said Mabel.

"It certainly was, 'pon honor," chimed in Reggie.

"Would it be indiscreet to ask the amount?" said Braxton.

"I don't think there's any bally secret 'bout it," complied Reggie. "They
offered him twenty thousand dollars to sign a contract and fifteen
thousand dollars a year for a three years' term. Many a bank or railroad
president doesn't get that much, don't you know."

"And Matson refused it?" asked Braxton, incredulously.

"How could he help it?" replied Mabel. "His contract with the Giants has
two years yet to run."

"My dear young lady," said Braxton, "don't you know that a baseball
contract isn't as binding as the ordinary kind? In the first place, it's
one-sided, and that itself makes it worthless."

"In what way is it so one-sided?" asked Mabel.

"Well, just to take one instance," replied Braxton. "A baseball club may
engage a man for a year and yet if it gets tired of its bargain, it can
let him go on ten days' notice. That doesn't seem fair, does it?"

"No-o, it doesn't," admitted Mabel slowly.

"It would be all right," continued Braxton, "if the player also could
leave his club by giving ten days' notice. But he can't. That's what makes
it unfair. The club can do to the player what the player can't do to the
club. So the supposed contract is only a bit of paper. It's no contract at
all."

"Not in the legal sense, perhaps," said Reggie, dubiously.

"Well, if not in the legal sense, then in no sense at all," persisted
Braxton. "The law is supposed to be based on justice, isn't it, and to do
what is right?

"Of course," he went on, "it's none of my business; but if I were in Mr.
Matson's place, I shouldn't hesitate a moment in going where my services
were in the most demand."

Mabel felt there was sophistry somewhere in the argument, but could hardly
point out where it was.

"I wouldn't like to be quoted in this matter, of course," said Braxton,
suavely. "And it might be just as well not to mention to Mr. Matson that I
have spoken about it. He might think I was trying to pry into his
affairs."

As Joe and Jim came up just then from the engine-room of the ship which
they had been inspecting, the subject, of course, was dropped, and after a
while Braxton strode away with a self-satisfied smile on his lips.

The travelers were now in the heart of the typhoon region but luckily for
them it was the winter season when such storms are least frequent and
although they met a half gale t