had suddenly acquired a +peculiar form of hysteria, and with a choking sound turned his back upon +his friend. + +"N-no," stuttered Joe, gently pushing the girl away, "no want." + +Another explosion from Jim did not serve to improve Joe's state of mind. +His face was fiery red, and his voice husky. + +"Me slave!" persisted the girl stubbornly. + +Then Joe turned and fled, manfully fighting a desire to shout with +laughter one moment, and groan with dismay the next. + +Two very much subdued baseball players crept in at the side door of the +hotel, and scurried along the corridor toward their rooms, hoping ardently +to meet no one on the way. It was with a sigh of relief that they slipped +inside, locked the door, and repaired the ravages that the waters of the +Yarra Yarra had made upon their clothing. + +A few moments later, with self respect considerably improved, they +sauntered down to the writing room, where they found the two girls looking +more distractingly pretty than ever, engaged in folding the last of their +letters. + +"Oh, back so soon?" queried Mabel, looking up. + +"Goodness, how the time has flown," said Clara. "It seems as though you +had just gone. Have you another stamp, Mabel dear? I have used mine all +up." + +"Say, you're complimentary," remarked Jim, dryly. "It's great to be missed +like that." + +"Well, we'll miss something more if we don't get a move on," said Joe, +practically. "How about some lunch, girls?" + +After luncheon the quartette sauntered out for a walk up Elizabeth street +to the post-office. The boys were just congratulating themselves that +their uncomfortable, though piquant, experience of the morning was a thing +definitely of the past, when it happened! + +Joe felt a touch on his arm, and, looking down, saw, to his horror, the +black girl. + +"Me yours!" she cried, eagerly. + +Joe muttered savagely beneath his breath, and held the girl off at arm's +length, his misery increasing as, with a quick side glance, he saw the +growing indignation in Mabel's eyes. + +"Me yours!" repeated the girl, with the maddening monotony of a +phonograph. + +But just then, when Joe was at his wit's end, help came from an unexpected +quarter. A big black man, glowering threateningly, elbowed his way through +the curious group that had gathered about them, grasped the girl by the +arm, and dragged her away. There was no mistaking the jealousy that +prompted the action. Joe drew a deep sigh of deliverance, while Jim was +crimson with suppressed laughter. + +Mabel was the only one, except Joe himself, who could not see the joke. +There were two pink spots in her cheeks, her eyes were very bright, her +head was held high, and poor Joe had some explaining to do before the +party left Australia, which they did soon after, and started on their +journey to Ceylon. + +They reached Colombo in Ceylon, the island of spices, the richest gem in +the Indian ocean, and disembarked late one afternoon. At the hotel in the +English quarter, while the women of the party went to their rooms to +refresh themselves and dress for dinner, the men, after a hasty toilet, +went into the lobby of the hotel where, as always, their first thought was +to get hold of the papers from home. + +Joe's eyes fell on a New York paper and he snatched it up eagerly and +turned to the sporting page for the latest news of the diamond. He gave a +startled exclamation as he saw the bold headline that stretched across the +top of the page: + +"_Joe Matson, the Pitching King, Signs with the All-Star League!_" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE BLOW FALLS + + +Baseball Joe's first sensation was one of unutterable surprise, followed a +moment later by fierce indignation. + +"What's the matter, Joe?" asked Jim, coming up behind him. + +"Matter enough!" growled Joe, thrusting the offending paper under his +comrade's nose. "Look at this!" + +Jim looked and gave a long whistle of surprise. + +"What does it mean?" he ejaculated, as his eyes went from the headlines to +the story, which covered the greater part of the page. + +"Mean?" snorted Joe. "It means a stab in the back. It means that those +skunks are trying to do by lying what they couldn't do by bribery. It +means that while we're thousands of miles away they are trying to gull the +public and get other ball players to jump their contracts by a barefaced +lie like this. I wish I had hold of the fellow who's doing this--I'd make +him sweat for it!" + +"Of course it's a lie," assented Jim, "and a lie out of whole cloth. But +what beats me is why they should do it? It's bound to be a boomerang." + +They sat down side by side and read the paper together, and the more they +read the more bewildered they became. + +For the story was circumstantial. It went into minute details. It embraced +interviews with the backers of the new league, who confirmed it without +hesitation. One of the paragraphs read as follows: + + "Nothing in years has created such a sensation in the world of sport + as the news just made public that Matson, the star pitcher of the + Giants, had jumped the fold and landed in the All-Star League. It was + known that overtures were made to this great pitcher at the end of + his last season, when his magnificent work created a record in the + National League that will probably never be surpassed. It was + understood, however, that these offers, though coupled with a + tremendous bonus and salary, had been definitely rejected. For that + reason the news that he has reconsidered and jumped to the All-Stars + comes like a thunderbolt from a clear sky. The major leaguers are in + consternation, while the new league naturally is jubilant at this + acquisition to their ranks. Matson is a popular idol among his fellow + players and it is believed that many stars who have been wavering in + their allegiance to the old leagues will follow his example." + +The rest of the page was devoted to a recital of Joe's achievements in +pitching the Giants to the Championship of the National League and, later, +to the Championship of the World. + +The two friends stared at each other in amazement and rage, and just then +McRae and Robbie, together with a group of other players, came hurrying +up, holding other papers which, though in different words, told +substantially the same story. + +There was a babel of excited questions and exclamations, and Joe felt a +sharp pang go through him, as for the first time in his experience with +the manager of the Giants, he saw in McRae's eyes a shadow of distrust. + +"Isn't this the limit?" asked McRae, as he crushed the paper in his hand, +threw it to the floor and trampled on it in disgust and anger. + +"It sure is," replied Joe. "I've had lies told about me before but never +one that touched me on the raw like this." + +"It's a burning outrage," cried Denton indignantly. + +"What they expect to make out of it is beyond me," declared Robbie. "They +ought to know that they can't get away with it." + +"But in the meantime it will have done its work," Willis pointed out. +"What if it is contradicted later on? By that time they'll have a dozen +stars signed and they should worry. As long as it's believed that Joe has +jumped, it's just as good for them as though he had." + +"That's the worst of it," agreed Joe bitterly. "Of course I'll send a +cable contradicting it, but the lie has got a head start and a lot of +damage has been done. What do you suppose my friends in America are +thinking about me just now?" + +"Don't worry about that, Joe," comforted Jim. "Your real friends won't +believe it, and for the rest it doesn't matter. Nobody that really knows +you believes you would jump your contract." + +"Whoever got that story up was foxy, though," commented Mylert, the burly +catcher of the Giants. "There are no 'ifs or ands' about it like most +phony stories where the fellow's trying to hedge in case someone comes +back