ON THE ICE
A few days later Clem, smashing into the boards of the outdoor rink,
after a valiant effort to hook the puck from Landorf, of the scrub six,
almost bumped heads with Jim Todd. It was a nippingly cold February
afternoon, and Jim made one of the small audience that stamped about
on chilled feet and watched the progress of the practice game. Jim,
though, appeared less conscious of the cold than most of the others. He
had on the old gray woolen sweater, and a cloth cap set inadequately on
the back of his streaky brown locks. About him were overcoats--even one
or two of fur--and unfastened overshoes rattled their buckles as their
wearers kicked the wooden barrier or stamped about on the hard-trodden
snow to encourage circulation. Jim wore a pair of woolen socks of a
dubious shade of tan and low shoes that were ostensibly black. And he
didn’t prance about a bit. Once in a while he did rub his long bony
hands together, but the action seemed an indication of interest in the
hockey game rather than in the temperature. As a matter of fact, this
was Jim’s first glimpse of such a contest, and he was, for Jim Todd,
quite excited over it.
Between the halves Clem skated over to him. “Aren’t you frozen?” he
asked wonderingly.
“Me? No.” Jim shook his head slowly. “It’s right cold, though, ain’t
it? A whole lot colder than we have it in Maine, I guess. Say, what’s
that thing made of you’re hitting around on the ice?”
“Rubber. Haven’t you ever played hockey?”
“No. When I was a kid we used to whack a block of wood around with
sticks, but it wasn’t much like this hockey. Looks like you’ve got
almost as many rules as there are in football. You’re a pretty nice
skater, ain’t you?”
“Not as good as some of the fellows,” replied Clem. “You skate, of
course.”
Jim nodded. “That’s ’bout the only thing I can do real well,” he
answered. “Don’t believe I could get around the way you do, though;
dodge and turn so quick and all like that. I ain’t so bad at skating
fast, but I’ve got to have plenty of room.”
“Better go into the races Saturday morning,” suggested Clem. “What’s
your distance?”
“Distance?”
“Yes, what are you best at? Half-mile? Mile? Two miles?”
“Why, I don’t know. I’ve skated in a lot of races, you might say,
but we didn’t ever measure them. We’d race, generally, from the old
boat-house to the inlet; on Lower Pond, you know. Guess that’s about
three-quarters of a mile; more or less.”
“Why don’t you enter for Saturday, then?” asked Clem. “You ought to be
able to do the mile if you’ve been doing the three-quarters, Todd.”
“Well, I don’t know. Would you? Does it cost anything?”
“Not a cent,” laughed Clem. “There’s a list of the events over on the
notice board in the gym. Better pick out a couple and get your name
down.”
“Well-- Gosh, though, I can’t! I didn’t bring my skates. I sort of had
a notion there wasn’t much skating down here. I guess there wouldn’t be
time to send for them, either, to-day being Tuesday.”
Clem leaned over the barrier and viewed Jim’s shoes. “No, I guess not,
but I think Mart’s skates will fit you. Drop in later and we’ll see. He
doesn’t use them much.”
“Maybe he wouldn’t like me to have them,” responded Jim doubtfully.
“Anyway, I ain’t skated since last winter, Harland, and I guess I
wouldn’t be much good. Much obliged to you, but maybe I’d better not.”
“Well, if you change your mind--” Clem hurried away to try some shots
at goal before the whistle blew again.
Just before supper-time, however, Jim wandered into Number 15. He
announced that he guessed he’d take part in those races if it was all
right about the skates. “There’s a two-mile race down, I see, and I
guess I’d like to try that.”
“Two miles? Thought you’d been doing three-quarters,” said Clem, while
Mart dug his skates out of the closet.
“Yes, but sometimes I got licked, and I’ve got a sort of notion I can
do better at a longer distance. Maybe I’ll try for the mile, too. I
guess there’s a lot of pretty good skaters going into it, eh?”
“Yes, I suppose so,” said Clem, “but you’ll have a good time. You don’t
mind getting beaten, do you?”
Jim frowned slightly. “Why, yes, I guess I do,” he replied. “Every
fellow does, don’t he?”
“Well, I meant to say you didn’t mind much. Of course no fellow wants
to take a defeat, but he has to do it just the same sometimes, you
know. And there’s a whole lot in taking it the right way.”
“The right way?” inquired Jim.
“Why, yes, Todd. Look here, are you joshing me? You know what I mean,
confound you!”
“Well, I don’t know as I do,” said Jim doubtfully. “I don’t get mad
when I’m licked, if that’s what you mean. Leastways, I don’t let on I’m
mad. But it don’t make me feel any too good to get beat!”
“I suppose your trouble is that you’ve never been beaten often enough
to get used to it, then,” answered Clem. “Getting mad doesn’t do any
good, you crazy goof. You want to smile and make believe you like it.”
“What for?”
“Oh, for the love of Liberty,” wailed Clem, “take this fellow off me,
Mart! He’s worse than a Philadelphia lawyer!”
Mart’s return with the skates provided a diversion. They were a size
too small, but after a long and admiring appraisal of them Jim declared
that they would do. “I never saw a pair just like these before,” he
confided admiringly. “What they made of, Gray?”
“Aluminum, mostly. Light, aren’t they? Like them?”
“Gosh, yes, but I don’t know if I can do much with them. They don’t
weigh more’n a third what mine do. I’m going to try them, just the
same. I’m much obliged to you.”
“You’re welcome. Just see that you win a race with them. We’ll go down
and root for you, Todd.”
“I might win the two-mile race,” replied Jim, “if I get so I can use
these right. I’ll try ’em to-morrow.”
