CHAPTER XIII
LAFAYETTE HILL
It was, indeed, good coasting down Lafayette hill. This was a long and,at certain places, a steep slope, which led from Cardiff village, overthe mountain, to the town of Lafayette. A few miles beyond Lafayette wasanother settlement called Onativia. The long hill wound in and out, withqueer twists and turns and an abundance of thank-'e-ma'ams, which madethe sleds leap up in the air as the runners struck those spots.
The snow storm ceased in the afternoon, when Roger and Adrian, donningtheir boots, mufflers, and short jackets, trudged off to the hill,dragging clipper sleds with them. They found the coasting-place blackand swarming with boys and girls,--hearty, sturdy youngsters, wholaughed and shouted as they pelted each other with snowballs. The whiteflakes had not become packed down hard enough yet to make the goinggood, but beneath the hundreds of tramping feet and the scores of sledrunners, that process would not take long. The really swift and excitingcoasting, however, would not begin until the bill was worn smooth andicy.
Roger and Adrian joined the happy throng of young people. Like theothers they dragged their sleds part way up the hill, and then, leapingskilfully upon the narrow board, they slid down, going faster and fasteras they gathered momentum. The hill was two miles in extent, but none ofthe youngsters cared to go to the top to get the benefit of the longslide. It took too much time to walk up, and they preferred the morerapid, though shorter skimming over the snowy surface.
"It isn't very good yet," said Adrian, as they reached the bottom of theslope, after an invigorating ride. "Wait two or three days, though,until the sun thaws it a bit, and it freezes some more, and then you'llsee coasting that is coasting. You'll see a race that I bet you neversaw one like before."
"What kind of a race?"
"A two-mile coasting race down this hill, for the championship of thevalley, among the boys of Cardiff, Lafayette, and Onativia."
"You don't mean to say they race down this hill?"
"Sure. On big bob sleds. I'm captain of our bob, and you can go 'longthis year. We'll have the race in about a week."
Just then Adrian saw some boy acquaintances.
"Hey, Ed," he called to one of them, "come here. And you, too, Jim."
Two boys joined Adrian, big, sturdy, red-cheeked lads, panting withtheir exercise in the crisp air. Roger was introduced to the newcomers,Edward Johnson and James Smather.
"I was just telling my cousin about our yearly championship race,"explained Adrian, "when I happened to see you two. I suppose we'll havethe contest, as usual?"
"Of course," said Ed, and Jim agreed with him.
"Looks as if we could have it by Saturday," said Jim, carefully notingthe condition of the hill.
"I guess it'll be packed hard enough by then," assented Ed. "I s'poseyou fellers are ready for another lickin'," he added, grinning a bit atAdrian.
"If you can beat this time you're welcome to," was the reply, and Adrianseemed a little nettled.
"I reckon you won't walk away from the Lafayette boys as easily as youdid last winter," said Jim to Ed. "We beat you the year before, and wecan do it again, and Cardiff too."
"Don't holler 'til you're out of the woods," advised Adrian. "I've putnew runners on our bob."
"You'll need 'em, from the way she hung back last winter," laughedEdward, who had been captain of the victorious Onativia team theprevious year.
The three-cornered race had been won by Lafayette two years insuccession, and, as in the contests over which Adrian had beencommander, his crew had lost in the struggle, their hearts were notexactly happy, though neither captain nor crew was discouraged.
"Shall we say Saturday for the race?" asked Adrian at length.
"Suits me," came from James.
"I'm agreeable," assented Edward, and thus the three captains arranged.
This was Tuesday when the date for the contest was set. After making upthe details with his opponents, Adrian proposed a few more coasts downthe hill, and then he and Roger trudged off home.
"Do you think you'll win?" asked Roger anxiously as he plodded along thescarcely broken road. He was almost as interested as Adrian, for, thoughhe had so recently come to Cardiff, he already felt himself one of theboys there.
"It's hard telling," answered Adrian, after a pause. "The Onativia boyshave a very swift bob, and they usually manage to get off a littlequicker than we do. We'd have won last year, if they hadn't got to thenarrow part of the road before we did."
"What happened?" asked Roger.
"Why, we couldn't pass 'em, as there was only room for one sled there.So they came in first. But I've got a plan for this race, though, thatought to bring us in ahead, if I can only work it out. You just wait,that's all."
Roger thought Saturday would never come. There was little to do aboutthe farm now, so he and Adrian overhauled the big Cardiff bob, which wasstored in Mr. Kimball's barn. In this work they were assisted by such ofthe crew as could spare time from their duties.
The runners of the sled were filed, and polished bright and smooth.Several extra braces were put in to stiffen the long board. The carpet,on top of this, was stuffed again, so as to afford a softer seat goingover the bumps, and the foot-rests were altered a bit. Adrian also puton a louder sounding gong.
Then he made a change which most of the boys declared was a foolish one.This was to make the rear as well as the front small sled movable, sothat either and both could be steered separately. The front bob wasturned from side to side, by means of an iron wheel on an upright rod,just as the regular coasting bob is. But it was rather an innovation tohave the rear sled steerable also. This was Adrian's idea, worked outfrom something he had seen on a recent visit to Syracuse. This was thesight of a long fire ladder truck turning short and sharp around cornersbecause of both front and rear trucks being movable. He reasoned if along wagon could be handled to advantage this way a long bob-sled mightalso.
There was a particular reason why Adrian wanted to steer quickly andturn short, as developed later. At first some of the boys who formed thecrew of the bob were inclined to protest at the use of the secondsteering-wheel. But Adrian silenced them.
"Look here," he said, "I'm captain of this shebang and as long as I amI'm going to steer it the way I think best. If anybody don't like it,they needn't ride. I can get plenty to take those fellows' places. Andif you don't want me for captain, just sing out," and Adrian paused foran answer.