at him. It sounds like straight goods. It's the most truthful looking +lie I ever saw." + +"But it's a lie just the same!" cried Joe desperately. "All you fellows +know I wouldn't throw the Giants down, don't you?" he asked, as his eyes +swept the circle of fellow players who were gathered around him. + +There was a murmur of assent, but it was not as hearty as Joe could have +wished. If there was not distrust, there was at least bewilderment, for +the story bore all the earmarks of truth. + +"You know it, don't you, Mac?" repeated Joe, this time addressing directly +the Giant leader. + +For a fraction of a second McRae hesitated. Then he threw doubt to the +winds and gripped Joe's hand with a heartiness that warmed the latter's +heart. + +"Of course, I know it, Joe!" he exclaimed emphatically. "I don't deny that +for a moment the paper had me going. But in my heart I know it's a lie. So +just send your cable and then let's forget it. Those fellows are just +making a rope to hang themselves with. We'll make it warm for them when we +get back to the States." + +"You ought to sue the papers for libel," growled Robbie. + +"There won't be any suing," said Joe heatedly. "Just let me have five +minutes alone with the fellow that started this and that's all I'll ask." + +He hurried down with Jim to the cable office and a few minutes later this +message buzzed its way across the seas: + + "Report that I have signed with the All-Star League absolutely false. + Will give a thousand dollars to charity if anyone can produce + contract. + + "JOSEPH MATSON." + +"That ought to hold them for a while," commented Jim. + +"It ought," said Joe gloomily. "But you know the old saying that 'a lie +will go round the world while truth is getting its boots on.'" + +Still he felt better, and by the time he got back to the hotel and met the +girls, he had so far regained his usual poise that he could tell them all +about it with some measure of self-control. + +"Why, Joe! how could they dare do such a thing as that?" exclaimed Mabel, +her eyes flashing fire. + +"It's about the meanest thing I ever heard of!" cried his sister. + +"They ought to be sued for libel, don't you know," broke in Reggie. "If +you sued them, Joe, you might get quite heavy damages." + +"It's a pity you can't put somebody in jail for it," was Mabel's further +comment. + +"Yes, that's what ought to happen!" cried Clara. + +Both of the girls were wild with indignation. Although Mabel at one time, +influenced by the arguments of Braxton that Joe was not really bound by a +one-sided contract, had spoken to him about it in a guarded way, Joe had +shown her so clearly his moral obligation that he had convinced her +absolutely. And now she was angry clear through at the blow in the dark +that had been launched against him. + +"Who could have done such a contemptible thing?" she cried. + +"It must have been that horrid Westland!" exclaimed Clara. + +"Maybe," agreed her brother. "I rather hope it was." + +"Why?" asked Jim curiously. + +"Because," gritted Joe through his teeth, "he's a big fellow and I won't +be ashamed to hit him." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE COBRA IN THE ROOM + + +Ceylon was a land of wonders to the tourists. Here they were in the very +heart of the Orient. Rare flowers and strange plants grew in glorious +profusion, the air was odorous with a thousand scents, and it was hard for +them to realize that at that very moment America might be suffering from +zero weather or swept by blizzards. Here life moved along serenely and +dreamily, lulled by the sound of birds and drone of locusts, wrapped in +the warm folds of eternal summer. + +"It's an earthly Eden!" murmured Clara, as she and Jim walked along one of +the main streets of Colombo, followed at a little distance by Joe and +Mabel. + +"Yes," replied Jim with a laugh, "and not even the snake is missing." + +He pointed to a group of natives and Europeans on the other side of the +street who were gathered about a snake charmer. + +"Ugh, the horrid things!" exclaimed Clara with a shudder. + +"Let's go over and take a look," suggested Jim. + +Clara demurred at first and so did Mabel. They were used to seeing snakes +behind a network of wire and glass, and they did not relish the idea of +standing within a few feet of the crawling serpents in the open street. +But curiosity, added to the urgings of the young men, finally conquered, +and they joined the throng on the other side. + +The performer, an old man with bronzed face, was squatting on his haunches +playing a weird tune on a reedy instrument resembling a flute. Before him +was upreared a monstrous specimen of the deadly cobra species, swaying +gently to and fro and keeping time to the music. Its malignant eyes +looking out from the broad head whose markings resembled a pair of +spectacles had lost something of their fiery sparkle, and a slight haze +spread over them, as though the creature were under a spell. + +The music continued and two other snakes crawled out as if in response to +a call and joined their companion in his swaying, rhythmic dance. Then the +tune changed, the snakes uncoiled, and the performer took them up without +the slightest fear and put them back in the basket. + +"Suppose they should bite him!" exclaimed Mabel. + +"He's had their fangs drawn already," returned Joe. "The old rascal's +taking no chances." + +"They say that a man lasts about half an hour after one of those fellows +nips him," observed Jim. "Somebody was telling me that over twenty +thousand natives are bitten by them every year." + +A little further down the street, another fakir was giving an exhibition. +He placed a small native boy in a basket that was a tight fit and put down +the basket cover. Then after making mysterious signs and muttering +invocations, the fakir drew a long sword and plunged it through the basket +from end to end. A scream of pain came from within, and when the sword was +withdrawn it was red. Again and again this was repeated until the screams +died away. Then the fakir lifted up the cover and the boy sprang out safe +and sound, and, showing his white teeth in a smile, went around collecting +coins from the bystanders. + +They wandered further among the bazaars, making purchases of curios as +presents for the folks at home and adding to their personal stock of +mementos. Jim secured among other things a cane made of a rare Indian +wood, which while light was exceedingly strong and so pliable that it +could be bent almost double like a Damascus blade. + +But through all the chaff and fun of the day Joe was unhappy and restless. +What he had read in the paper from home about himself poisoned everything +for him. + +He had always tried to be perfectly straight and honorable in all his +business relations. His word had ever been as good as his bond. Now, at +one stroke, he saw his reputation damaged perhaps beyond mending. All over +the United States he had been pictured as a contract-breaker. He could see +the incredulity of his friends turning gradually to contempt. He fancied +he could hear them saying: + +"So Joe has fallen for that game, has he? Well, they say that every man +has his price. No doubt Joe's price was high, but they found out what it +was and bought him." + +Of course he had denied it, but he knew how people smiled when they read +denials. And months must pass before he could get back to America and try +to hunt out the author or authors of the story. + +He tried to hide his mood under a cover of light talk and banter, but the +others felt it and sympathized with him, though all refrained from +mentioning what each of them was thinking. + +All through the day his gloom persisted, and when night came and he had +retired to the room that he and Jim occupied together he felt that it +would be impossible for him to sleep. + +"There's no use talking," said Jim with a yawn, as he