THE NEWS CORNEY BROUGHT
The big roller-skating rink had been turned into a splendid gymnasium
for the boys and girls of Riverport school; for certain days were to be
set aside when the latter should have their turn at basketball and
kindred athletic exercises, calculated to make them healthier, and
better fitted for their studies.
The headmaster of the school, Professor Brierley, was very much
delighted with the way things had gone. He was an advocate of all
healthful sports, when not carried to excess. And this spirit which had
been awakened in Riverport, was bound, he believed, to make for the
betterment of the town in every way.
"Perhaps there'll be less work for Dr. Temple," he remarked, at a
meeting of the best citizens, when the gymnasium was handed over to the
school trustees; "because there'll be far less sickness among our young
people. Though possibly a few accidents, as the result of indiscretion
in exercising too violently, may make amends to our physicians."
Meanwhile the young athletes belonging to Riverport school had been as
busy as the proverbial bee. Saturdays were devoted to all sorts of work,
each class being represented by aspiring claimants for honors.
And when the really deserving ones had finally been selected to do their
best for the honor of the school, everyone watched their work with
pride, and the hope that they might make the highest pole vault, the
longest running jump, the quickest time in the hundred yards,
quarter-mile, half mile and five mile races known to amateur athletic
meets in that part of the country at least.
Merchants talked with their customers about the coming tournament; and
the mildest looking women, whom no one would suspect of knowing the
least thing about such affairs, surprised others with their store of
knowledge.
The bookstore in town where sporting goods were kept did a land-office
business during those days, and had to duplicate their orders to
wholesalers frequently.
Stout business men were buying exercisers to fasten to the bathroom
doors; or perhaps dumb-bells and Indian clubs, calculated to take off a
certain number of pounds of fat. Others boasted of how deftly they were
beginning to hit the punching bag; and how much enjoyment the exercise,
followed by a cold shower bath, gave them.
Representatives from Mechanicsburg, who wandered down to get a few
points that might be calculated to give their athletes renewed
confidence, took back tales of the spirit that had swept over the other
town on the Mohunk.
And they even said that Paulding was striving with might and main to get
in line with the other two places. Her boys expressed a hope that when
the favors were handed around, steady old Paulding might not be left
entirely out of the running. There were even broad hints that some
people were going to get the surprise of their lives when the great day
arrived. Paulding always had been a difficult crowd to beat, and would
never confess to defeat until the last word had been said.
It was the day just preceding that on which the athletic meet was slated
to be held. As before, luck seemed to dwell with Riverport, since the
drawing of lots decided that the tournament must be held on her grounds,
outside of town. And it seemed about right that this should be the case,
since Riverport lay between her two rivals on the Mohunk, one being
three, the other seven miles away.
Nothing else was talked of those days, after school, but the proposed
meet. On the field itself there gathered crowds of boys and girls who
hovered in groups while the various candidates went through their work;
and either praised, or criticised; for it is always easy to do the
latter.
So on this morning of the day preceding the great event, whenever boys
ran across each other on the street, it was always with questions
concerning the condition of those upon whom Riverport depended to win
the most points in the tournament. At no time in the past had the state
of health of these lads interested more than a very small portion of the
community. Now everybody heaved a sigh of satisfaction upon learning
that Colon was said to be in better trim than ever before in all his
life, or that Sid Wells, Fred Fenton and Bristles Carpenter were just
feeling "fine."
Whenever one of those who were expected to take part made his appearance
on the street he had a regular following, all hanging on every word he
spoke, "just as if he might be an oracle," as Bristles humorously
remarked.
"Wait till Sunday morning, and then see if some balloons haven't
busted," he went on to remark, as several fellows gathered around him
that bright autumn morning, when there had been a sharp tang of frost in
the air; "a lot of us will fail to score a beat, and then see how quick
they drop us. Some will even be cruel enough to say they always knew
that Bristles Carpenter was a big fake; and that when it came right down
to business he never was able to hold up his end; and they never could
see why the committee put him on the roll of would-be heroes."
"Sure! and the next day it rained!" called back little Semi-Colon, whose
size debarred him from taking any part in the athletic contests, a fact
he deplored many times, for he had the spirit of a warrior in his small
body.
"Anyhow, Sunday will be a good day to rest, and stay indoors, to avoid
all the cruel things that will be fired at a fellow Monday," grinned
Bristles.