"Of course we want you for captain," cried several.
"All right, then, just let me manage it. I'm going to have twosteering-wheels, and we're going to win the race this time."
"I hope so," commented Thomas Archer, and the others joined him in thewish.
Finally the day of the triple contest came. On Friday the snow meltedand thawed on Lafayette hill; but that night it grew colder and froze,until the surface of the slope was one long stretch of ice and snow,making a perfect covering for coasting. Saturday dawned clear and cold,but with no biting wind--a rare day for the sport.
All Cardiff seemed to be astir early that morning, though the contestwould not begin until two o'clock. An hour before that time, however,crowds began to gather along the hill, a number of the men and boystramping up the steep slope to the top, that they might witness thestart.
The majority of the spectators, however, preferred to remain where theycould see the finish, and that was near Hank Mack's store, in the centreof Cardiff, where the road from Lafayette joined with the mainthoroughfare leading to Syracuse. This was a vantage point where mightbe observed the ending of the struggle, which meant so much to the boys,and in a measure to their elders. On the far side of the main road,opposite the end of the hill, was a big bank of snow into which theracers might steer, if, perchance, they found themselves, at the swiftcompletion of the journey, unable to turn to left or right. Thus thechance of accidents was lessened.
The boys of Lafayette and Onativia had one advantage, for they did nothave to drag their heavy bob up the hill for the start, as
the Cardiffcrew did. But for this race, at least, that labor was saved Adrian andhis chums, for Mr. Kimball got out his team of horses, hitched them tothe big sled, and the animals, which were sharp-shod, easily dragged theracer up the two-mile incline, for which aid the boys were verythankful.
The Cardiff crew, at the head of which marched Adrian and Roger,followed the team, walking leisurely along and keeping a sharp watchthat the bob came to no mishap. All but two of the boys would be merelypassengers, for to manage the affair only a pair of steersmen wereneeded, the others being there simply to give weight and to make thecontest more interesting and exciting.
With the Cardiff crew marched a crowd of youngsters from the village.They knew they must miss the thrilling finish of the race if they wentto the top of the hill, but they wanted to lend the fellowship of theirpresence to the tail-enders of the series of contests, much the same asa crowd of "rooters" accompany their favorite nine or eleven. Besides,the Cardiff crew was going into a sort of hostile country and would needsome support.
When the delegation marching with Adrian reached the top of the hillthey found themselves the centre of a throng of perhaps two hundredpeople, mostly boys, though there were a goodly number of young men, andeven some graybeards who still felt the joys of youth in their blood.The Onativia crew was surrounded by their friends, and the Lafayettecontenders by theirs, and though the Cardiff organization was greatlyoutnumbered, they did not feel at all disheartened when they saw howconfident their captain was.
Scores of spectators and several members of the rival crews crowdedabout Adrian's bob, and the two steering-wheels at once attractedattention. There were dozens of questions about the second wheel, to allof which Adrian, as well as his followers, returned polite but evasiveanswers.
"Mebby th' Cardiff boys calalate on slidin' back'ards 's well 'sfor'ards," commented a Lafayette supporter. "Thet seems t' be theirfav'rite mode a' locomotion, jedgin' from th' last two trys."
A hot reply for this taunt was on Adrian's lips, but he checked himself.It would not do to boast of his plan, for it was yet untried, and hecould not say what would be the outcome. So he merely motioned for hiscrew to keep near him, and answered nothing to the laugh that went up atthe attempted wit of the Lafayette young man. Adrian took his cousin toone side.
"I haven't said much to you, Roger, about making this trip," he said,"but I want you to go along with me. You're not afraid, are you?"
"Not a bit," replied Roger, stoutly, though in his heart he was a littleapprehensive, as he saw the big white stretch sloping steeply before himand thought of the twists, the turns, and bumps in it. "I'll go ifyou'll let me, but maybe some of the crew won't like it. Besides, itwill make thirteen on the sled, and you know--"
"Can't make me believe in bad luck signs of any sort," laughed Adrian."As for the crew not wanting you, I've spoken to them about it, andthey're all agreeable. There are no regular rules to this race, anyhow.You can take as many as the bob will carry."
So it was arranged Roger was to go. The preparations were nearlycompleted, the judges of the start had been selected, and those for thefinish named. The latter set off on their ride down the incline ahead ofthe three big sleds, so as to be at the foot of the hill on time.
There was no danger of any teams coming up the incline, as the custom ofthe race was well known in the valley, and farmers gave Lafayette hill awide berth on that day. As Roger watched the sleds of the judges for thefinish whizz down the slope, he felt less and less inclined to make theracing trip. But he did not like to back out now, so he nerved himselffor the ordeal.
The three captains held a short conversation and drew straws to seewhich should have the choice of position at the start. This fell toAdrian for the first time in the last three years, and he felt it wasthe beginning of success.
The preliminaries were soon arranged, and the starters, who were toshove the sleds to the edge of the hill and over the brow, wereselected. There was the last look at the bobs on the part of thecaptains to see that these were in good shape and nothing loose ordangling, and a final trying of the steering-wheels to ascertain if theyworked easily. The boys who formed the three crews began to fasten upstray ends of scarfs and clothing, buttoning their coats tightly, for itwould be a fierce and swift journey.
Adrian wore an anxious air, which he tried to shake off, for though hedid not need to depend much on his crew, he wanted them to feel therewas a good chance for victory, as he honestly believed there was. Hetested the two wheels on his bob, made sure that his assistant helmsmanunderstood his duties, and he was ready. As his aid in guiding the bigsled Adrian had selected Thomas Baker, a lad of considerable muscle,quick, and reliable.
"I guess we're in shape," announced Adrian in a low voice to his crew,as he saw the starters coming toward him.