set his cane so that +it rested against the footboard and threw off his coat preparing to +undress, "sight-seeing's the most tiring work there is. I feel more done +up to-night than if I had been pitching in a hard game." + +"I'm tired too," agreed Joe, "but I don't feel the least bit like sleep." + +Jim was asleep almost as soon as his head touched the pillow. But Joe +tossed about restlessly for what seemed to him to be hours. The night was +very warm and all the windows were open to get what breath of air might be +stirring. + +A broad veranda ran all around the building, not more than two feet below +the windows, and from the ground to the veranda rose a luxuriant tangle of +vines and flowers. + +The moon was at the full and its light flooded a part of the room, leaving +the rest in deep shadow. + +Joe at last dropped off into a doze from which he woke with a start. + +He had heard nothing, but he had an uneasy consciousness that something +was wrong. + +He glanced over at Jim who was peacefully sleeping. Then he raised himself +on his elbow and his glance swept the room. + +Nothing seemed amiss in the lighted part, but in a darkened corner the +shadow seemed to be heavier than usual. It was as though it were piled in +a mass instead of being evenly distributed. + +Then to Joe's consternation _the shadow moved_, reached the edge of +moonlight, rose higher and higher with a sickening swaying motion. From a +hideous head two sparks of fire glowed balefully and Joe knew that he was +in the presence of a giant cobra! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +IN THE SHADOW OF THE PYRAMIDS + + +Joe's blood chilled with horror and his heart seemed for a moment to stop +beating. + +He did not dare to move and scarcely to breathe. He might have been a +statue, so rigid was his attitude. He knew that the least movement would +provoke an attack on the part of the deadly reptile. + +On the other hand, if he kept perfectly quiet, there was the chance of the +snake gliding away through the window, which had evidently been its means +of entering the room. + +Whether the serpent saw him or not, Joe could not tell. The head swayed +for a minute or two, while the glowing eyes seemed to take in every corner +of the room. Then the coils unwound and with a slithering sound the snake +began to crawl across the floor. + +But instead of seeking the window it was gliding towards the bed! + +If he had had a revolver Joe would have had a chance, for at such close +range he could scarcely have missed. Even a knife to hurl, though only a +forlorn hope, might have pinned the snake to the floor. But he was utterly +without a weapon of any kind. + +Suddenly he remembered the cane that his chum had leaned against the +footboard a few hours earlier. + +He reached down stealthily and his hand closed upon it. + +He did not dare to wake Jim for fear that the latter might leap from the +bed and perhaps land squarely on the gliding death that was somewhere in +the room. He had lost sight of it, but he could still hear the dragging +body and it seemed to be now under the bed. At any instant that awful head +might rise on either side prepared to strike. + +Gripping the cane until his fingers seemed to dig into it, Joe had a +moment of awful suspense. + +The gliding sound had ceased. Then from the side nearest Jim a hideous +head uprose within a foot of the sleeping man's face. + +Like a flash the tough cane hissed through the air with all Joe's muscle +back of it. It caught the reptile full in the neck and sent it half way +across the room where it lay writhing. + +In an instant Joe had leaped to the floor, raining blows upon the head +and floundering coils, until at last the reptile straightened out and lay +still. + +"What's the matter?" cried Jim, awakened by the tumult and jumping out of +bed. + +He turned pale as he saw the snake stretched out on the floor and Joe who, +now that the awful strain was over, was leaning against the wall as limp +as a rag. + +Jim turned on the light and they viewed the monster, standing at a +respectful distance from the head. + +"He seems dead enough, but you can never be sure of a snake," said Joe, +after in a few hurried words he had told of his experience. "Suppose, Jim, +you get that Malay's knife out of my trunk and we'll make certain." + +Jim brought the kriss, which Joe had kept as a memento of his struggle +with the maniac, and with one stroke severed the cobra's head from his +body. + +"That knife never did a better bit of work," he commented as he washed it +off. "Now let's get this thing out of the window and clear up the mess." + +They got through the repugnant work as soon as possible and then made a +careful search of the room. + +"That fellow may have had a mate," remarked Joe, "and one experience of +this kind is enough for a lifetime. I've always felt a little doubtful +about those stories of people whose hair turned gray in a single night, +but it's easy enough to believe it now." + +"We'll close the window too," said Jim, suiting the action to the word and +letting the upper sash down only for an inch or two. "That's the way that +fellow must have crawled in. It's pretty hot in here but I'd rather die of +heat than snake bites." + +They went back to bed but not to sleep, for they were too thoroughly +wrought up by their narrow escape. + +"You must have hit that fellow an awful crack," said Jim. "You sure batted +.300 in the Ceylon League." + +"Broke his neck, I guess," responded Joe. "It's lucky it wasn't a missed +strike for I wouldn't have had time for another one." + +"Don't let's say anything to the girls about it," suggested Jim. "Not +until we get away from India anyway. They'd be seeing snakes all the rest +of the time we're here." + +It was lucky that neither of them was slated to pitch the next day, for +they would scarcely have been in condition after their night's experience. +A game had been arranged between the visiting teams at a date three days +later. By that time Joe was in his usual superb form and easily carried +off the victory for his team. This put the Giants "on velvet," for they +now had a clear lead of two over the All-Americans. + +But the satisfaction that this would have usually given Joe was lacking +now. Victory had ceased to be sweet since the receipt of that newspaper +from home. + +Perhaps it was because of his sensitive condition that he thought he +detected a subtle change in the conduct of his team mates towards him. +While perfectly friendly in their relations with him, they did not "let +themselves go" when in his presence, as formerly. There was no boisterous +clapping on the back, no jolly sparring or wrestling. There seemed to be a +little holding in, a feeling of reserve, a something in the back of their +minds that they did not care for him to see. + +This joyous freemasonry of sport had always been especially pleasant to +Joe and for that reason he felt its absence the more keenly. + +But what exasperated him most was that if the old standbys of the club +were a trifle cool, Iredell, Curry and Burkett went to the other extreme +and were more cordial than ever before. It was as though they were +welcoming a newcomer to their ranks. They knew that they were under +suspicion of planning to jump their contracts in the spring, and the +apparent evidence that so renowned a player as Joe was planning to do the +same thing made them hail him as a reinforcement. + +Where formerly they had often ceased talking when he approached them and +made him feel that he was an intruder, they now greeted him warmly, +although they did not yet feel quite sure enough to broach the subject of +their own accord. + +"All little pals together," hummed Iredell significantly on one occasion +with a sidelong glance at Joe. + +"Just what do you mean by that?" asked Joe sharply. + +"Just what I say," replied Iredell innocently. "What is there wrong about +that? Aren't we Giants pals to each other?" + +"Of course we are, as long as we stay Giants," replied Joe. "But that +wasn't what you meant, Dell, and you know it." + +"Now, don't get red-headed, Joe," put in Curry soothingly. "You must have +got out of bed on the wrong side this morning. Dell didn't mean any +harm." + +"Tell me one thing," said Joe. "Do any of you fellows believe for one +minute that story in the paper?" + +He looked from one to the other, but none of them looked him straight in +the eye. + +"You know that I've denied it," went on Joe, as they kept silent, "and if +after that you still believe the story it's the same as saying that I +lie. And no one can call me a liar and get away with it." + +He stalked away leaving them dumbfounded. + +"Do you think he really has jumped his contract?" asked Burkett. + +"I don't know," replied Iredell dubiously. + +"He's got me guessing," muttered Curry. + +And the trio were still guessing when several weeks later the party +reached Egyptian soil, prepared to play the most modern of games before +the most ancient of monuments--baseball in the very shadow of the +Pyramids! