THE TENNIS TOURNAMENT
"Sport's Week" had begun at the Shore Club. The excitement of it
gripped the Lee family. Each talked of the game in which he or she was
most interested and no one listened to the other. Barbara, with an
absorbed air, mentally played the shots she would make when on Friday
she would meet in the final round of match play for the championship
title her old foe, Carol Day. Peggy had no thought for anything but the
swimming contest. Mr. Lee was chairman of the committee on arrangements
and spent most of his time at the telephone. Mrs. Lee did her part in
the decorating of the club-house and went about with her arms full of
gay bunting and her mouth full of pins.
And Keineth shared the excitement! For she had qualified in the
children's tennis tournament and would play in the doubles and had
drawn Billy for her partner!
It was her first real contest! Secretly she shivered with fright but
outwardly tried to appear calm like Peggy. All the day before the
tennis matches began she went about with her racquet in her hand as
though to accustom her trembling fingers to its hold.
Though Billy, since the day he had tried to make Keineth confide in him
the story of her father's absence, had maintained toward her a scornful
indifference, he had accepted her as a partner because there was no
alternative. But he managed to convey to her that he considered it an
unfair indignity that he should be so handicapped. And he talked
entirely of the paddling races.
However, Keineth could not be discouraged. In her mind was one thought
only--they _must_ win! For, each day, in her room she was writing a
careful account of all that happened to send to her Daddy, and failure
could have no part in the story.
And in the very first match they defeated Molly Sawyer and Joe Gary!
Margaret Dale, playing with Charlie Myers had, after a hard game,
beaten Grace Schuyler and Merton Day. Then Keineth and Billy played
against them. It was a close match; the courts were circled by an
interested crowd of onlookers. Though Billy had had to play with all
his skill to meet Charlie Myers' strength of volley, he knew that
Keineth had more than done her part, too.
"She played way over her head," he answered sullenly to the praise his
family bestowed upon her.
One more set put them in the final match against Jim Downer and his
sister Helen. A taste of victory had given to Keineth a poise that
steadied her in her game; this matching of strength, skill and
quickness--something she had never known before--had developed a
surprising confidence in herself. Her joy was not in the defeat of
their opponents, rather in her own mastery of all those things which
for so long she had been trying to learn!
"Good luck to you, kiddies," Mr. Lee had said to them at the breakfast
table. "Play your best and then you won't mind if you are defeated. And
if the other fellows play better, don't think up any excuses--it's
something to be good losers!"
In the brief moment of waiting before the final match began, Keineth,
standing quietly near the courts, thought how different she was from
the funny little girl who had come to Overlook two months before. She
knew now what her father had meant when he had told her that that old
life, with him and Tante in the old house, had cheated her out of the
other things children had. He had been right He would be pleased, now,
to know the part she was taking with the others.
The judges called the match; Keineth caught her breath and ran on to
the court. She gave one whispered word to Billy.
"We've _got_ to win!"
Billy had not enjoyed Keineth's sudden rise into fame. He felt less
tolerant and the old grudge flamed into being. If they won now--and
everyone said they would--they'd all think it was Keineth that had won
it. They'd make an awful fuss over her--they always did over girls--and
there'd be no living with either her or Peggy. He could throw the game,
just fall down on one or two returns and no one would know the
difference! He felt very sure of winning the paddling races and what
did he care about the tennis match, anyway?--it'd be different if they
were the real matches, but they were just for children. These thoughts
ran through his mind as he swung his racquet backward and forward in
the air, a heavy scowl wrinkling his face.
And Keineth's confident "We've got to win" had been the last drop in
his cup of annoyance.
The first two games were slow, a little volleying and a good many
"outs." Someone called from the gallery, "Warm up!" Keineth threw her
head back with an answering smile, for she recognized Mr. Lee's voice.
Their opponents won the third game against a thirty. That spurred
Keineth; the fourth game was faster with some hot volleying and pretty
returns and won by Keineth and Billy in a quickly mounting score.
Excited, Keineth did not notice that Billy had not returned one or two
balls with his usual skill.
The next, a deuce game, was hotly contested. Her face ablaze with
interest, Keineth held her little body tensely poised on one toe, ready
for instant action. The faces of the crowd around her blurred into
nothing--there seemed only left in her small world those two beyond the
net!
The next game was bewildering. Keineth played desperately, but they had
only won thirty points when the others made the game! The set stood
four to two in Keineth's favor, but their opponents were playing
stronger with each game.
In the seventh game Billy dropped off shamelessly. He was never quite
ready. Before Keineth realized the situation the others had won and won
easily!
"Billy!" Keineth whispered imploringly. The indifferent look on Billy's
face struck terror to her heart. What _was_ the matter with him?
The next game Keineth won alone--if Billy could not play she'd play for
him! Her little teeth, clenched tight together, gleamed white through
her parted lips. The crimson of her cheeks mounted into her fair hair.
"What a picture!" Mrs. Lee whispered to her husband. She was not
thinking of the game at all. "What a spirit! Think, William, what that
can mean in this world when the child's grown up!"
"That's just why this sort of sport is good for them," Mr. Lee
whispered back. "But what is the matter with Billy?"
That is what Keineth wondered, too. They had won five games--they
_must_ win the next and set! Walking close to Billy she confronted him,
her face ablaze. For just a moment they looked hard into one another's
eyes; not a boy and girl, the one proudly conscious of his boyhood and
two years' difference in age, the other a very young and all-admiring
girl--but just two mortals contesting together against two others.
And at last they, Keineth and Billy, met on equal ground--Keineth had
proven her mettle--let Billy show his! Keineth's clear, straightforward
gaze made Billy drop his eyes in sudden shame.
"Play square," she said sternly. And Billy played square! Their
opponents had not a chance!
"Well, Billy did wake up," some one said and some one else added: "If
they'd lost it would have been his fault. That Randolph girl played a
corking game for her age!"
They had won the tennis tournament! Keineth did not enjoy half so much
the silver cup they placed in her hands as she did Peggy's delight and
Mr. Lee's hearty handclasp of congratulation. The young people carried
them off to luncheon at the club-house, where they made merry far into
the afternoon.
That evening Billy, with a very serious face, approached his father,
where he sat alone on the veranda.
"Dad, I've withdrawn my name from the paddle races!"
"What's wrong, son?"
"I'm not a good sport--that's why," Billy answered with his usual
frankness. "I had a sort of grudge against Keineth because she wouldn't
tell me about her father and I'd vowed to get even and I just laid down
on that tennis game--until she made me ashamed!"
"But she did make you ashamed, Billy?"
"Yes--she told me to play square and I just thought then that no one
would ever have to tell me to play square more than once!"
Mr. Lee laid his arm across the boy's shoulder.
"Laddie--these games we play teach us a lot, don't they? There is
something in them more than fun and more than the health they give!
You've learned a motto to-day that you can pin on your shield when you
go out to meet the other matches life offers!"
"You can just bet I'll always try to play square! And I'm going now to
find Ken and tell her she's a brick!"
Mr. Lee watched the boy disappear. Though a smile hovered about his
lips, his eyes were serious--the cigar between his fingers had quite
gone out.
"May he keep that spirit all through life," he was thinking.