The Great Race

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22100, 4 May 1935, Page 5 (Supplement)

The Great Race

Chapter V.—Faulk

That morning there had been running practice in Hyde Park. This had been followed up by masga<re, and now a bus was waiting outside the Biarrit?, to convey tho whole party to the grounds of Abbey College where the school track was to be placed at their disposal. All were aboard with one exception, and Mr. Bruin stood on the kerb beEide Spike looking anxious. Faulkner was missing! They had been waiting for a quarter of an hour and Mr. Bruin's irritation had grown to fever heat. He spun about and gave a signal. " We can wait here no longer. We ;are expected at a certain time and we shall be officially received. Driver . . . Commence!" He motioned Spike aboard, tjien swung on himself as the private bus left the kerb and sat down alone at the back. His arms were folded, his back was hunched, his large black hat—,a cross between an umbrella and a toadstool —almost completely hid his head, and he looked pathetically like the most famous dormouse in the world, for even when Spike gave him a friendly nudge and croaked " You don't want to upset yourself, now, mister!" he stirred once only and then subsided into a sulk of such dimensions that nobody present had ever seen the like. * * * * * The sun came into Mr. Bruin's life again on the grounds of Abbey College. The party had been greeted by a famous headmaster. An Old Blue had escorted them to the school track. Everyone was looking at Mr. Bruin as if he were a foreign potentate, and lots of the boys of Abbey College had come out with cameras, and autograph books.

For the moment Mr. Bruin forgot Faulkner and was content to bask in the limelight. His party retired ta change, and came oat in thoir running; shorts and team colours, looking remarkably spick and span. They were born runners all. They moved with grace. They had no shyness. They were already making friends with the Abbey fellows; Spike remained at hand, watching their form, and sometimes croaking his instructions to them. The Old Blue, at Mr. Bruin's right hand, asked what the fixtures were to be, and Mr. Bruin told him. "We meet the London Public Schools on Saturday. After that wo race the North, and finally," he said, sticking his umbrella into the ground as if planting a memorial tree, fAiding both hands upon it and holding high his head, " England!" The Old Blue was following the practice interestedly.

By Hylton Cleaver

ner Miiases the.' Bus

"An International! What sort of a fellow havo you for tho mile?" Mr. Bruin flushed in vexation. " The ass missed the bus. On the' track ho is a world-beater, but ho appears in o:her respects to bo a first class idiot." " Wo hav:< a remarkable man in England," said the other quietly. " I should like to see that race. Let's hope they won't meet till the last match. They probably won't because ho comes from a schoul in the South. If your man's anything like a world-beater that race should bo historic." " Whether 'ho beats the world or not will probably depend," said Mr. Bruin feelingly, " on how often I beat him. beforehand. I, havo a good mind to begin this evening. The trouble is that he is twice my size and strength . . . but," ho concluded, as if to console himself, " there is always Spike, of course." *<»-*** That evening, at the hotel, the team as a whole waited for Faulkner. They had needed no prompting from Mr. Bruin; they were seething. They sat, many with grimly folded arms, and all with dour expressions, and Faulkner, who had been sent for, strolled in and looked round them with surprise. " Hullo, lias somebody had bad news ?" " You're ;;;oing to get bad news." said Manke'i, " now." Ho was the strong man (if the team, the putter of the weight and the thrower of the hammer, and now that he was in cold fury he looked a most forbidding figure. His jaw protruded. " Well," said Faulkner quietly, " what's the matter?" " We didn't like the way you missed the bus to-day and we didn't like the way you came bapk and made a joke of it. It looked to us insufferably bad form." . . Faulkner changed his expression. His cheeks bad become a little pink and his lips were tightened. " What prompted you to think I want to hear your views?" • " We didn't think so. We thought it would do you good, to hear them. You don't seem to have apologised even now, and we want to know why not." " Because," said Faulkner levelly, " I'm not a child. I don't have to answer for every action, and I don't intend to. And, as far as that goes, jou seem to forget I was made captain of this party." " That," said Baynes, the hurdler, " can be corrected easily enough. Old Bruin doesn't know it, but you have a reputation for this sort of thing. We owe the old boy a good deal, and we mean to set' he gets fair play. Everyone's taking; this trip seriously . . . except apparently yourself." (To be Continued.)