You are here
قراءة كتاب The Boy Scouts of Lakeville High
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
won. Anyhow, I think this pole vault will give us a nice lead. That's one thing Nap can do, to say nothing of Jump."
Had Nap been satisfied to limit his strength to pole-vaulting, he might have made a first in that event; but he came to it exhausted from his earlier efforts, and his best was a creditable third. Jump's knee, bruised from the hurdles, was bumped again in his first attempt. Second place was the limit for him.
When Horace Hibbs called time for the relay race, the summary of events stood as follows:
| Event | First | Second | Points | |
| Scouts | All-School | |||
| Half Mile | Scouts | All-School | 5 | 3 |
| High Jump | Scouts | All-School | 5 | 3 |
| 220-Yard Dash | Scouts | All-School | 5 | 3 |
| Discus Throw | All-School | All-School | 0 | 8 |
| Hurdles | Scouts | All-School | 5 | 3 |
| Shot Put | Scouts | All-School | 5 | 3 |
| 100-Yard Dash | Scouts | Scouts | 8 | 0 |
| Broad Jump | All-School | All-School | 0 | 8 |
| Pole Vault | All-School | Scouts | 3 | 5 |
| Totals, | 36 | 36 | ||
The score was a tie, therefore, with the result of the meet depending upon the relay race.
"We'll be ready to run in two minutes," Bunny said, and turned to discover Jump limping toward him. The boy's face was drawn with the effort he was making to walk naturally.
"I—I'm all right, Bunny. My knee will straighten out in just a minute. Please let me run. I'll be all right as soon as I start."
Horace Hibbs bent beside him, as Bunny examined Jump's right knee, which was discolored from its bruises and already slightly swollen.
"Won't do," said Horace Hibbs firmly. "It will come around all right in a day or two, but he must not abuse it by running in the relay. I won't have it. You'll have to get somebody else."
Bunny nodded agreement. "Oh, Nap!"
From his blanket on the ground, the Scout pried himself to his feet, with legs none too steady under him.
"Can't use him, either," decreed the Scout Master. "He has been running his head off in every event from the half mile down, and he is thoroughly exhausted. I won't allow him to start."
Bunny frowned. Though the man was right, it left no choice when it came to picking the fourth runner in the race. For a moment, he wished with all his heart that Bi, or even Roundy, were there; but it was too late now for wishing.
"Rodman," he called, "I'm putting you on our relay team."
The boy's eyes opened wide. "I'll try, of course, but you know as well as I do that I can't run to amount to anything."
"All you have to do is your best. Nobody wants any more of you than that. Three of us are better than any three on their team. You will start the third relay with a lead, sure, and if you lose it on your lap, I'll try to gain it back the last time around."
With quick, eager movements, Rodman Cree stripped off his jersey. "I am going to do all I can," he said in a low voice. "And you don't know how much I want to help you win."
"Look here," whispered the excited Specs, as he pulled Bunny to one side. "Do you mean that you are going to trust him to run in this race?"
"There's nobody else."
"He'll lose the race for us."
"Not if we other three gain on our laps as we should."
"He'll lose the race for us," repeated Specs despairingly, "and then, when it's all over, he'll laugh. I know him."
"Places for the relay!" shouted Horace Hibbs.
CHAPTER III
THE RELAY RACE
"It wasn't much of an argument," Scout Master Hibbs confessed to his relay team. "I simply suggested that we have each runner pass the little block to the next, rather than merely touch hands. Buck Claxton was the only one to raise any objection. He runs the last lap."
None of the four to whom he was speaking offered any comment. It was Jump Henderson who finally spoke; poor lame, disappointed Jump.
"Probably figured that if the race was close, he could get away before the third runner touched him," he offered.
"Oh, you're wrong there." The speaker was Rodman Cree. "I'm sure you're wrong. I know Buck. He isn't that sort at all. He wouldn't even think of taking an unfair advantage."
Bunny happened to be looking at Horace Hibbs, who, in turn, was staring fixedly at the new boy. "I suppose not," agreed the Scout Master, in a tone that was not wholly reassuring. "Anyhow, the use of the block makes trickery impossible; that's why it has been adopted so widely. Well, let's get over to the track."
There was something queer, Bunny felt, in the man's speech. It was as if he suspected somebody's honesty; not Buck Claxton's, perhaps, but—well, somebody's. He couldn't quite make it out.
But once Bunny was lined up beside the cinder track back of the Black Eagles' clubhouse, he forgot everything except the race itself. Everybody was cheering and yelling advice and encouragement; horns were tooting, and somebody who had brought a bell was clanging it madly. It was no time for solving puzzles.
Almost before he realized it, the race began. The crowd gasped suddenly and went absolutely still. A shot rang out; and around the queer, slanting track ran S. S., of the Scouts, and some tall, thin chap of the All-School team, whom Buck had been saving for just this event. Instead of the easy race S. S. had expected, Bunny could see that he was fully extended to hold his own. Side by side the two runners raced, neither able to wrest a yard's advantage from the other. The crowd seemed to have gone mad.
"Get ready, Specs," he heard Horace Hibbs say; and good old Specs, who ran the second relay, walked, trembling with excitement, to the starting line. Bunny puzzled gravely over his teammate's display of emotion and could not understand it, until he recalled that his turn would come presently, and that he must take up the race where Rodman Cree dropped it. His own cheeks reddened hotly, and his fists persisted in clenching and unclenching spasmodically as he waited and waited.
S. S. swept around the last sharp curve, with his body leaning far inward, and held