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE SIGNED CONTRACT + + +"If old Pharaoh could only see us now!" chortled Jim, as the teams lined +up for their first game. + +"He'd probably throw a fit," grinned Denton. + +"Not a bit of it," said Joe. "He'd probably be up in the grandstand, +eating peanuts and singing out once in a while to 'kill the umpire.'" + +"And he'd do it too," laughed Jim. "I'll bet an umpire in those days would +have had a hard job to get life insurance. It would have been good dope to +get a tip before the game as to just what team Pharaoh wanted to win." + +"I think you men are awfully irreverent," reproved Mabel, who, with Clara, +was seated in the first row in the stand right behind the players' bench +and had overheard the conversation. + +"Not at all," laughed Jim. "It's a big compliment to Pharaoh to suggest +that he would have been a baseball fan if he hadn't been born too soon. It +puts him on a level with the President of the United States." + +The teams were playing on the cricket field used by the English residents, +and not far off the Pyramids reared their stately heads toward the sky. It +was a strange conjunction of the past and the present, and all were more +or less impressed by it. + +"Well, I must confess that in my wildest dreams of seasons gone by, I +never supposed that I would be pitching here in Egypt in the shadow of the +pyramids," remarked Joe. + +"It certainly takes a fellow back to ancient days," put in Jim. "Just +imagine playing before a crowd of those old Egyptians!" + +"Well, they had fun in their day just as well as we have," said McRae. +"Just the same, they didn't know how good baseball is." + +"They didn't even know anything about yelling to kill the umpire when a +wrong decision was given," remarked Joe, with a grin, and at this there +was a general laugh. + +There was a big outpouring of Europeans and visiting Americans, and under +the inspiration of their interest and applause both teams played +brilliantly. It was a hammer-and-tongs contest from start to finish, and +resulted in the first tie of the trip, neither team being able to score, +although the game went to eleven innings. + +"Still two ahead," McRae said to Brennan, as they left the grounds after +the game. + +"We're gunning for you," retorted Brennan good-naturedly, "and we'll get +you yet. You've had all the breaks so far, but our turn has got to come." + +"Tell that to the King of Denmark," laughed McRae. "We've got your number, +old man." + +The party "did" Egypt thoroughly, visiting Cairo, Thebes and Memphis, +climbing the Pyramids, sailing on the Nile, viewing the temples of Karnak +and Philae, the statue of Memnon, and countless other places of interest +in this cradle of the world's civilization. And it was a tired but happy +crowd that finally assembled at Alexandria to take ship for Naples, their +first stopping place on the continent of Europe. + +Braxton was no longer with the party, having left it at Ceylon, and others +had dropped away here and there. But in the main the members were the same +as at the beginning. Their health had been excellent, and only a few +things had occurred to mar the pleasure of the trip. + +The discomfort that Joe had felt had largely worn away with the passing of +time. Every day was bringing him nearer the time when with the opening of +the season he would actually appear on the diamond wearing a Giant +uniform, and thus effectually dispose of the slander that had troubled +him. + +There had just been time enough to receive some of the earliest papers +from America that had been published after the receipt of his denial. That +denial had evidently produced a great effect, coupled as it was with the +offer to give a thousand dollars to charity if the new league could +produce any contract signed by him. "Money talks," and the paper intimated +that the All-Star League had the next move and that it would be "in bad" +with the public if it failed to make its statements good. + +"They'll have a hot time doing it," grinned Joe. + +"I'm wondering how they'll dodge it," remarked Jim. + +"By getting out a new lie to bolster up the old one probably," conjectured +Joe. + +The latest papers from America had come on board just as the steamer left +Alexandria, and in the hurry of getting aboard and settling down in their +new quarters it was after supper that night before Joe hurried to the +smoking room to have a look at them. + +"Got a thousand dollars handy, Joe?" inquired Denton, as Joe came near +him. + +"Because, if you have, the All-Star League wants it," added Larry. + +"What do you mean?" asked Joe, all the old discomfort and apprehension +coming back to him. + +"Read this," replied Larry, handing him a paper opened at the sporting +page. + +Joe read: + + "All-Star League Calls Matson's Bluff. Produces Signed Contract. + Facsimile of Contract Shown Below." + +And staring right out at him was the photographic reproduction of a +regulation baseball contract and at the bottom was written the name: +"Joseph Matson." + +Joe stared at it as though he were in a dream. Here was the old blow at +his reputation, this time with redoubled force. Here was what claimed to +be the actual contract. But it was not the body of the contract that held +his attention. The thing that made him rage, that gave him a sense of +furious helplessness, that put his brain in a whirl, was this: + +_He knew that that was his signature!_ + +No matter how it came there, it was his. A man's name can seldom be so +skilfully forged that it can deceive the man himself. It may get by the +cashier of the bank, but when it is referred back to the man who is +supposed to have written it, that man knows instinctively whether he ever +wrote it. Perhaps he cannot tell why he knows it, but he knows it just the +same. + +So Joe _knew_ that it was his signature that was photographed on that +contract. But he also knew another thing just as certainly. + +_He had never signed that contract!