They didn’t see Jim again until the morning of the races. It was a
corking day, that Saturday, with a wealth of winter sunshine flooding
the world and only the mildest of northerly breezes blowing down the
river. The weather and the list of events ought to have brought out a
larger representation of the student body, but as a matter of fact by
far the larger portion of those who had assembled at ten o’clock were
contestants. Clem, yielding to the solicitations of the Committee,
had entered for three races at the last moment, and it wasn’t until
he had won the 220-yard senior event in hollow fashion from a field
of more than a score of adversaries and been narrowly beaten in the
quarter-mile race that he encountered Jim.
Jim had discarded his beloved gray sweater and was the cynosure of
all eyes in a mackinaw coat of green and black plaid. The green was
extremely green and the plaid was a very large one, and Jim presented
an almost thrilling appearance. Under the mackinaw, his lean body was
attired very simply in a white running shirt, and Clem addressed him
sternly.
“Want to catch pneumonia and croak?” he demanded. “Don’t you know you
can’t skate with that state’s prison offense on and that if you take
it off you’ll freeze stiff? Where were you when they handed brains out,
Todd?”
Jim grinned. “Hello,” he replied. “That was a nice licking you gave all
those other fellows. And, say, if you’d got going quicker in that other
race you’d have made it, easy.”
Clem was looking attentively at the mackinaw. Now he felt of it. “Say,
that’s some coat, son. Where’d you get it?”
“Back home.”
“I’ll bet it’s warm. I never saw one made of as good stuff as that is.
Any more like it where it came from?”
Jim chuckled. “I’m going to write pop to send down a couple dozen of
them,” he said. “You’re about the tenth fellow that’s asked me that so
far. I could sell a lot of ’em if I had ’em.”
“Joking aside, though, can I get one, Todd?”
“Sure. Pop sells them. I’ll give you the address if you want to send
for one. I’ve given it to a lot of fellows already.”
“Oh, well, if the whole school’s going to come out in them I guess I’ll
pass,” said Clem regretfully. “I suppose those are what the lumbermen
wear, eh?”
Jim nodded. “Lots of folks wear them. They’re mighty good coats. Only
six dollars, too. Better have one. Maybe pop’ll give me a commission.”
“Six dollars! I believe you’re trying to make a dollar rake-off on each
one! Say, what are you down for, Todd?”
“Down for? Oh, the mile and two miles. You?”
“Just the half. I’ll get licked, too. See you later. But, honest, Todd,
you oughtn’t to skate two miles in just that cotton shirt, you know.”
“Warm enough. It ain’t real cold to-day. Hope you win.”
But Clem didn’t, making rather a sorry showing in fact.
There was an obstacle race for the younger chaps next, an event that
provided plenty of amusement for entrants and spectators alike, and
then the contestants for the mile were called. This event was a popular
one, it appeared, for sixteen youths of all ages and from all classes
answered. A group of freshmen, about twenty in all, cheered lustily and
unflaggingly for their favorite, a small, slim, capable appearing boy
named Woodside. Jim towered over most of the lot, although his bare
brown head didn’t top that of Newt Young, guard on the football team
and a senior entrant. The seniors were represented by several others,
but their hopes were pinned on Newt. The bunch sped away at the crack
of a pistol and were soon well spread out.
Jim didn’t have much hope of capturing that race, and certainly no
one who watched him could have censured him. Jim’s skating was far
from graceful. He didn’t suggest the flight of a bird, for instance.
Observing Jim, you were reminded chiefly of a windmill that had somehow
got loose and was blowing down the ice, blowing fast, to be sure, but
wasting a deal of motion. Jim’s arms did strange antics, seeming never
to duplicate a single movement that was once made. And he appeared to
have more than the usual number of joints in his long, thin body. He
bent everywhere; at knees, waist, shoulders, neck, elbows and wrists;
and some other places, too, unless sight deceived the onlookers. But
at the quarter distance he was still among the first half-dozen, and
when the turn was made those at the finish couldn’t determine for some
moments whether he or young Woodside led.
It promised to be a close finish, in any case, for behind the two
leaders sped Newt Young, showing lots of reserve, and, not yet out of
the race, four others followed closely. But Jim began to fall back
after the race was three-fourths over, and for a hundred yards Woodside
loomed as the winner, while his enthusiastic classmates howled
ecstatically. Then, however, Young edged past Jim and set off after the
freshman and for the final fifty yards it was nip and tuck to the line.
Young won by a bare three feet, with Woodside second and Jim a poor
third.
“Well, feel mad, do you?” asked Clem as he and Mart sought Jim.
Jim scowled and then grinned sheepishly. “I could have won if I’d had
my own skates,” he muttered. “These are all right, only I ain’t used to
them. Bet you I could beat that big fellow if I had my own skates.”
“Newt Young?” asked Mart. “Well, Newt’s a pretty good lad, they say.”
“I could beat him,” reasserted Jim doggedly. “He gave me a jab in the
nose, too.”
“What? Newt did?” Clem was incredulous. “I didn’t see it. Where was it?”
“Playing football, I mean,” answered Jim. “He was on the first squad
when I was playing. He gave me a good one one day, and I don’t guess it
was any accident, neither.”
“Ah,” murmured Clem sadly, “I fear yours is a vindictive nature, Todd.
I am disappointed in you.”
Jim observed him doubtfully. Then he said “Huh!” Finally he grinned.
“Well, he didn’t have any cause to hit me,” he added, “and I sort of
wanted to beat him.”
“Maybe he’s down for the two miles,” suggested Mart cheerfully. “Do you
know?”
Jim didn’t know, but Clem did. “He is,” declared the latter. “So go
ahead and wreak vengeance, Todd. You have my blessing. And I guess
they’re about ready for you, too.”
“Gosh, I wish I had my own skates,” muttered Jim wistfully.
“No alibis, Todd,” said Clem sternly. “Do your duty.”