horite, a
senobite, an archimandrite----"

"Goodness, I thought you were bad," laughed Clara. "But now I know you're
worse."

"Keep it up, old man, as long as the 'ites' hold out," said Joe. "I guess
there are plenty more in the dictionary. But honest, girls, Jim hasn't
looked twice at any girl since he came away from Riverside."

"I've looked more than twice at one girl since yesterday," Jim was
beginning, but Clara, flushing rosily, thought it was high time to change
the subject.

The next day, with all the party safely on board, the ship weighed anchor,
threaded its way through the crowded commerce of the bay and then,
dropping its tug, turned its prow definitely toward the east and breasted
the billows of the Pacific.

"The last we'll see of Old Glory for many months," remarked Joe, as,
standing at the rail, they watched the Stars and Stripes floating out from
the flag-pole on the top of the government station.

"Not so long as that," corrected Jim. "We will still be on the soil of
God's country when we reach Hawaii seven days from now."

The first two days of the voyage passed delightfully. The girls proved
good sailors, and had the laugh on many of the so-called stronger sex,
who were conspicuous by their absence from the table during that period.

On the afternoon of the third day out, Joe and Mabel were pacing the deck
with Jim and Clara at a discreet distance behind them. It was astonishing
how willing each pair was not to intrude upon the other.

Suddenly there was a tumult of excited exclamations near the stern of the
vessel, and then above it rose a shout that is never heard at sea without
a chill of terror.

"Man overboard!"

CHAPTER XVIII

ONE STRIKE AND OUT

The two young baseball players and the girls joined the throng that was
racing toward the stern.

A number of people were pointing wildly over the port side at a small
object some distance behind the ship.

They followed the pointing fingers and saw the head of a man who was
swimming desperately toward the receding ship.

The steamer, which had been taking advantage of the favorable weather and
had been ploughing ahead under full steam, found it hard to stop, although
orders had been given at once to shut off steam.

It was maddening to the onlookers to see the distance increase between the
giant ship and that bobbing, lonely speck far out in the waste of waters.

With all the celerity possible the great steamer swung ro