_ + +Both things contradictory. Yet both things true. + +Larry and Denton were watching him closely. Joe looked up and met their +eyes. They were two of his oldest and warmest friends on the Giant team +and had always been ready to back him through thick and thin. Confidence +still was in their gaze, but with it was mixed bewilderment almost equal +to Joe's own. + +Before anything further could be said, McRae and Robbie joined the group. + +"Well, Joe, there's the contract," said McRae. + +"It seems to be a contract all right," replied Joe. "I haven't had time to +read what it says, but that doesn't matter anyway. The only important +thing is that I never signed that contract." + +"That seems to be a pretty good imitation of your signature at the bottom +there," chimed in Robbie. + +"It's even better than that," said Joe, taking the bull by the horns. "It +isn't even an imitation. It's my own signature." + +Both Robbie and McRae looked at him as if they thought he was crazy. + +"I don't get you, Matson," said McRae, a little sternly. "And it seems to +me it's hardly a time for joking. There's the contract. You say you didn't +sign it, and yet you admit that the name at the bottom is your own +signature. How do you explain it?" + +"I don't pretend to explain it," replied Joe. "There's crooked work +somewhere that I've got to ferret out. Somehow or other my name, written +by me, has gotten on the bottom of that contract. But I never put it +there. Some rascal has, and when I find him, as I will, may Heaven have +mercy on him, for I won't!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +WHIRLWIND PITCHING + + +"A fellow who would do a thing like that is taking long chances," said +McRae doubtfully. + +"And how could he do it?" put in Robbie. "The name would have to be cut +from one piece of paper and pasted on another, wouldn't it?" + +"Even admitting that they might get your name from a check or letter, I +don't see how a thing like that could stand inspection for a minute," +chimed in Willis. "Even if it were so well done that an eye couldn't +detect it, a microscope would give it away." + +"And you can bet that the reporters who hunted up this thing haven't +overlooked any bets," said Brennan. "They knew that the signature was the +nub of the whole thing and if there was anything phony about the paper +they'd have got next at once." + +"It's a horrible mixup!" cried Joe, who felt that he was being enmeshed in +a net of circumstantial evidence which he might find it impossible to +break. "Let me read the story first from end to end. Then, perhaps, I'll +find some clue that will solve the mystery." + +He plunged at once into the reading, but the more he read the worse the +matter looked. + +He found that a nation-wide interest had been excited by his denial and +his challenge. The officers of the All-Star League had been besieged by +reporters, who had made it clear to them that they must prove their +statement that Matson had signed with them or else stand convicted before +the American public, on whose favor they depended for support in the +coming season, of being slanderers and liars. + +Mr. Beckworth Fleming, the president of the All-Star League, had shown a +little hesitation in responding to these demands. This, perhaps, was +natural enough, since no business organization cares to have the terms of +its contracts blazoned forth to the world, perhaps to the benefit of its +rivals. Still, under all the circumstances, Mr. Fleming had finally +decided to permit a photographic copy to be made of the contract in order +to establish the good faith of the new league. This had been done and +facsimiles had been sent to all the leading newspapers of the United +States. + +There was no question that the contract was genuine. It had been +submitted to bank cashiers who were familiar with Mr. Matson's writing, +and they had pronounced it his signature beyond the shadow of a doubt. The +paper had been examined under powerful glasses and found to be a single +piece. Everything was in proper form, and it was clearly up to Mr. Matson +to explain what seemed to be explainable only in one way, namely, that he +had signed the contract. + +There were many worthy charities that could find a good use for the +thousand dollars that the great pitcher had so rashly offered. + +This was the gist of the story in all the papers. There were various +suggested explanations. One paper hinted that men had been known to sign +papers when they had dined and wined too well. + +Another thought that the denial was purely a "diplomatic" one. Others +ventured the hypothesis that the whole thing was an advertising dodge, +designed to set the country agog with excitement and stimulate big +audiences for the coming season. + +But underneath all the suppositions one thing seemed to be unquestioned by +the papers, and that was that Joe had signed a contract to play with the +All-Star League and had left the Giants in the lurch. + +Joe felt as though the ground were slipping from beneath his feet. He was +perfectly innocent, and yet he already stood convicted in the public mind +of having done a thing that he loathed and abhorred. And the worst of it +was that he had not the slightest clue to the scoundrel or scoundrels who +had brought this thing about. + +"It's beyond me, Mac," he said at last in despair, as he looked up and saw +the Giants' manager's eyes fixed upon him as though they would read into +his soul. "They seem to have a strangle hold on me. And yet as black as +things look I tell you straight, Mac, that you know every bit as much +about this as I do." + +"That's all right, Joe," returned McRae. "I'll admit I'm flabbergasted. +Who wouldn't be? There's a plot here somewhere, and the fox that planned +it has been mighty cunning in covering up his tracks. But there never yet +was a lie that didn't have a weak point somewhere, and soon or late we'll +find it." + +Mabel and Clara, as well as Jim, were beside themselves with anger at the +dastardly trick. They racked their brains to find the explanation, but +every time they came up against a blank wall. + +"I certainly can't understand it, Joe," said Mabel, for at least the tenth +time. + +"Well, I can't understand it myself, Mabel," he replied. + +"Are you sure you didn't sign that contract, thinking it was something +else--an order for something, or something like that?" questioned Clara. + +"I'm not in the habit of signing anything without knowing what it is," +said the crack pitcher. "If any of those fellows had brought such a thing +to me to sign, I would have handed it back and given the fellow a piece of +my mind. No, there is something else in all this, though what it is I +haven't the faintest idea." + +"It's too bad we're so far away from those fellows just at present," put +in Jim. "If we were close by we might interview them, and find out some of +the details that are as yet missing. And then maybe somebody would get a +broken head," he added vigorously. + +"Oh, Jim! would you break anybody's head?" burst out Clara in horror. + +"I sure would if he was trying to put Joe in such a hole as this!" +returned the young man promptly. "Maybe you don't understand what a black +eye this is calculated to give your brother." + +"Oh, yes, I can understand that well enough," sighed Joe's sister. + +"I think it's the meanest thing that ever could possibly happen!" burst +out Mabel. "And I don't wonder that Jim is angry enough to break +somebody's head for it," and she looked lovingly at Joe. + +"Oh, I suppose it will come out all right in the end," answered Joe. But +he said this merely to ease Mabel's mind. Secretly he was afraid that he +was in for some real trouble. + +It was early spring when they landed in Naples, but the winter had been +prolonged more than usual and it was too cold to play. At Monte Carlo and +Nice, however, they were able to get in two games, both of which were won +by the All-Americans. This put the teams again on an equality as to games +won and lost, and revived the hopes of the All-Americans that they might +still come out ahead in the series. + +They made but a short stay in Paris, and the weather was so inclement that +games were out of the question. But it would have taken more than bad +weather to prevent the shopping and sightseeing that all had been looking +forward eagerly to in the great French capital, and they enjoyed their +visit to the full. + +In London they met with the greatest welcome of their trip. They played at +Lord's Oval, the most famous grounds in the United Kingdom, and before an +audience that included the most distinguished people in the realm, +including the