CIRCLING THE GLOBE
When the party reached the Matson home, motherly Mrs. Matson took Mabel
into her arms as she had long since taken her into her heart. Then Clara
took her up to her room to refresh herself after the journey, while Jim
and Joe took care of Reggie and his belongings.
"Oh, I'm so glad that you've got here at last!" exclaimed Clara, as she
placed an affectionate hand on Mabel's shoulder.
"And you may be sure that I'm glad that I am here," was the happy
response. "I declare, this place almost feels like home to me."
"Well, you know, we want it to feel like home to you, Mabel," answered
Joe's sister, and looked so knowingly at the visitor that Mabel suddenly
began to blush.
In the meantime, Joe had taken Reggie to the room which the young man was
to occupy during his stay. Joe carried both of the bags, which were
rather heavy, for the fashionable young man was in the habit of taking a
good 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 have
about three hundred and fifteen new neckties in there."
"Bah Jove, that's a good joke, Joe, don't you know!" drawled Reggie. "But
you're wrong, my boy; I haven't more than ten neckties with me on this
trip."
"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," returned
the fashionable young man quickly. "I've got a beautiful lavender one that
ought to just suit you. And then there is a fancy striped one, red and
green and gold, which is the most stunning thing, don't you know, you ever
saw. I purchased it at a fashionable shop on Fifth Avenue the last time I
was in New York. If you wore that tie, Joe, you would certainly make a
hit."
"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 to
think of it, I got several new ties myself last Christmas and on my
birthday. I think they'll see me through very nicely. But I'm much obliged
just 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 fine
fellow, Joe; and I often wonder how it was I quarreled with you the first
time we met."
"We'll forget about that," answered Joe shortly.
Naturally the men returned to the living room first, and while they were
waiting impatiently for the girls to rejoin them, Joe caught sight of a
letter resting against the clock on the mantelpiece.
He took it up and saw that it was addressed to himself, and that it bore
the postmark of New York. He recognized the handwriting at once.
"It's from McRae," he said. "The second message I've received from the old
boy to-day, counting the telegram this morning. Excuse me, fellows, while
I 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's
got it all settled at last. When we said good-bye to him in New York it
was all up in the air. But trust Mac to hustle--he's got enough promises
to make up the two teams and now he's calling on us, Jim, to keep our word
and go with the party. We're all to meet in Chicago for the start on the
nineteenth of the month."
"Gee!" exclaimed Jim. "That doesn't give us very much time. Let's see," as
he snatched up a newspaper and scanned the top line. "To-day's the
sixteenth. We'll have to get a wiggle on."
"Bah Jove," lisped Reggie. "It's bally short notice, don't you know? How
long will you fellows be gone?"
"Just about six months," said Joe, his face lengthening as he reflected on
what 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 the
girls 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 a
letter from McRae in which he tells me that he's completed all
arrangements for a baseball tour around the world. You know, Mabel, that I
spoke to you about it just before we left New York. But it was only a
vague idea then and something of the kind is talked about at the end of
every baseball season. Usually though, it only ends in talk, and the teams
make a barnstorming trip to San Francisco or to Cuba. But this time it
seems to have gone through all right. And now Mac is calling upon Jim and
me to go along."
"My word!" broke in Reggie, "anyone would think it was a bally funeral to
hear you talk and see your face. I should think you'd be no-end pleased to
have 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 of
those young ladies was so obtuse as not to know what the young men were
thinking.
"When do you have to go?" asked Clara, soberly.
"We have to be in Chicago by the nineteenth," answered Joe, "and we'll
have to leave here the day before. To-day's the sixteenth and you can see
for yourself how much time that gives us to stay in Riverside."
"No rest for the wicked," said Reggie, jocularly. "'Pon honor, you boys
have 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 coming
separation, but Joe was surprised and the least bit hurt to see how
lightly Mabel seemed to regard it.
"It's too bad, of course," she said, cheerfully, "but we'll have to make
the best of these two days at least. It's a pity, though, that it wasn't
November 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 games
between here and the Coast, and we've got to take advantage of what good
weather there is left. If we can only get to the Rockies before it's too
cold to play, we'll be all right, because in California they're able to
play all the year round."
