THE SOUTHERN TRIP.
"Congratulations to our noble little pitcher," cried the Codfish. "I
see you are drafted for honors on the Southern trip."
It was mid-March and the baseball work in the cage was over. The
'Varsity nine had been at work on the open field for nearly a week,
and Frank Armstrong as well as Jimmy Turner were members of the
squad. Frank had shown possibilities as a pitcher, while Turner
was considered a substitute catcher in second or third place. The
occasion for Gleason's congratulations was the announcement in the
_News_ that not only Turner but Armstrong as well was among those
selected to make the trip always taken to the South by the 'Varsity
nine for practice at the time of the Easter vacation.
Frank Quinton, a new graduate coach, who had taken charge of the
baseball situation, had been attracted by Armstrong's earnestness
and his peculiar ability to put the ball over the plate, and had
undertaken with some success to teach him the art of curving the ball
and at the same time retaining his control. Under the new coach's
guidance the pitcher had done particularly well, and it was no
surprise to anyone that he was included among the twenty players who
were slated to make the trip. His chief competitors were Gilbert, a
Junior, and Martin, a Senior, both more experienced in the box, but
neither of first class quality. Appleton, the pitcher of the 'Varsity
the year before, had graduated, and on these three named the hopes of
the Yale team centered.
"And is our old friend, the trouble maker, coming along with us?"
inquired Turner.
"Bettcher life," returned the Codfish. "Things might run too smoothly
if I stayed at home."
"You certainly can be depended upon to add a little dash of pepper
wherever you are," said Frank laughing.
"You have no cause to complain, old fel," retorted Gleason. "If I
hadn't got you two thousand feet in the air last summer you could
never have won your broad-jump, nor have had the chance to have your
picture printed in the papers with the story of your sweet young
life."
"Perhaps all that excitement did help," said Frank, "but in the
future we will take no more chances in an airship."
"I'll promise you that much anyway," returned the Codfish, "but just
the same I think a good deal of credit is due to your humble servant
for that victory last July. Of course, I don't expect any credit for
it from the unthinking public or my selfish roommates, but I have my
own congratulations anyway."
"And that's a lot," laughed Frank. "Do you go down with the team?"
"Yes, all arranged, tickets, Pullman, boat, everything. I'm one of
that noble band of 'heelers' who brave everything to be a supporter
and lend a yell in the hostile country when most needed."
"Bully for you, Codfish," cried Turner. "We may need you, but leave
your automobile at home."
The itinerary of the southern trip included Washington, where the
tour opened with a game with Georgetown; Charlottesville, Va.;
Richmond and Norfolk. At the latter place three games were to be
played, then was to follow a boat trip up the Chesapeake Bay to
Washington, where a second game was to be played with Georgetown.
Everyone was looking forward to the delights of warm sun and spring
breezes in the land of flowers, for the March winds on Yale field
had been anything but conducive to good ball playing. But spring was
reluctant even in the south, and warm days were few and far between.
Yale lost the first game with Georgetown with Martin in the box, and
fared no better with the University of Virginia nine when Gilbert,
who was supposed to be the most effective of the Yale staff of
pitchers, went down before the fusillade of hits.
"You will start the game with the Norfolk League team to-morrow,"
said Coach Quinton to Armstrong as the players were leaving the
dinner table at the hotel in Norfolk. "This will be one of the best
games of the trip and I want to win it."
"All right, sir," returned Frank. "I'll do my best."
Frank won his game, but at heavy expense. For five innings he pitched
great ball and kept the league hitters to two runs, while the Yale
team, finding themselves, batted out seven runs by clean hitting and
fast base-running. Then in the sixth Frank began to slow up and the
Norfolk batters reached his delivery frequently, but runs were cut
off by superb playing of the Yale infield. Every ball he pitched sent
a sting through his muscles with a pain almost unbearable, but he
kept on to the end of the inning.
"What's the matter with you?" inquired the coach as he came to the
bench. "Is your arm bothering you?"
"Yes, something seems to be wrong with it. Hurts like thunder."
Quinton knew only too well the symptoms. Armstrong had "thrown his
arm out," a not uncommon thing in early spring baseball. His muscles,
not sufficiently worked out, had been injured in the delivery of the
speed ball he had been pitching.
Martin finished the game and held it safely, but Frank pitched no
more that trip nor during the season for the 'Varsity. For a time
after returning to New Haven he was worked in the outfield, but even
there was at a disadvantage because he could not shoot the ball on a
long throw from the outfield. So he was displaced by a weaker hitter,
and shortly after went over to the track squad where he was received
with open arms by the trainer, who foresaw a certainty of added
points in the coming track meets.
And he was not disappointed, for Frank, now out of baseball because
of his accident, gave his entire time to the perfection of the broad
jump, and won first place at the Harvard and Princeton dual meets.
He took second place to the great Moffatt who made the trip across
the continent from the University of California, and set a mark at
twenty-three feet nine inches, which even Frank's unusual skill
failed to equal, although on three different trials he had improved
on his jump at the Queen's Club in London. Armstrong was now rated
as one of the best jumpers in any of the colleges. But his ambitions
in the direction of baseball and football had failed to materialize
through accidents of one sort or another. He was the kind of a boy,
however, who was willing to do as well as it was possible the thing
that was available without repining about the things impossible.