"Say, don't talk like that, old man," remarked another of the group;
"seems like you might be getting all ready for a funeral. I don't like
it. Better do some boasting, and give us a chance to feel we're going to
carry Mechanicsburg right off her feet."
"Oh! I'm only taking out a little extra insurance, that's all," remarked
Bristles. "They all do it, you know. Never knew a feller to get licked
but he began to explain how it happened; and tell how if his foot had
been all right, or that stitch in his side hadn't caught him, he'd have
swept up the ground with all his rivals. I'm wondering what I'd better
mention right now as troubling me."
"But you just said you felt as fit as a fiddle?" protested Semi-Colon.
"So I do," answered Bristles; "but that don't matter. A feller may feel
fit, and yet have a sore toe; can't he? But, boys, if I get beaten
you're not going to hear me put up a whine. It'll only be because the
other feller is the better man."
"Bully for you, Bristles;" remarked a tall student, vigorously; "I
always knew you'd stand up and be counted. And just you make up your
mind you're going to bring home the bacon. We want every point we can
get, to beat Mechanicsburg out."
"Nobody seems to take poor old Paulding seriously," remarked Fred, who
was one of the noisy, enthusiastic group on the way to the recreation
field for a spell of warming up exercise; for school had been dismissed
on Thursday afternoon, giving this Friday preceding the meet as a
holiday for the scholars, owing to the great interest taken in the
affair, the trustees said, and also the fact that the other towns had
decided upon the same thing.
"Well, you never can tell," declared Dick Hendricks, who had come up
just in time to catch the last remark. "I've got private information
from below, and let me warn every fellow not to be cocksure about
Paulding. That fellow they've got coaching them is no slouch. He was a
college grad. just the same as our Mr. Shays; and they say he coached
Princeton for several years, away back."
"Oh! he's an old man, and a back number," observed Bristles,
contemptuously. "I heard he hasn't kept up with the procession, and that
his methods are altogether slow compared with the more modern ones."
"Well, I believe in never underestimating an enemy," Fred went on; "and
if all of us feel that we've got to do our level best in order to win,
even against Paulding, that ends the matter."
"Who's seen Colon this morning?" asked Dick Hendricks.
"Not me," replied Bristles, "and it's kind of queer too, because he said
he'd drop in for me at eight this morning, and now it's half-past.
Reckon he forgot, and went on with another bunch. There's always a lot
of boys trailing after Colon nowadays, you know. They just hang around
his door, his mother told mine only yesterday, like a pack of hounds,
calling for him to show himself."
"Well, I guess Colon is the best card in our pack," declared Fred,
stoutly. "You see, he's slated to run in all the shorter sprints, and we
expect him to leave the other fellows at the post, for he's as fleet as
a deer--Bristles says kangaroo, because of that queer jump he has. They
haven't got a ghost of a show in any race Colon takes part in; and I
guess they know it up at Mechanicsburg."
"I was talking with a boy from there the other day," spoke up the tall
student. "I think he was sent down here as a sort of spy, to see just
what we were doing, and get tabs on our men. He owned up to me that if
Colon could do that well in a regular race it would be a procession,
because nobody could head him. They'd just run on in the hope he might
be taken with cramps, or something."
"Who's that hollering back there; looks like Corney Shays?" remarked
Semi-Colon just then, so sharply that the entire group paused to look
back.
"It is Corney, late as usual, and with his nerve along; because he wants
us all to stop and wait for him," declared Dick Hendricks. "Come along
boys, and let him catch up if he can."
"But he acts mighty queer," said Fred.
"You're right he does," added Bristles, taking the alarm at once. "Look
at him waving his arms. Say, fellers, something's gone wrong, bet you a
cooky. I just feel it in my bones. Oh! what if Colon's been taken sick
right now the day before?"
They stood there, silent and expectant, until the running Corney had
drawn near.
"What ails you, Corney?" demanded Dick.
"It's Colon!" gasped the other, almost out of breath, and much excited
in the bargain, they could see, for his eyes seemed ready to pop out of
his head.
"Don't tell us he's sick!" cried Bristles, in real horror.
"Disappeared--never slept in his bed last night, his ma says! Gone in
the queerest way ever, and just when Riverport depended on him to win
the prize to-morrow!" was what the almost breathless Corney gasped.