king himself. + +The American colony, too, was there almost to a man, and the United States +ambassador lent his presence to the occasion. + +It was the most distinguished audience, probably, that had ever witnessed +a baseball game. + +And here it was that Joe did the most brilliant pitching of the trip. His +tireless arm mowed down his opponents inning after inning. They came to +the bat only to go back to the bench. His mastery of the ball seemed +almost uncanny, and as inning after inning passed without a hit being +made, it began to look as though he were in for that dream of all +pitchers--a no-hit game. + +Brennan, the Chicago manager, fidgeted restlessly on the bench and +glowered as his pets were slaughtered. He tried all the tactics known to +clever managers, but in vain. It was simply a day when Baseball Joe was +not to be denied. + +His comrades, too, gave him brilliant support and nothing got away from +them, so that when finally the last man up in the ninth inning in the +All-American team lifted a towering skyscraper that Joe caught without +stirring from his tracks, a pandemonium of cheers forced him to remove his +cap and bow to the applauding crowds again and again. + +Not a man had scored, not a man had been passed, not a man had reached +first, not a man had hit safe. Joe had won the most notable game in his +whole career! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE RUINED CASTLE + + +With London as their center the teams made flying trips to Edinburg, +Glasgow and Dublin. In all three places they received a royal welcome, for +the fame of that great game in London had spread throughout the nation and +all were eager to see the hero of that occasion. + +Under other circumstances Joe would have been jubilant, for he was at the +very height of his reputation, the girl he loved was with him, as well as +his only sister and his closest friend, but ever in his thoughts like the +spectre at the feast was that matter of the signed contract--the +abominable thing that smirched his reputation and branded him to the world +as false to his word and bond. + +Again and again he sought to find the key to the mystery. It seemed like +some monstrous jugglery, something akin to the fakir's tricks that he had +witnessed at Colombo where the impossible had seemed so clearly possible. + +Try as he would he could find no explanation of the puzzle and his friends +were equally powerless to suggest a solution. + +The game at Dublin, which commenced auspiciously for the Giants, was +turned into a rout by a rally of the All-Americans in the ninth. A rain of +bingles came from their bats and they won easily with six runs to spare. + +"Got it in the neck that time, old man," said Joe to Jim, after the game. +"But we can't always win. What do you say to getting a buzz wagon and +taking a little spin out into the country? The girls will be getting ready +for that reception at the Viceroy's castle, and they'll be too busy +dolling up to care what becomes of us." + +"Good idea," said Jim, and the two friends made their way to a public +garage, secured a good car together with a driver, and whirled away into +the open country. + +They had made perhaps twenty miles through the beautiful Irish scenery +when Joe called Jim's attention to a cloud bank forming in the west. + +"Better skip back, old man," he said. "We're due for a wetting if we +don't." + +"Plenty of time yet," objected Jim. "Those look to me just like wind +clouds. Let's see a little bit more of Ireland." + +They went on perhaps five miles further and then Jim found that his +confidence was misplaced. The clouds grew blacker, an ominous muttering +was heard in the sky and a jagged flash of lightning presaged the coming +storm. + +"You see I was right," said Joe. "In this open car we'll be drenched to +the skin. Turn around, Mike," he said to the driver, "and let's see how +fast this old boat of yours can travel in getting back to Dublin. Throw +her into high and give her all you've got." + +The driver obeyed and the car fairly purred as it sped back toward the +city. But fast as it was, the storm was faster. Great raindrops pattered +down, and they looked anxiously about for shelter. + +"What's that place up there, Mike?" asked Jim, pointing to a rambling +stone structure on an elevation perhaps a hundred yards from the road. + +"'Tis the castle o' the last o' the O'Brian's, hivin rist his sowl," +replied Mike. "But they do be sayin' the place is hanted, an' 'tis a brave +man that would be shteppin' inside the dhure." + +"I'm a brave man, then," cried Jim. "For I'll face a dozen ghosts before I +would this storm. Turn in, Mike, and we'll wait there till the rain is +over." + +With a muttered protest Mike did as directed, and a moment later the young +men stepped jauntily through the ruined portal, while Mike, shocked at +their temerity, crossed himself and, throwing an oilskin over his head, +crouched low in his seat, preferring the discomfort of the open to the +unknown terrors that might lurk beyond the doorway of the ruined castle. + +The friends had scarcely stepped inside before the rain came down in +torrents. + +"Lucky we got here just as we did," remarked Joe, as they leaned up +against the masonry of the ruined hall and looked out at the cloudburst. + +"It surely was," agreed Jim. "I wish we had a little more light. It's as +dark as Egypt in here." + +"I've got my pocket flashlight with me," said Joe, reaching toward his hip +pocket. "But listen, what's that?" + +"I didn't hear anything," returned Jim, a little nervously, it must be +admitted. + +The two ball players kept perfectly still for a minute and heard what +seemed to be the murmur of voices a room or two away. + +"Can it be that the last of the O'Brians is rambling about the castle?" +whispered Jim, with a feeble attempt at raillery. + +"More likely some travelers stormbound like ourselves," returned Joe +practically. "Let's take a squint at them." + +They tiptoed their way through the hall to a room opening on the right. +The door, half broken from its hinges, was standing open, and in the +darkness they saw the tips of two lighted cigars. + +As this was not at all ghostly and they did not care to intrude, they were +about to retire as softly as they had come, when Joe was startled by +hearing his own name. Jim's hand shot out and clenched his friend's arm, +and they stood there like statues. + +"That was a slick trick you put over on Matson," said a voice which Joe +recognized instantly as belonging to Beckworth Fleming. He had heard that +voice before when he had made its owner kneel in the dirt of the road and +beg Mabel's pardon for his insolence. + +"I think myself it was rather clever," drawled another familiar voice, +that of Braxton. "He fell for it like a lamb." + +"He's a pretty keen chap usually, too," remarked Fleming. "How is it you +caught him napping?" + +"I picked out just the right time," said Braxton complacently. "And I +don't deny that luck helped me a little. If McRae and Barclay hadn't gone +away just the time they did, it might not have worked. But I got him +talking about handwriting, and the first thing you know he'd scribbled his +name on the blank sheet. I took good care that only the bottom of the +sheet was where he could reach it. Then I slipped the paper into my +pocket, sent it to you to have the contract printed above the signature, +and you know the rest." + +"Easy meat," chuckled Fleming. + +"Too easy," chortled Braxton. "It makes me laugh every time I think of +it." + +Joe stepped into the room, followed by Jim. + +"I do a little laughing myself sometimes," Joe said coldly. "And this is +one of the times!