Chapter 24 The Sports

    There were certain houses at Eckleton which had, as it were,specialised in certain competitions. Thus, Gay's, who never by anychance survived the first two rounds of the cricket and footballhousers, invariably won the shooting shield. All the other houses senttheir brace of men to the range to see what they could do, but everyyear it was the same. A pair of weedy obscurities from Gay's wouldtake the shield by a comfortable margin. In the same way Mulholland'shad only won the cricket cup once since they had become a house, butthey had carried off the swimming cup three years in succession, andsix years in all out of the last eight. The sports had always beenlooked on as the perquisite of the School House; and this year, withMilligan to win the long distances, and Maybury the high jump and theweight, there did not seem much doubt at their success. These twoalone would pile up fifteen points. Three points were given for a win,two for second place, and one for third. It was this that encouragedKennedy in the hope that Dencroft's might have a chance. Nobody in thehouse could beat Milligan or Maybury, but the School House second andthird strings were not so invincible. If Dencroft's, by means ofsecond and third places in the long races and the other events whichwere certainties for their opponents, could hold the School House,Fenn's sprinting might just give them the cup. In the meantime theytrained hard, but in an unobtrusive fashion which aroused no fear inSchool House circles.

　　The sports were fixed for the last Saturday of term, but not all theraces were run on that day. The half-mile came off on the previousThursday, and the long steeplechase on the Monday after.

　　The School House won the half-mile, as they were expected to do.

　　Milligan led from the start, increased his lead at the end of thefirst lap, doubled it half-way through the second, and finally, with adazzling sprint in the last seventy yards, lowered the Eckleton recordby a second and three-fifths, and gave his house three points.

　　Kennedy, who stuck gamely to his man for half the first lap, wasbeaten on the tape by Crake, of Mulholland's. When sports' day came,therefore, the score was School House three points, Mulholland's two,Dencroft's one. The success of Mulholland's in the half was to theadvantage of Dencroft's. Mulholland's was not likely to score manymore points, and a place to them meant one or two points less to theSchool House.

　　The sports opened all in favour of Dencroft's, but those who knew drewno great consolation from this. School sports always begin with thesprints, and these were Dencroft's certainties. Fenn won the hundredyards as easily as Milligan had won the half. Peel was second, and aBeddell's man got third place. So that Dencroft's had now six pointsto their rival's three. Ten minutes later they had increased theirlead by winning the first two places at throwing the cricket ball,Fenn's throw beating Kennedy's by ten yards, and Kennedy's being a fewfeet in front of Jimmy Silver's, which, by gaining third place,represented the only point Blackburn's managed to amass during theafternoon.

　　It now began to dawn upon the School House that their supremacy wasseriously threatened. Dencroft's, by its success in the footballcompetition, had to a great extent lived down the reputation the househad acquired when it had been Kay's, but even now the notion of itswinning a cup seemed somehow vaguely improper. But the fact had to befaced that it now led by eleven points to the School House's three.

　　"It's all right," said the School House, "our spot events haven't comeoff yet. Dencroft's can't get much more now."And, to prove that they were right, the gap between the two scoresbegan gradually to be filled up. Dencroft's struggled hard, but theSchool House total crept up and up. Maybury brought it to six bywinning the high jump. This was only what had been expected of him.

　　The discomforting part of the business was that the other two placeswere filled by Morrell, of Mulholland's, and Smith, of Daly's. Andwhen, immediately afterwards, Maybury won the weight, with anotherSchool House man second, leaving Dencroft's with third place only,things began to look black for the latter. They were now only onepoint ahead, and there was the mile to come: and Milligan could giveany Dencroftian a hundred yards at that distance.

　　But to balance the mile there was the quarter, and in the mile Kennedycontrived to beat Crake by much the same number of feet as Crake hadbeaten him by in the half. The scores of the two houses were nowlevel, and a goodly number of the School House certainties were past.

　　Dencroft's forged ahead again by virtue of the quarter-mile. Fenn wonit; Peel was second; and a dark horse from Denny's got in third. Withthe greater part of the sports over, and a lead of five points totheir name, Dencroft's could feel more comfortable. The hurdle-racewas productive of some discomfort. Fenn should have won it, as beingblessed with twice the pace of any of his opponents. But Maybury, thejumper, made up for lack of pace by the scientific way in which hetook his hurdles, and won off him by a couple of feet. Smith,Dencroft's second string, finished third, thus leaving the totalsunaltered by the race.

