143CHAPTER 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 of144mystery 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.145
“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’ll146see!” broke in Mabel. “And the queer people we’ll meet!”
The girls were all on thequi vivewith 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 the147kind 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.
“TheEmpress 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.148“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, and149had 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!”
150CHAPTER XVIIIONE 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 the151struggling 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.152
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 the153deck 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.154
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!
155CHAPTER XIXBRAXTON 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.”156
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 when157it 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. “Their158folks 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.”159
“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.160
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 steamer161resumed 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 been162driven 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.”163
“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.”
164CHAPTER XXIN 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 pin165once, 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 in166the 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.”167
“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.168
“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 my169business; 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 almost170as 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.”171
“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 made172McRae, 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.173
“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,”174grinned 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.’”
175CHAPTER XXIRUNNING 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.176
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 are177in 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 his178neck. 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 unintelligible179to 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.180This, 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.181
“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 they182went 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!”