CHAPTER VI
CIRCLING THE GLOBE
When the party reached the Matson home, motherly Mrs. Matson took Mabelinto her arms as she had long since taken her into her heart. Then Claratook her up to her room to refresh herself after the journey, while Jimand Joe took care of Reggie and his belongings.
"Oh, I'm so glad that you've got here at last!" exclaimed Clara, as sheplaced an affectionate hand on Mabel's shoulder.
"And you may be sure that I'm glad that I am here," was the happyresponse. "I declare, this place almost feels like home to me."
"Well, you know, we want it to feel like home to you, Mabel," answeredJoe's sister, and looked so knowingly at the visitor that Mabel suddenlybegan to blush.
In the meantime, Joe had taken Reggie to the room which the young man wasto occupy during his stay. Joe carried both of the bags, which wererather heavy, for the fashionable young man was in the habit of taking agood 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 haveabout three hundred and fifteen new neckties in there."
"Bah Jove, that's a good joke, Joe, don't you know!" drawled Reggie. "Butyou're wrong, my boy; I haven't more than ten neckties with me on thistrip."
"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," returnedthe fashionable young man quickly. "I've got a beautiful lavender one thatought to just suit you. And then there is a fancy striped one, red andgreen and gold, which is the most stunning thing, don't you know, you eversaw. I purchased it at a fashionable shop on Fifth Avenue the last time Iwas in New York. If you wore that tie, Joe, you would certainly make ahit."
"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 tothink of it, I got several new ties myself last Christmas and on mybirthday. I think they'll see me through very nicely. But I'm much obligedjust 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 finefellow, Joe; and I often wonder how it was I quarreled with you the firsttime we met."
"We'll forget about that," answered Joe shortly.
Naturally the men returned to the living room first, and while they werewaiting impatiently for the girls to rejoin them, Joe caught sight of aletter resting against the clock on the mantelpiece.
He took it up and saw that it was addressed to himself, and that it borethe postmark of New York. He recognized the handwriting at once.
"It's from McRae," he said. "The second message I've received from the oldboy to-day, counting the telegram this morning. Excuse me, fellows, whileI 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'sgot it all settled at last. When we said good-bye to him in New York itwas all up in the air. But trust Mac to hustle--he's got enough promisesto make up the two teams and now he's calling on us, Jim, to keep our wordand go with the party. We're all to meet in Chicago for the start on thenineteenth of the month."
"Gee!" exclaimed Jim. "That doesn't give us very much time. Let's see," ashe snatched up a newspaper and scanned the top line. "To-day's thesixteenth. We'll have to get a wiggle on."
"Bah Jove," lisped Reggie. "It's bally short notice, don't you know? Howlong will you fellows be gone?"
"Just about six months," said Joe, his face lengthening as he reflected onwhat 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 thegirls 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 aletter from McRae in which he tells me that he's completed allarrangements for a baseball tour around the world. You know, Mabel, that Ispoke to you about it just before we left New York. But it was only avague idea then and something of the kind is talked about at the end ofevery baseball season. Usually though, it only ends in talk, and the teamsmake a barnstorming trip to San Francisco or to Cuba. But this time itseems to have gone through all right. And now Mac is calling upon Jim andme to go along."
"My word!" broke in Reggie, "anyone would think it was a bally funeral tohear you talk and see your face. I should think you'd be no-end pleased tohave 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 ofthose young ladies was so obtuse as not to know what the young men werethinking.
"When do you have to go?" asked Clara, soberly.
"We have to be in Chicago by the nineteenth," answered Joe, "and we'llhave to leave here the day before. To-day's the sixteenth and you can seefor yourself how much time that gives us to stay in Riverside."
"No rest for the wicked," said Reggie, jocularly. "'Pon honor, you boyshave 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 comingseparation, but Joe was surprised and the least bit hurt to see howlightly Mabel seemed to regard it.
"It's too bad, of course," she said, cheerfully, "but we'll have to makethe best of these two days at least. It's a pity, though, that it wasn'tNovember 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 gamesbetween here and the Coast, and we've got to take advantage of what goodweather there is left. If we can only get to the Rockies before it's toocold to play, we'll be all right, because in California they're able toplay all the year round."