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +BROUGHT TO BOOK--CONCLUSION + + +There was a gasp of dismay and astonishment, as the conspirators jumped to +their feet from the windowsill upon which they had been sitting. + +At the same instant Joe drew the flashlight from his pocket and illumined +their startled faces. + +"Don't move!" he commanded. "Jim, you keep them covered." + +Jim took up his station in the doorway, and in the insufficient light the +rascals could not see whether he had a weapon or not. + +"What do you mean by this?" blustered Fleming, in a voice that he tried to +make brave, but that quavered despite himself. + +"It means," said Joe grimly, "that one of you men is in for the licking of +his life. Don't tremble so, Fleming," he added contemptuously. "I've +already thrashed you once and I don't care to soil my hands with you +again. But I've been aching for months to get my fingers on the man that +made me out a liar and a contract-breaker. I have him now," he added, +with a steely glance at Braxton. + +"Here, Jim," he continued, stepping back, "take this flash. I've got some +work to do." + +With a quick wrench he tore off his coat. + +"You'd better be careful," said Braxton--no longer the suave and polished +trickster, but pale as chalk and trembling like a leaf. "This is assault +and battery, and you'll answer to the law." + +"Put up your hands," said Joe curtly. "You're as big a man as I am, but +you've got to prove which is the better one. And you, Jim, keep your eye +on Fleming and stand by to see fair play." + +Even a rat will fight when cornered and Braxton, seeing no alternative, +threw off his coat and made a desperate rush at Joe. Joe met him with a +clip to the jaw that shook him from head to foot. Then he sailed in and +gave the scoundrel what he had promised--the thrashing of his life. + +Braxton tried foul tactics, butted and kicked and tried to gouge and bite, +but Joe's powerful arms worked like windmills, his fists ripping savagely +into Braxton's face and chest. All the pent-up indignation and humiliation +of the last few weeks found vent in those mighty blows, and soon, too soon +to suit Joe, the man lay on the floor, whining and half-sobbing with shame +and pain. + +"Get up, you cur!" said Joe, as he pulled on his coat. "I'm not through +with you yet." + +"You're not going to hit him again, are you?" asked Fleming, while Braxton +staggered painfully to his feet. + +"No," said Joe. "I guess he's had enough." + +"You said it!" cried Jim admiringly. "If ever a man was trimmed to the +queen's taste he's that man." + +"But I'm going to nail, right now, the lies you fellows have been +spreading," continued Joe, eyes alight with the thought of his coming +vindication. "You've got to sign a written confession of the part you've +played in this dirty business." + +"We w-will, w-when we get back to town," stammered Fleming. + +"No, you won't," cried Joe. "You'll do it right here and now." + +"B-but we haven't any writing materials," suggested Braxton, through his +swollen lips. + +"I've got paper and a fountain pen!" exclaimed Jim eagerly. "This light is +rather dim, but probably Mike has got the automobile lamps going by this +time and that'll be light enough." + +"Come along!" cried Joe sternly, and his crest-fallen opponents knew him +too well by this time to resist. + +They went out into the open and found that the rain had almost stopped. As +Jim had prophesied, the automobile lamps were gleaming through the dusk. +Like every Irishman, Mike dearly loved a scrap, and his eyes lighted with +a mixture of eagerness and regret as he looked at Braxton and realized +what he had been missing. + +"Begorra!" he cried in his rich brogue, "'tis a lovely shindy ye've been +after havin'." + +With the paper resting on his knee and Jim's fountain pen in his hand, Joe +wrote out the story of the trickery and fraud that had been practiced in +getting his signature. When he had covered every important point, he held +out the pen to Braxton. + +The latter hesitated, and Joe's fist clenched till the knuckles were +white. Braxton knew what that fist was capable of and hesitated no longer. +He wrote his name under the confession and Fleming followed suit. Then Jim +affixed his name as a witness, and Michael O'Halloran happily added his. + +"Now," said Jim, as he folded the precious paper and stowed it safely in +his pocket, "you fellows clear out. I suppose that's your car that we saw +standing a little way down the road. I don't think either of you will care +to mix in my affairs again." + +They moved away with an assumption of bravado they were far from feeling +and were lost in the darkness. + +"And now, Mike," said Joe with a jubilant ring in his voice, as they +leaped into the car, "let her go. Drive to Dublin as if the ghost of the +last of the O'Brians were at your back!" + +And Mike did. + +The two baseball players found the girls impatiently awaiting them, and +wondering rather petulantly what had become of them. Joe seized Mabel in +his arms and whirled her about the room like a dancing dervish, paying no +heed to her laughing protests. + +Jim would have liked to do the same to Joe's sister, but did not quite +dare to--yet. + +"Are you boys crazy?" demanded Mabel, as soon as she could get her +breath. + +"Yes," said Joe promptly. "You'll be, too, when you see this." + +He flourished the paper before their faces and in disjointed sentences, +frequently broken by interruptions, told them of all that had happened +since they had left them after the game. + +No need of telling how they felt when the boys had finished. There was no +happier party that night in all Ireland. + +Then, leaving the delighted girls for a few minutes, the boys hunted up +McRae. They found him glum and anxious, talking earnestly with Robbie in +the lobby of the hotel. One glance at the young men's faces made the pair +jump wonderingly to their feet. + +"For the love of Pete, let's have it, Joe!" cried McRae. "What's +happened?" + +"Plenty!" exulted Joe. "We've put the All-Star League out of business!" + +"What!" cried McRae, as he snatched the paper that Joe held out to him and +devoured its contents, while Robbie peered eagerly over his shoulder. + +Then, as they realized what it meant, they set up a wild whoop which made +the other members of the team, scattered about the lobby, come running, +followed a scene of mad hilarity, during which no one seemed to know what +he said or did. + +That night the cable carried the news to New York, and from there to every +city in the United States. It sounded the death knell of the All-Star +League, and it went to pieces like a house of cards. The American public +will stand for much, but for nothing so gross and contemptible as that had +been. + +The trip wound up in a blaze of glory with the Giants just one game to the +good in the hot series of games that had been played. They had a swift and +joyous journey home, and when they separated on the dock in New York, +McRae's hearty grip of Baseball Joe's hand fairly made the latter wince. + +"Good-bye, old man," he said. "You've stood by me like a brick. You'll be +on hand when the bell rings." + +"Joe will hear other bells before that," grinned Jim, as he looked at +Mabel, who flushed rosily. + +"What's that?" asked McRae with a twinkle in his eye. + +"Wedding bells," replied Jim. + +THE END + + + + + THE BASEBALL JOE SERIES + By LESTER CHADWICK + + 12mo. Illustrated. Price 50 cents per volume. + Postage 10 cents additional. + +1. BASEBALL JOE OF THE SILVER STARS + or The Rivals of Riverside + +2. BASEBALL JOE ON THE SCHOOL NINE + or Pitching for the Blue Banner + +3. BASEBALL JOE AT YALE + or Pitching for the College Championship + +4. BASEBALL JOE IN THE CENTRAL LEAGUE + or Making Good as a Professional Pitcher + +5. BASEBALL JOE IN THE BIG LEAGUE + or A Young Pitcher's Hardest Struggles + +6. BASEBALL JOE ON THE GIANTS + or Making Good as a Twirler in the Metropolis + +7. BASEBALL JOE IN THE WORLD SERIES + or Pitching for the Championship + +8. BASEBALL JOE AROUND THE WORLD + or Pitching on a Grand Tour + +9. BASEBALL JOE: HOME RUN KING + or The Greatest Pitcher and Batter on Record + +10. BASEBALL JOE SAVING THE LEAGUE + or Breaking Up a Great Conspiracy + +11. BASEBALL JOE CAPTAIN OF THE TEAM + or Bitter Struggles on the Diamond + +12. BASEBALL JOE CHAMPION OF THE LEAGUE + or The Record that was Worth While + +13. BASEBALL JOE CLUB OWNER + or Putting the Home Town on the Map + +14. BASEBALL JOE PITCHING WIZARD + or Triumphs Off and On the Diamond + + Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue. + + CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York + + + + + THE BOY HUNTERS SERIES + By CAPTAIN RALPH BONEHILL + + 12mo. