[CHAPTER XV]
TELLS HOW THEY MEET THE MANNIG BASEBALL CLUB AND HOW NELSON AND BOB GET ENGAGEMENTS
They made an early start the next morning. There was a delicious fresh breeze blowing from the bay, they were well rested, and life was well worth living. For an hour they walked briskly and put several miles of hard, smooth road behind them. Then the sun began to make itself felt, and their pace slackened. Whenever they caught a glimpse of Fire Island, Tom looked toward it longingly.
“I’m going over there some time and stay until there’s a storm and a wreck. Wouldn’t you love to see them rescue folks?”
Bob thought that maybe he would; at any rate, he was quite certain he would much rather look on than take part.
“I wouldn’t,” answered Tom promptly and with conviction. “I’d love to be a life saver! Maybe, when I get through college, I will be. Wouldn’t it be exciting, Bob?”
“Very,” was the unenthusiastic response. “Think of tumbling out of bed at three o’clock of a winter morning, with the thermometer doing stunts around zero, and taking a nice brisk row for a half a mile or so through waves as high as that house over there! Yes, indeed, Tommy, it would be simply sweet!”
Tommy’s further remarks on the subject were interrupted by sounds on the road behind them. They turned and moved aside in time to escape being run down by a coach drawn by two horses and filled with a merry crowd of men and boys, some in gray baseball uniforms and others in ordinary attire. As the coach swept past, the Four were treated to a cheer, a wonderful medley which sounded about as intelligible as a Choctaw war cry. Behind the first coach was a second similarly filled, and this one slowed down as it reached them.
“Want a ride?” sung out a fellow in baseball attire who occupied the seat with the driver. The Four looked at each other inquiringly.
“We might ride for a little ways,” suggested Tom sheepishly.
The fellow in front accepted their hesitation as assent.