During the stay at Norfolk the Codfish sustained his reputation
as a friend of trouble. On the way down from Washington he had
scraped acquaintance with a classmate named Chalmers, who had some
acquaintances in Norfolk. The party was hardly established at the
hotel when Gleason hunted up his friend Chalmers and suggested that
they take a ride in one of the snappy looking motor cars that stood
in front of the hotel for hire. Chalmers pleaded poverty.
"Only four dollars an hour," said Gleason, "and we can look all over
the town. Bully old place, all wistaria and pretty girls and happy
darkies. Come on, don't be a tight wad!"
"Four dollars an hour would break me. At that price I could ride
about ten minutes. Let's walk," suggested Chalmers.
"Oh, come on, let's show these southerners some speed. I have fifteen
dollars in my inside pocket. There's a perfectly ripping blue car out
front with a darky all fussed up to beat the band. It looks like a
private rig and all that. One hour will do the trick, and I'll foot
the bill."
That argument moved Chalmers, whose finances were low. Together the
boys located the blue motor car with its snappy driver, immediately
after lunch, and tumbled into the tonneau.
"Where do you-all want to go?" inquired the driver.
"Oh, just show us around," said the Codfish, with a wave of the
hand. "Show us all the flossy streets and the monuments, but I warn
you now I don't climb any of them. Fire away."
Thus admonished, the driver headed his machine in the direction of
Ghent, threading the streets of the quaint old town while the boys
lay back luxuriously on the cushions of the tonneau.
"Gee whiz," said Chalmers, as the blue car rolled down Boissevain
avenue, "there's Miss Smith or I'm an Injun."
"Where, who and what?" inquired the Codfish, immediately alert.
"Just coming down the steps of that white house over there."
"Know her?"
"Sure. Kid sister's roommate at school or something like that. Been
at our house once. Promised Sis I'd look her up, but didn't expect to
have time."
"Gee, but she's a pippin," said the Codfish, enthusiastically. "Let's
ask her to take a ride in our pretty blue car!"
"And thereby kill two birds with one stone."
"Which two?"
"Keep my promise to Sis and do a humane act. She lives miles from
here I know. Probably been calling."
"Poor thing, we ought out of common courtesy ask her to ride home. I
hate to see so pretty a girl walking with nothing better than a dog
for company. Go ahead, be a gent; have a heart!"
By this time the car had traveled a block or so beyond where they had
passed Miss Smith, whose steps were bent in the opposite direction to
that in which the boys were headed. Chalmers was finally convinced by
the persuasive Codfish that the automobile should be offered to the
young lady, and the driver was ordered to turn around. The pedestrian
was soon overtaken, and, hat in hand, Chalmers sprang from the car
and intercepted the young lady.
"Miss Smith, I believe?" he said, advancing with a grin.
"Oh, Mr. Chalmers, I'm so glad to see you. Your sister wrote me you
were coming down, but I never thought you would remember me."
"How could I ever forget?" said Chalmers, making his most elaborate,
and what he considered fetching, bow. "This is my friend Mr. Gleason
of Yale."
"So glad to meet Mr. Gleason," chirped the young lady. "And you-all
are down with the Yale team? Isn't that too lovely?"
Neither of the boys could see just how it was "too lovely," but they
took it for what it was worth.
"Will you permit us to drive you home?" said the Codfish, waving his
hand magnificently toward the blue motor car. "Chalmers says you live
miles from here."
"Oh, that would be too lovely," gurgled Miss Smith. "I just adore
motoring, and it is such a nice day, too. I live only a mile from
here, but it would be sweet to ride that far in your car."
Miss Smith was escorted to the blue motor, and established in the
middle of the rear seat while Chalmers and Gleason took seats on
either side of her. The bull terrier, not nearly so much pleased
with motoring as his mistress, spread himself over the floor and
occasionally made frolicsome dashes at Gleason's Yale blue silk
socks, a large expanse of which was showing.
"Get out, you little beast," cried Gleason, alarmed for the welfare
of his beautiful socks. "Chew Chalmers over there, he's much better
chewing than I am."
"O, don't mind him, Mr. Gleason, he just adores blue. I simply can't
keep anything blue around the house. Always eats it up."
"Well, he can't eat any of my blue stuff. He must be a Harvard dog;
quit it, Fido," as the dog made another dash.
A few minutes' drive brought them to Miss Smith's house. "O, I simply
don't want to get out," she said.
"Then why do you?" queried the Codfish. "It pains us to have you
leave. We were just looking around, you know, and would like to have
someone point out the sights of your gay and festive city."
"That would be too lovely, and I'll be so glad if you'll take Cousin
Mary."
"Cousin Mary is on," said the Codfish. "Where does she live?"
"O, just around the corner. She loves motoring, too, and we poor
people down here can't have automobiles of our own."