　　By this time the public had become alive to the fact that Dencroft'swere making a great fight for the cup. They had noticed thatDencroft's colours always seemed to be coming in near the head of theprocession, but the School House had made the cup so much their own,that it took some time for the school to realise that anotherhouse--especially the late Kay's--was running them hard for firstplace. Then, just before the hurdle-race, fellows with "correct cards"hastily totted up the points each house had won up-to-date. To thegeneral amazement it was found that, while the School House hadfourteen, Dencroft's had reached nineteen, and, barring the long runto be decided on the Monday, there was nothing now that the SchoolHouse must win without dispute.

　　A house that will persist in winning a cup year after year has to payfor it when challenged by a rival. Dencroft's instantly became warmfavourites. Whenever Dencroft's brown and gold appeared at thescratch, the school shouted for it wildly till the event was over. Bythe end of the day the totals were more nearly even, but Dencroft'swere still ahead. They had lost on the long jump, but notunexpectedly. The totals at the finish were, School Housetwenty-three, Dencroft's twenty-five. Everything now depended on thelong run.

　　"We might do it," said Kennedy to Fenn, as they changed. "Milligan's acert for three points, of course, but if we can only get two we winthe cup.""There's one thing about the long run," said Fenn; "you never quiteknow what's going to happen. Milligan might break down over one of thehedges or the brook. There's no telling."Kennedy felt that such a remote possibility was something of a brokenreed to lean on. He had no expectation of beating the School Houselong distance runner, but he hoped for second place; and second placewould mean the cup, for there was nobody to beat either himself orCrake.

　　The distance of the long run was as nearly as possible five miles. Thecourse was across country to the village of Ledby in a sort ofsemicircle of three and a half miles, and then back to the schoolgates by road. Every Eckletonian who ran at all knew the route byheart. It was the recognised training run if you wanted to trainparticularly hard. If you did not, you took a shorter spin. At themilestone nearest the school--it was about half a mile from thegates--a good number of fellows used to wait to see the first of therunners and pace their men home. But, as a rule, there were few reallyhot finishes in the long run. The man who got to Ledby first generallykept the advantage, and came in a long way ahead of the field.

　　On this occasion the close fight Kennedy and Crake had had in the mileand the half, added to the fact that Kennedy had only to get secondplace to give Dencroft's the cup, lent a greater interest to the racethan usual. The crowd at the milestone was double the size of the onein the previous year, when Milligan had won for the first time. Andwhen, amidst howls of delight from the School House, the same runnerran past the stone with his long, effortless stride, before any of theothers were in sight, the crowd settled down breathlessly to watch forthe second man.

　　Then a yell, to which the other had been nothing, burst from theSchool House as a white figure turned the corner. It was Crake.

　　Waddling rather than running, and breathing in gasps; but still Crake.

　　He toiled past the crowd at the milestone.

　　"By Jove, he looks bad," said someone.

　　And, indeed, he looked very bad. But he was ahead of Kennedy. That wasthe great thing.

　　He had passed the stone by thirty yards, when the cheering broke outagain. Kennedy this time, in great straits, but in better shape thanCrake. Dencroft's in a body trotted along at the side of the road,shouting as they went. Crake, hearing the shouts, looked round, almostfell, and then pulled himself together and staggered on again. Therewere only a hundred yards to go now, and the school gates were insight at the end of a long lane of spectators. They looked to Kennedylike two thick, black hedges. He could not sprint, though a hundredvoices were shouting to him to do so. It was as much as he could do tokeep moving. Only his will enabled him to run now. He meant to get tothe gates, if he had to crawl.

　　The hundred yards dwindled to fifty, and he had diminished Crake'slead by a third. Twenty yards from the gates, and he was onlyhalf-a-dozen yards behind.

　　Crake looked round again, and this time did what he had nearly donebefore. His legs gave way; he rolled over; and there he remained, withthe School House watching him in silent dismay, while Kennedy went onand pitched in a heap on the other side of the gates.

　　* * * * *"Feeling bad?" said Jimmy Silver, looking in that evening to makeinquiries.

　　"I'm feeling good," said Kennedy.

　　"That the cup?" asked Jimmy.

　　Kennedy took the huge cup from the table.

　　"That's it. Milligan has just brought it round. Well, they can't saythey haven't had their fair share of it. Look here. School House.

　　School House. School House. School House. Daly's. School House.

　　Denny's. School House. School House. _Ad infinitum_."They regarded the trophy in silence.

　　"First pot the house has won," said Kennedy at length. "The veryfirst.""It won't be the last," returned Jimmy Silver, with decision.

The End