e? He has to do that on a
caught fly ball, hasn't he?"

The umpire looked fairly stumped. Here was something on which the rules
were explicit. It was certain that Curry should have returned to the base
and it was equally certain that he hadn't. Mackay had caught him half-way
between third and home.

But McRae was equal to the occasion.

"Suppose he did have to," he cried. "You said that Mackay hadn't touched
him and he's free to go back yet."

"And I'm free to touch him with the ball," Mackay came back at him.

"But the ball isn't in play," put in Robbie, adding his mite to the
general confusion. "You called time when you came in to settle this."

"Who wouldn't be an umpire?" laughed Jim to Joe, as he saw the look of
despair on that worried individual's face.

"The most glorious mixup I ever saw on the ball field," answered Joe.

"'How happy he could be with either were 'tother dear charmer away,'"
chuckled Jim, pointing to the two pugnacious disputants on either side of
the umpire.

"Curry's out--Curry isn't out. Love me--love me not," responded Joe.

By this time the crowd had got over their laugh and impatiently demanded
action. The umpire cut the Gordian knot by sending Curry back to third,
where he and Mackay chaffed each other and the game went on.

It was not much of a game after that, however, as the laughable incident
had put all the players in a more or less frivolous mood. It finally ended
in a score of six to three in favor of the All-Americans, and the teams
made a break for the showers.

"The last game we play on American soil for many moons," remarked Joe, as,
having bathed and dressed, the two young athletes strolled toward their
hotel.

"And every one of them a victory," observed Jim. "Not a single mark on
the wrong side of the ledger!"

"That game at Denver was the closest call we had," said Joe. "The trip so
far has been a big money-maker, too. McRae was telling me yesterday that
we'd already topped ninety-five thousand, and there was ten thousand in
that crowd to-day if there was a penny."

"I guess Mac won't have any trouble in buying steamship tickets," laughed
Jim. "By the way, we haven't had a look at the old boat yet. Let's go down
to-morrow and inspect her."

"Why not make it the day after to-morrow?" suggested Joe. "The girls will
be here by that time and we'll take them with us."

"That will suit me, Joe."

"I've been thinking of something, Jim," went on the crack pitche