"My word!" exclaimed Reggie, "I don't see why they don't cut out the
exhibition games altogether. I should think this country had had baseball
enough for one season."
"Not when the Giants and an All-American team are the players," replied
Joe. "The people will come out in crowds--they'll fairly beg us to take
their money."
"And it will be worth taking," chimed in Jim. "Do you know how much money
the teams took in before they reached the coast on their last World's
Trip? Ninety-seven thousand dollars. Count them, ladies and
gentlemen--ninety-seven thousand dollars in good American dollars!" he
added 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 a
trip of that kind can be carried on. The teams travel in first-class
style, 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, to
cover expenses. Then the money we've taken in from the exhibition games
will 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. "That
will give them three pitchers, two catchers, an extra infielder and
outfielder, beside the other members of the team. That ought to be enough
to allow for sickness or accident."
"How much do you fellows expect to get out of it for yourselves?" asked
Reggie.
"That's just a matter of guess work," Joe replied. "I understand that what
is left after all expenses are paid will be divided equally among the
players. On the last World's Trip I think it amounted to about a thousand
dollars apiece. But then again, it may not be a thousand cents. All we
really know is that we'll have a chance to see the world in first-class
style without its actually costing us a dollar."
"Oh, you lucky men!" said Clara, with a sigh. "You can go trotting all
over the world, while we poor girls have to stay at home and look for an
occasional letter from your highnesses--that is, if you deign to write to
us 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 under
the American flag. We'll see Old Glory again, too, when we strike the
Philippines. But that will come a little later. After we leave Hawaii, we
won't see dry land again until we get to Japan."
"I fancy we'll get some good games there, too," broke in Jim. "Those
little Japs have gone in for the game with a vengeance. Do you remember
the time when their Waseda and Keio University teams came over to this
country? They gave our Princeton and Yale fellows all they could do to
beat them."
"Yes," said Joe, "they're nifty players when it comes to fielding and
they're fleet as jack rabbits on the bases--but they're a little light at
the bat. When it comes to playing before their home crowds they'll be a
pretty stiff proposition."
"Do you take in China at all?" asked Reggie.
"We'll probably stop at Shanghai and Hongkong," replied Joe. "I don't
imagine the Chinks can scrape up any kind of a baseball team, but there
are big foreign colonies at both of those places and they'll turn out in
force to see players from the States. Then after touching at Manila, we'll
go to Australia, taking in all the big towns like Sydney, Melbourne and
Adelaide. While of course the Australians are crazy about cricket, like
all Englishmen, they're keen for every kind of athletic sport, and we're
sure of big crowds there. After that we sail for Ceylon and from there to
Egypt."
"I'd like to see Egypt better than any other place," broke in Clara. "I've
always been crazy to go there."
"It's full of curiosities," remarked Jim. "There's the Sphinx, for
instance--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. Those
Egyptian sphinxes--those that haven't a ram's or a hawk's head--have a
man's, not a woman's, head."
"That's why they've been able to keep still so long, then!" exclaimed
Jim.
"You mean thing!" cried Mabel.
"Don't lay that up against me," he begged, penitently, "and I'll send you
back 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 one
of the pyramids."
"That's the last we'll see of Africa," went on Joe. "After that, we set
sail for Italy and land at Naples. Then we work our way up through Rome,
Florence, Milan, Monte Carlo, Marseilles, Paris and London. We'll stay
about 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 scope
for endless surmise and speculation that they were surprised at the flight
of time when Mrs. Matson smilingly summoned them to supper.
Of course, Joe sat beside Mabel and Jim beside Clara. If, in the course of
the evening meal, Joe's hand and Mabel's met beneath the table, it was
purely by accident. Jim, on his side would cheerfully have risked such an
accident, but had no such luck.
Joe was happy, supremely happy in the presence by his side of the dearest
girl in all the world. Yet there was a queer little ache at his heart
because of the apparent indifference with which Mabel had viewed their
coming separation.
"You haven't said once," he said to her in a low tone, with a touch of
tender reproach, "that you were sorry I was going."
"Why should I," answered Mabel, demurely, "since I am going with you?"