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 theirpraise and congratulations, until he was almost ready to pray to berescued from his friends.
Mabel, starry-eyed, slipped a hand within his arm and the pressure waseloquent. Jim almost wrenched his arm from the shoulder, and Clara huggedher brother openly.
Naturally, Joe's great feat appealed especially to the baseball players ofthe 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, andthey felt that they shared in the reflected glory.
"Great Scott, Joe!" beamed Larry. "You put it all over his sharklet thattime."
"Straight over the plate!" chuckled Burkett.
"Against the rules, though," grinned Denton. "You know that the 'beanball' is barred."
The rescued man had now been brought on board. He had been too excited andconfused to understand how he had been snatched from the jaws ofdeath--and such a death!
He proved to be a member of the crew, a Lascar, whose knowledge of theEnglish language was limited, and whose ignorance of the great nationalgame was fathomless.
But when he had recovered and had learned the name of his rescuer, hesought Joe out and thanked him in accents that were none the less sincerebecause broken and imperfect, and from that time on throughout the trip hewas almost doglike in his devotion.
A few days more and the ship reached Hawaii, that far-flung outpost ofUncle Sam's dominions, which breaks the long ocean journey between Americaand Japan.
The hearts of the tourists leaped as the ship drew near the harbor andthey caught sight of the Stars and Stripes, floating proudly in thebreeze.
"I never knew how I loved that flag before," cried Mabelenthusiastically.
"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 hasnever been pulled down."
As the ship drew near the shore the beauty of the island paradise broughtexclamations of delight from the passengers who thronged the steamer'srails.
The harbor was a scene of busy life and animation. The instant the shipdropped anchor she was surrounded by native boats, paddled by Hawaiianyoungsters, who indulged in exhibitions of diving and swimming that were arevelation of skill.
"They've got it all over the fishes when it comes to swimming," remarkedJim with a grin. "Cough up all your spare coin, Joe, and see these littlebeggars dive for it."
They tossed coin after coin into the transparent waters and swiftly aseach piece sank, the young swimmer was swifter. Every one was caughtbefore it reached bottom, and came up clutched in some dusky hand orshining 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 coppedthat twenty thousand."
"How do they ever do it?" marveled Clara.
"In the blood I suppose," replied Joe. "Their folks throw them into thewater 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 ashudder, as she thought of the recent incident in which that hideous brutehad figured.
"Sharks are easy meat for them," replied Jim. "You ought to pity thesharks instead of wasting it on these fellows. Give them a knife, and theshark hasn't a Chinaman's chance."
"Not even a knife," chimed in Joe. "A stick sharpened at both ends isenough."
"A stick?" exclaimed Mabel, wonderingly.
"Sure thing," replied Joe. "They simply wait until the shark turns over tograb them and then thrust it right into the open jaws. You've no idea howeffective that can be."
"It's a case of misplaced confidence," laughed Jim. "The poor trustfulshark lets his jaws come together with a snap, or rather he thinks hedoes, and instead of a nice juicy human, those guileless jaws of his closeon the two ends of the pointed stick and stay there. He can't close hismouth 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 theunderdog----"
"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 withlaughing, interrupted him:
"But suppose the stick should break," she said.
"Then there would be just one less native," answered Jim, solemnly. "Bythe way, Joe," he added, "speaking of sharks--what's the differencebetween a dog and a shark?"
"Give it up," replied Joe promptly.
"Because," chuckled Jim, "a dog's bark is worse than his bite, but ashark'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 thelighter on which the passengers were to be carried to the shore.
They were to spend two days in Hawaii while the steamer discharged itscargo, but they would have gladly made it two weeks or two months.
Only one game was played, and that was between the Giant and theAll-American teams. There was no native talent which was quite strongenough to stand a chance against the seasoned veterans, although Hawaiiboasts of many ball teams.
There was a big crowd present, made up chiefly of government officials andrepresentatives of foreign commercial houses from all over the world whohad 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 ofwinning.
But this was enough for these high-strung athletes, to whom the cry "playball" was like a bugle call. The fight was close from start to finish, andresulted 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 youfellows before we get to the end of the trip will be a crime."
The time that still remained before the steamer resumed its journey wasone of unalloyed delight. The scenery was wonderful and the weathersuperb.
Jim and Joe hired a touring car and with Joe at the wheel--it isunnecessary to state who sat beside him--they visited all the mostpicturesque and romantic spots in that glorious bit of Nature'shandiwork.
"Do you remember our last ride in an automobile, Mabel?" asked Joe with asmile, as she snuggled into the seat beside him.
"Indeed I do," replied Mabel. "It was the day that horrid Fleming carriedme off and you chased us."
"I caught you all right, anyway," Joe replied.
"Yes," said Mabel saucily. "Only to spend all your spare moments afterwardin regretting it."
Joe's reproachful denial both in words and looks was eloquent.
They visited the famous volcano with its crater Kilaeua, and watched inawe and wonder the great sea of flame that surged hideously and writhedlike a chain of fiery serpents.
They saw the famous battlefield where Kamehameha, "the Napoleon of thePacific," had won the great victory that made him undisputed ruler of theisland. They saw the steep precipice where the three thousand Aohu,fighting to the last gasp, had made their final stand, and had at lastbeen driven over the cliff to the death awaiting them below.
It was with a feeling of genu
ine regret that they finally bade farewell tothe enchanting island and again took ship to pursue their journey.
A large number of new passengers had come on board at Honolulu, and amongthem was a man who soon attached himself to the baseball party. He wastall and distinguished in appearance, smooth and plausible in hisconversation, and seemed to be thoroughly versed in the great nationalgame.
His ingratiating manners soon made him a favorite with the women of theparty also, and he spared no pains to deepen this impression.
Reggie liked him immensely, largely, no doubt, owing to the hints thatBraxton, which was the stranger's name, had dropped of having aristocraticconnections. He had traveled widely, and the names of distinguishedpersonages 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 bepretty well up in baseball dope, and that in itself I suppose ought to bea recommendation, to a ball player especially, but somehow or other, hedoesn't hit me very hard."
"I think he's very handsome," remarked Mabel, with a mischievous glance atJoe, and that young man's instinctive dislike of the newcomer becameimmediately more pronounced.
"He seems very friendly and pleasant," put in Clara. "Why don't you likehim, Joe?"
"How can I tell?" replied her brother. "I simply know I don't."