CHAPTER VI
REDDY'S RECOLLECTIONS
IN spite of the trainer's autocratic rule, the life of the team while intraining was not just one long grind, without any recreation to breakthe monotony. Reddy, it is true, prohibited theaters and kindredamusements, because they necessarily meant late hours, and late hours,as the trainer well knew, meant decreased efficiency, both physical andmental.
Nevertheless, he had no objection to the athletes playing quiet games ofan evening, provided they were well up in their studies, and sometimeseven contributed to the general enjoyment by spinning some yarn culledfrom his own vast store of "past performances."
Whenever the members of the squad found him in a reminiscent mood, allother amusements were suspended, and they would listen attentively tothe little trainer's reminiscences of victories won on field and track.
In his day Reddy had taken part in almost every branch of sport, andcould tell stories about them all. For some time this particular eveninghe had not uttered a word, however, and had sat listening to theconversation of his charges with a faraway look in his twinkling blueeyes. The boys had been talking of motorcycling, and had been discussingBert's record-breaking run across the continent.
In a lull of the conversation he spoke up.
"Motorcycle racing is all right in its way," he said, "but for realsport on two wheels give me the old bicycling days. Why, we had more funthen at one meet than you guys have now in a whole season. I call tomind one time----"
Reddy stopped to light the pipe that he had been carefully packing withrather rank tobacco, and there was a general movement toward him whilehe was taking the first few puffs. Feet and chairs scraped, and by thetime he had his pipe pulling satisfactorily there was a ring ofinterested faces gathered about him.
"I suppose you think I'm going to spin ye a yarn now, yegood-for-naughts, don't ye?" he inquired, with a ferocious glance aroundthe circle.
"If you back out now, Reddy," laughed Bert, "after getting us worked upthis way, we'll all swear to throw the next game we play, just to geteven with you."
"Well, I suppose I'll have to satisfy you, that bein' the case," saidReddy, his assumed ferocity of demeanor melting down into a broad grin,"although 'tis not much of a tale at that."
"'Twas in the palmy days of the bike, when everybody that could possiblyscrape the price together owned one. A bicycle race in them days meantsomethin', let me tell you, and people for fifty miles around wouldorganize parties to go see it.
"Well, I had the fever just like everybody else, and after a while, whenI'd saved up enough, me and a friend bought a tandem machine. It cost apretty penny all right, but it was a well-built machine, and had betterstuff in it than most bikes you see nowadays.
"My partner, whose name was Barney Keogh, and myself took many a longspin on it, and many a time had sprints with other 'speed boys' out onthe road. We got so we could hit it up at a pretty hot clip, but neitherof us ever thought of going into the racing game.
"But one fine Sunday there was a big meet to be held at the old Newarktrack, in New Jersey, and we made up our minds to go see it. We startedout bright an' early and took it easy along the road enjoyin' thescenery and the fresh, mornin' air. 'Twas in the early spring, Iremember, and we both felt like two colts that had just been turnedloose in a big pasture.
"We just took it easy though, for we had quite a long pull ahead of us,and we was enjoyin' ourselves too much to want to hurry anyway. We gotto the track a good hour before the first race was slated to start, andafter puttin' our bike in a safe place we meandered around, seein' if wecould locate anybody we knew. We hadn't gone far when I heard someonecallin' my name, and when I turned I saw a feller named Robertson, a manI'd worked for once. I introduced Barney, and we hadn't talked very longbefore Robertson informed me that he was one of the committee in chargeof affairs. 'Come on around with me to the judges box,' he invited, 'anI'll get you a couple of good seats.'
"O' course that was pretty soft for us, so we trailed along with him andhe located us in fine seats not far from the judges box. Of course wethanked him and then he shook hands and hurried off.
"Well, the first events passed off all right, although they were rathertame, and then came the big race, which for that day happened to be atandem race. There was a big purse offered for the winner, and therewere several entrants. But for some reason there was a long wait, andfirst thing we knew there was Robertson coming toward us, his face redand perspirin' and his collar wilted.
"He rushes up to us, and leans over and whispers:
"'Say, Reddy,' he says, 'you can help us out if you want to. We're shyan entrant. One of the teams hasn't shown up, and according to theconditions of the race no less than six entrants can start. We've onlygot five, and if the race isn't ridden the crowd will go wild. Here's achance for you and your friend to help us out of a bad fix and at thesame time maybe win a nice piece of money for yourselves.'
"Well, at first Barney and me was knocked flat, an' then we turned downthe proposition cold. But Robertson wouldn't take no for an answer.
"'It can't hurt you any, can it?' he said. 'An' if you should win, thinkof the coin you'd pull down. Why, you've got everything to win andnothing to lose.'
"Well, to make a long story short, he finally talked us into it, and webeat it around and got our machine. By the time we got on the track thecrowd was getting pretty impatient, and Robertson hustled us around tothe starting line.
"'Do your best, boys,' he says, 'it's a ten mile race, so don't put allyour steam into it at once. Let one of the others set the pace and thenyou come up at the end.'
"It sounded easy all right, but I guess both Barney and I were morethan a little doubtful about that 'coming up at the end' business. Butit was too late to back out then, so we lined up in front of thestarter's stand, and when the pistol cracked made a pretty fast getaway.
"We weren't in it with some of those professionals though, and beforewe'd hit our speed at all they had several yards lead over us. But wewere feeling pretty strong at that. I was steering the bike, and I couldfeel Barney pushing along like a steam engine. But at first it was allwe could do to hold our own, no matter how hard we pedaled. Pretty soonI began to feel mighty tired I can tell you, and I guess Barney musthave, too, because we began dropping behind. But we kept on pushing likemad, and pretty soon we began to get our second wind. And then wecertainly made that old tandem hum! We burned up that track for fair,and before very long were on equal terms with the last team. We creptsteadily past them, and before the end of the sixth mile our front wheelwas even with the back wheel of the leaders.
"Well, by that time the crowd had begun to sit up and take notice, andbefore we had covered another mile everybody was on their feet, cheeringlike mad and waving flags. But no matter how hard we tried, we couldn'tseem to draw up even with the leading machine. By that time the bloodwas beating through my head fit to burst it, and I suppose Barney musthave felt the same way. But neither of us was exactly what you mightcall a quitter, so we kept on. And by the end of the ninth mile theyhadn't more than the length of one wheel's lead over us! As we startedthe last lap I could feel the old bike shove forward, and I knew thatBarney had some reserve strength left. That kind o' put heart into me,too, and I put everything I had into that last mile, believe me. Betweenus we pretty nearly lifted that tandem off the ground at every stroke, Iguess. Anyway, we crawled up on the leaders inch by inch, and managed tocross the finishing line a scant foot ahead of them.
"Well, I don't think I ever saw a much more excited crowd than that one.They swarmed down onto the track, and it was only by makin' a mightyquick sneak that we managed to get away from them. We weren't feelinglike being made heroes of just then, let me tell you. We were just aboutall in."
"Believe me, I'd like to have been there," exclaimed Bert, as Reddyfinished; "it must have been a real race for fair. I should think thatafter that you and your friend would have gone into professional bicycleracing."
"We did try t
o," confessed the trainer with a grin, "but we could neverseem to do as well again, and after a few attempts we gave it up indisgust. But we found the prize money very welcome, for we were bothhard up at the time.
"But now," he continued, "I've kept you up too late as it is, so offwith you. Vamoose!"