"You"re not looking well, Stover. Are you ill?" inquired Miss Chapin.
"Not physical," said the foreman, checking the movement which had not yet communicated itself the entire length of his frame. "I reckon my sperret"s broke, that"s all."
"Haven"t you recovered from that foot-race?"
"I have not, and I never will, so long as that ornery Centipede outfit has got it on us."
"Nonsense, Stover!"
"What have they done?" inquired Miss Blake, curiously. "I haven"t heard about any foot-race."
"You tell her," said the man, with another sigh, and a hopeless gesture that told the depth of his feelings.
"Why, Stover hired a fellow a couple of months ago as a horse- wrangler. The man said he was hungry, and made a good impression, so we put him on."
Here Stover slowly raised one booted foot and kicked his other calf. "The boys nicknamed him Humpy Joe--"
"Why, poor thing! Was he humpbacked?" inquired Helen.
"No," answered Still Bill. "Humpback is lucky. We called him Humpy Joe because when it came to running he could sure get up and hump himself."
"Soon after Joseph went to work," Jean continued, "the Centipede outfit hired a new cook. You know the Centipede Ranch--the one you see over yonder by the foot-hills."
"It wasn"t "soon after," it was simuletaneous," said Stover, darkly. "We"re beginnin" to see plain at last." He went on as if to air the injury that was gnawing him. "One day we hear that this grub-slinger over yonder thinks he can run, which same is as welcome to us as the smell of flowers on a spring breeze, for Humpy Joe had amused us in his idle hours by running jack-rabbits to earth--"
"Not really?" said Miss Blake.
"Well, no, but from what we see we judge he"d ought to limp a hundred yards in about nothing and three-fifths seconds, so we frame a race between him and the Centipede cook."
"As a matter of fact, there has been a feud for years between the two outfits," Jean offered.
"With tumulchous joy we bet our wages and all the loose gear we have, and in a burst of childish enthusiasm we put up--the talking-machine."
"A phonograph?"
"Yes. An Echo Phonograph," said Miss Chapin.
"Of New York and Paris," added Stover.
"Our boys won it from this very Centipede outfit at a bronco- busting tournament in Cheyenne."
"Wyoming." Stover made the location definite.
"The Centipede crowd took their defeat badly on Frontier Day, and swore to get even."
"And was Humpy Joe defeated?" asked Helen.
"Was he?" Still Bill shook his head sadly, and sighed for a third time. "It looked like he was running backward, miss."
"But really he was only beaten a foot. It was a wonderful race. I saw it," said Jean. "It made me think of the races at college."
Miss Blake puckered her brows trying to think.
"Joseph," she said. "No, I don"t think I have seen him."
Stover"s lips met grimly. "I don"t reckon you have, miss. Since that race he has been hard to descry. He pa.s.sed from view hurriedly, so to speak, headed toward the foot-hills, and leaping from crag to crag like the hardy shamrock of the Swiss Yelps."
Miss Blake giggled. "What made him hurry so?"
"Us!" Stover gazed at her solemnly. "We ain"t none of us been the same since that foot-race. You see, it ain"t the financial value of that Echo Phonograph, nor the "double-cross" that hurts: it"s the fact that the mangiest outfit in the Territory has trimmed us out of the one thing that stands for honor and excellence and "scientific attainment," as the judge said when we won it. That talking-machine meant more to us than you Eastern folks can understand, I reckon."
"If I were you I would cheer up," said Miss Blake, kindly, and with some importance. "Miss Chapin has a college friend coming this week, and he can win back your trophy."
Stover glanced up at Jean quickly.
"Is that right, Miss Chapin?"
"He can if he will," Jean a.s.serted.
"Can he run?"
"He is the intercollegiate champion," declared that young lady, with proud dignity.
"And do you reckon he"d run for us and the Echo Phonograph of New York and Paris, if we framed a race? It"s an honor!"
But Miss Chapin suddenly recalled her brother"s caution of the day before, and hesitated.
"I--I don"t think he would. You see, he is an amateur--he might be out of training--"
"The idea!" exclaimed Miss Blake, indignantly. "If Culver won"t run, I know who will!" She closed her lips firmly, and turned to the foreman. "You tell your friends that we"ll see you get your trophy back."
"Helen, I--"
"I mean it!" declared Miss Blake, with spirit.
Stover bowed loosely. "Thank you, miss. The very thought of it will cheer up the gang. Life "round here is blacker "n a spade flush. I think I"ll tell Willie." He shambled rapidly off around the house.
"Helen dear, I don"t want Culver to get mixed up in this affair,"
explained Miss Chapin, as soon as they were alone. "It"s all utterly foolish. Jack doesn"t want him to, either."
"Very well. If Culver doesn"t feel that he can beat that cook running, I know who will try. Mr. Speed will do anything I ask.
It"s a shame the way those men have been treated."
"But Mr. Speed isn"t a sprinter."
"Indeed!" Miss Blake bridled. "Perhaps Culver Covington isn"t the only athlete in Yale College. I happen to know what I"m talking about. Naturally the two boys have never competed against each other, because they are friends--Mr. Speed isn"t the sort to race his room-mate. Oh! he wouldn"t tell me he could run if it were not true."
"I don"t think he will consent when he learns the truth."