"My word!" exclaimed Reggie, "I don't see why they don't cut out theexhibition games altogether. I should think this country had had baseballenough for one season."
"Not when the Giants and an All-American team are the players," repliedJoe. "The people will come out in crowds--they'll fairly beg us to taketheir money."
"And it will be worth taking," chimed in Jim. "Do you know how much moneythe teams took in before they reached the coast on their last World'sTrip? Ninety-seven thousand dollars. Count them, ladies andgentlemen--ninety-seven thousand dollars in good American dollars!" headded 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 atrip of that kind can be carried on. The teams travel in first-classstyle, 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, tocover expenses. Then the money we've taken in from the exhibition gameswill 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. "Thatwill give them three pitchers, two catchers, an extra infielder andoutfielder, beside the other members of the team. That ought to be enoughto allow for sickness or accident."
"How much do you fellows expect to get out of it for yourselves?" askedReggie.
"That's just a matter of guess work," Joe replied. "I understand that whatis left after all expenses are paid will be divided equally among theplayers. On the last World's Trip I think it amounted to about a thousanddollars apiece. But then again, it may not be a thousand cents. All wereally know is that we'll have a chance to see the world in first-classstyle without its actually costing us a dollar."
"Oh, you lucky men!" said Clara, with a sigh. "You can go trotting allover the world, while we poor girls have to stay at home and look for anoccasional letter f
rom your highnesses--that is, if you deign to write tous 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 underthe American flag. We'll see Old Glory again, too, when we strike thePhilippines. But that will come a little later. After we leave Hawaii, wewon't see dry land again until we get to Japan."
"I fancy we'll get some good games there, too," broke in Jim. "Thoselittle Japs have gone in for the game with a vengeance. Do you rememberthe time when their Waseda and Keio University teams came over to thiscountry? They gave our Princeton and Yale fellows all they could do tobeat them."
"Yes," said Joe, "they're nifty players when it comes to fielding andthey're fleet as jack rabbits on the bases--but they're a little light atthe bat. When it comes to playing before their home crowds they'll be apretty stiff proposition."
"Do you take in China at all?" asked Reggie.
"We'll probably stop at Shanghai and Hongkong," replied Joe. "I don'timagine the Chinks can scrape up any kind of a baseball team, but thereare big foreign colonies at both of those places and they'll turn out inforce to see players from the States. Then after touching at Manila, we'llgo to Australia, taking in all the big towns like Sydney, Melbourne andAdelaide. While of course the Australians are crazy about cricket, likeall Englishmen, they're keen for every kind of athletic sport, and we'resure of big crowds there. After that we sail for Ceylon and from there toEgypt."
"I'd like to see Egypt better than any other place," broke in Clara. "I'vealways been crazy to go there."
"It's full of curiosities," remarked Jim. "There's the Sphinx, forinstance--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. ThoseEgyptian sphinxes--those that haven't a ram's or a hawk's head--have aman's, not a woman's, head."
"That's why they've been able to keep still so long, then!" exclaimedJim.
"You mean thing!" cried Mabel.
"Don't lay that up against me," he begged, penitently, "and I'll send youback 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 oneof the pyramids."
"That's the last we'll see of Africa," went on Joe. "After that, we setsail for Italy and land at Naples. Then we work our way up through Rome,Florence, Milan, Monte Carlo, Marseilles, Paris and London. We'll stayabout 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 scopefor endless surmise and speculation that they were surprised at the flightof time when Mrs. Matson smilingly summoned them to supper.
Of course, Joe sat beside Mabel and Jim beside Clara. If, in the course ofthe evening meal, Joe's hand and Mabel's met beneath the table, it waspurely by accident. Jim, on his side would cheerfully have risked such anaccident, but had no such luck.
Joe was happy, supremely happy in the presence by his side of the dearestgirl in all the world. Yet there was a queer little ache at his heartbecause of the apparent indifference with which Mabel had viewed theircoming separation.
"You haven't said once," he said to her in a low tone, with a touch oftender reproach, "that you were sorry I was going."
"Why should I," answered Mabel, demurely, "since I am going with you?"