It was but a minute's trip to Cousin Mary's, and matters were
facilitated by discovering the young lady in question standing in
her doorway, hatted and gloved, with a camera in her hand. She was
more than plump, she was decidedly fat and had red hair. The Codfish
decided he wasn't for Cousin Mary. Introductions were quickly made
and the call explained. Cousin Mary was willing to ride anywhere so
long as it was in a motor.
"Now where shall we go?" inquired the Codfish. "You tell us. This
will be a personally conducted tour, you know."
"O, it would be just too lovely to drive to Virginia Beach," gushed
Miss Smith.
Chalmers, who knew something of the geography of the territory,
winced and tried to catch his companion's eye, but that individual
failed to see the warning glance, and ordered--"Drive to Virginia
Beach, James."
"All right, sah," and the machine shot off for the Beach. Chalmers
very generously took the seat alongside the driver, leaving the
Codfish with the girls in the tonneau, which was a disposition highly
satisfactory to the latter. But he took care to put Cousin Mary on
the far side of the seat.
As mile after mile was spun off, and still the destination was not
reached, the Codfish began to wonder what the length of the drive
might be, but his pride forbade him to ask. On and on went the car
at an easy pace. They had been out nearly two hours from the hotel,
and the Codfish began to make mental calculations. "Two hours, that
makes eight dollars," he calculated, "another hour and a half back,
that makes fourteen. That makes some little bill. I can readily see
I'm busted already!" His conversation began to halt, but the lovely
Miss Smith was concerned only in the beauties of the landscape which
she pointed out to her companion on the seat, who was not so deeply
interested as he might have been had things been different.
At last the car drew up at the Beach. "How far do you call it down
here, James?" inquired the Codfish, nonchalantly. He was still
calculating.
"I reckon about twenty-five miles," said the driver. "Kaint make much
time on these here roads."
"Yes, I noticed that," returned the Codfish dryly.
The young ladies were overjoyed to be at the Beach. They walked on
the sands and took photographs.
"Cousin Mary just loves to take photographs," Miss Smith explained.
Then the girls discovered they had a call to make--would Mr.
Chalmers and Mr. Gleason mind? A very dear girl friend whom they
hadn't seen for a whole month was at the Beach. Would they come? No,
then they would only be gone a few minutes. It was "too lovely" to
have such a chance to call.
So the boys were left behind to wait impatiently. The minutes passed
and then more minutes.
"And there's that blooming motor sitting there at four dollars an
hour," growled the Codfish. "Three hours and fifteen minutes gone
already. I'm bankrupt now and twenty-five miles to go back. I'll be
entirely insolvent by the time we turn up in Norfolk."
Fifty minutes more passed and Miss Smith and Cousin Mary reappeared
on the scene only to exhaust another reel of films photographing the
car, the pavilion, a decrepit boat drawn up on the sands, and several
sea views. "Cousin Mary is so artistic," explained Miss Smith. "You
ought to see some of her sea views, they are just too sweet."
"I've enough sea views to last me the rest of my natural life,"
muttered the Codfish under his breath. "I'm not much for sea views
at four dollars an hour."
When everything necessary and unnecessary that the girls could think
of had been done, the motor was turned in the direction of Norfolk,
and set off at, a leisurely pace much to the disgust of the Codfish.
The longer the driver took to cover the distance, the more money he
made. Time was money to him with a vengeance.
On the outskirts of Norfolk, and just as dusk was beginning to
settle, the rear shoe gave way with a loud explosion.
"How long?" inquired the Codfish, laconically.
"I reckon 'bout twenty minutes," replied the driver, at which Miss
Smith set up a remonstrance. "We must be home. Mother will think
something dreadful has happened. The trolley is only a few blocks
from here. We can't wait that long for him to fix the old tire."
"All right, then," said the Codfish. "We'll all go, and James, you
see us at the hotel after you get fixed up again." He was glad of
the opportunity to have the automobile white elephant off his hands,
and saw a chance of getting to the hotel and preserving his dignity
before the girls. He could get the money he needed as soon as he got
back. But his luck was against him in the shape of the darky driver
who was both obstinate and suspicious.
"Kaint do dat, sah," the driver protested, "last time I do dat, I
done get stung. We done been out five hours and a half, dat makes
twenty-two dollars, not countin' little something you gwine to give
James."
"O, Mr. Gleason," cried Miss Smith. "I thought it was your own car."
There was a note of reproach in her voice, and the speaker tossed her
head. A ride in a hired car didn't seem so luxurious as in a private
one.
A hasty conference between the two boys resulted in the pooling of
all their cash in hand, which amounted to just $16.25. This amount
the Codfish offered the driver, who refused it and loudly argued for
his rights before a gathering crowd. He would not let his passengers
out of his sight, so it was finally arranged that Chalmers should see
the young ladies home while he, the Codfish, held as a hostage, hung
around for another half hour while the shoe was replaced. He reached
the hotel late for dinner, where he borrowed sufficient money to pay
the driver.
Of course, the story got out, and the two participants never heard
the last of it. It was even resurrected in the class day histories at
the end of Senior year.