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors. + Price 50 cents per volume. Postage 10 cents additional. + +Captain Ralph Bonehill is one of the best known and most popular writers +for young people. In this series he shows, as no other writer can, the +joy, glory and happiness of outdoor life. + +FOUR BOY HUNTERS + or The Outing of the Gun Club + +A fine, breezy story of the woods and waters, of adventures in search of +game, and of great times around the campfire, told in Captain Bonehill's +best style. In the book are given full directions for camping out. + +GUNS AND SNOWSHOES + or The Winter Outing of the Young Hunters + +In this volume the young hunters leave home for a winter outing on the +shores of a small lake. They hunt and trap to their hearts' content and +have adventures in plenty, all calculated to make boys "sit up and take +notice." A good healthy book; one with the odor of the pine forests and +the glare of the welcome campfire in every chapter. + +YOUNG HUNTERS OF THE LAKE + or Out with Rod and Gun + +Another tale of woods and waters, with some strong hunting scenes and a +good deal of mystery. The three volumes make a splendid outdoor series. + +OUT WITH GUN AND CAMERA + or The Boy Hunters in the Mountains + +Takes up the new fad of photographing wild animals as well as shooting +them. An escaped circus chimpanzee and an escaped lion add to the interest +of the narrative. + + Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue + + CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York + + + + + THE JEWEL SERIES + By AMES THOMPSON + + 12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in colors. + Price 50 cents per volume. + Postage 10 cents additional. + +A series of stories brimming with hardy adventure, vivid and accurate in +detail, and with a good foundation of probability. They take the reader +realistically to the scene of action. Besides being lively and full of +real situations, they are written in a straight-forward way very +attractive to boy readers. + +1. THE ADVENTURE BOYS and the VALLEY OF DIAMONDS + +In this book they form a party of five, and with the aid of a shrewd, +level-headed sailor named Stanley Green, they find a valley of diamonds in +the heart of Africa. + +2. THE ADVENTURE BOYS and the RIVER OF EMERALDS + +With a guide, they set out to find the River of Emeralds. But masked foes, +emeralds, and falling mountains are all in the day's fun for these +Adventure Boys. + +3. THE ADVENTURE BOYS and the LAGOON OF PEARLS + +This time the group starts out on a cruise simply for pleasure, but their +adventuresome spirits lead them into the thick of things on a South Sea +cannibal island. + +4. THE ADVENTURE BOYS and the TEMPLE OF RUBIES + +The Adventure Boys find plenty of thrills when they hit the ruby trail, +and soon discover that they are marked by some sinister influence to keep +them from reaching the Ruby. + +5. THE ADVENTURE BOYS and the ISLAND OF SAPPHIRES + +The paths of the young jewel hunters lead to a mysterious island where the +treasures are concealed. + + Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue + + CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York + + + + + THE BOMBA BOOKS + By ROY ROCKWOOD + + Price 50 cents per volume. + Postage 10 cents additional. + +Bomba lived far back in the jungles of the Amazon with a half-demented +naturalist who told the lad nothing of his past. The jungle boy was a +lover of birds, and hunted animals with a bow and arrow and his trusty +machete. He had a primitive education in some things, and his daring +adventures will be followed with breathless interest by thousands. + +1. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY + +2. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AT THE MOVING MOUNTAIN + +3. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AT THE GIANT CATARACT + +4. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY ON JAGUAR ISLAND + +5. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY IN THE ABANDONED CITY + +6. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY ON TERROR TRAIL + +7. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY IN THE SWAMP OF DEATH + +8. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AMONG THE SLAVES + +9. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY ON THE UNDERGROUND RIVER + +10. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AND THE LOST EXPLORERS + +11. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY IN A STRANGE LAND + +12. BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY AMONG THE PYGMIES + + Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue + + CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York + + + + + THE WEBSTER SERIES + By FRANK V. WEBSTER + +Mr. WEBSTER'S style is very much like that of the boys' favorite author, +the late lamented Horatio Alger, Jr., but his tales are thoroughly +up-to-date. + + Cloth. 12mo. Over 200 pages each. Illustrated. + Stamped in various colors. + + Price per volume, 50 cents. + Postage 10 cents additional. + +Only a Farm Boy + or Dan Hardy's Rise in Life + +The Boy from the Ranch + or Roy Bradner's City Experiences + +The Young Treasure Hunter + or Fred Stanley's Trip to Alaska + +The Boy Pilot of the Lakes + or Nat Morton's Perils + +Tom the Telephone Boy + or The Mystery of a Message + +Bob the Castaway + or The Wreck of the Eagle + +The Newsboy Partners + or Who Was Dick Box? + +Two Boy Gold Miners + or Lost in the Mountains + +The Young Firemen of Lakeville + or Herbert Dare's Pluck + +The Boys of Bellwood School + or Frank Jordan's Triumph + +Jack the Runaway + or On the Road with a Circus + +Bob Chester's Grit + or From Ranch to Riches + +Airship Andy + or The Luck of a Brave Boy + +High School Rivals + or Fred Markham's Struggles + +Darry the Life Saver + or The Heroes of the Coast + +Dick the Bank Boy + or A Missing Fortune + +Ben Hardy's Flying Machine + or Making a Record for Himself + +Harry Watson's High School Days + or The Rivals of Rivertown + +Comrades of the Saddle + or The Young Rough Riders of the Plains + +Tom Taylor at West Point + or The Old Army Officer's Secret + +The Boy Scouts of Lennox + or Hiking Over Big Bear Mountain + +The Boys of the Wireless + or a Stirring Rescue from the Deep + +Cowboy Dave + or The Round-up at Rolling River + +Jack of the Pony Express + or The Young Rider of the Mountain Trail + +The Boys of the Battleship + or For the Honor of Uncle Sam + + CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers NEW YORK + + + + + Everybody will love the story of + + NOBODY'S BOY + + By HECTOR MALOT + +The dearest character in all the literature of child life is little Remi +in Hector Malot's famous masterpiece Sans Famille ("Nobody's Boy"). + +All love, pathos, loyalty, and noble boy character are exemplified in this +homeless little lad, who has made the world better for his being in it. +The boy or girl who knows Remi has an ideal never to be forgotten. But it +is a story for grown-ups, too. + +"Nobody's Boy" is one of the supreme heart-interest stories of all time, +which will make you happier and better. + + 4 Colored Illustrations. $1.50 net. + At All Booksellers + + CUPPLES & LEON CO. 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