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.” 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 when 157 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 158 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.” 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 steamer 161 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 162 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.” 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.”