College stories; Sports stories; Yale University -- Juvenile fiction
"Go ahead, it will do no harm," admitted Black.
So Harrington sent off a telegram from a station fifteen miles or so
from London. A bit peremptory the telegram was, but it relieved the
captain's feelings. This was the telegram:
"Frank Armstrong, The Grand, Brighton. Come to London on next train,
take taxi to Queen's Club immediately afterwards. Absolutely no
excuse for missing team train."
But this telegram, as we have seen, never reached the man for whom it
was intended.
At one o'clock taxicabs dropped the Yale-Harvard athletes,
attendants, and trainers at the south gate of Queen's Club. Already
several thousand people had gathered in the stands, and a steady
stream was pouring in the gates, not with the impetuosity that
distinguishes an American crowd, but interested withal in the games
they were shortly to see. The majority of the crowd was, of course,
English, but the Americans made a brave showing. They gathered
together, apparently for mutual support, halfway down the track
stretch and at once selected a cheer leader who was now working up
enthusiasm by an occasional yell, simply to let the enemy know that
young America would be heard from in more ways than one. A surprising
number of Americans had come together for the event. Not all were
Harvard and Yale men, although members of these two institutions
predominated. Students and graduates from universities all over
the United States might have been seen in the crowd. It was not a
Harvard-Yale affair to them, it was America against England, and
everyone from the far side of the Atlantic was there to lend a shout
for his countrymen. College lines were forgotten.
Along the track-side and in the grand stand speculation was rife as
to the outcome of the games. Experts had figured out just how the
various men were to finish, and the figures had been printed in the
morning papers and in the noon editions. All admitted, however, that
the match would be an extremely close one with the chances slightly
in favor of the visitors.
"Well," said one confident young man in the group of Americans,
"we'll take the hundred, two-twenty and both the hurdles. I'd bet my
last dollar on that. These Englishmen can't get their legs moving in
a short distance."
"Ah, yes, but then when it comes to the longer distance we can't keep
our wind going. That's where they have us."
"Oh, I don't know, there's Harrington, the Yale captain, who can
certainly get away with the quarter. He's been doing under fifty
seconds right along. He will give us the fifth event, and all we need
to tie is one more, and to win, two more. Why, Dick, old fel, it's a
cinch."
"And what are the other two events, please, Sir Prophet?"
"Shot for one, they can't beat old red-top McGinnis. These English
chaps never learned how to put a shot anyway, and there's the high
jump, certainly ours; it's like taking money from a baby."
"Sounds like seven wins, the way you have it figured out."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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