ARO a
‘ ra
Bellefonte, Pa., September 12, 1924.
THE WORKER.
The worker is always the winner,
The shirker is destined to lose;
A boy is an eager beginner,
Life's chances are his—he may choose
The long, straight highway of duty,
The road that will lead to light,
Or the glittering pathway whose beauty
Is lost in the shadows of night.
The one will allure him and beckon,
The other looks dull to his eye;
Let him pause and carefully reckon
‘Where honor and recompense lie.
They come to the hand of the worker,
The brow of the victor they crown;
They’re out of the reach of the shirker,
And fortune for him wears a frown.
Then, boys, make an earnest endeavor’
Remember, the future is yours;
The sadness of failure was never
The portion of him who endures.
Let “Work and Win” be your motto,
Let service and use be your aim;
The worker must win, as he ought to;
The shirker is useless and lame.
_ —Selected.
A GARAGE IN THE SUNSHINE.
Falling in love is specially a critic-
ical business for simple-minded per-
sons who have room in their heads for
only one idea at a time. It has a ten-
dency to shift the basis of the exist-
ence in a perilous degree before they
are in thé least aware what has hap-
pened to them. . :
. Like most persons who earn their
living at the daily risk of their lives,
Teddy Rocco was not burdened with
too active an imagination. He did his
regular ninety miles an hour round
the motordromes on a “Yellow Fiend”
autocycle with a simple faith in his
luck and no higher aspirations than
he could express in this way:
“No, sir, you won’t find me in this
speed game one day longer than it
takes me to clean up the price of a
share in a cement garage, with ma-
chine-tools complete, and beat it back
to sunny Jax, Florida.”
It was this ambition that led him,
when he was not racing, to give exhi-
bitions at Santoni’s velodrome at Pal-
metto Beach, a track known to the
speed profession as the “Devil’s Soup-
plate.” It was the same lack of im-
agination that enabled him to hear of
the introduction of Miss Sadie Sim-
mons to the soup-plate with feelings
of unmingled disgust.
“A girl!” he ejaculated, and made
for Santoni’s office with his features
richly adorned with chain lubricant.
“A girl! Yes, and a speed limit, too,
I reckon, and pretty-pretty stunts, and
bougquets—what do you know? Bet-
ter call it the ‘Angel’s Roundabout,”
and be done!”
The graphite lubricant failed to con-
ceal the scowl on his face as he burst
into the office. The proprietor, a keen
purveyor of popular excitement, was
rubbing his hands in Mephistophelian
satisfaction over a new poster.
“Daredevil Ted Rocco,” it said, and
“Wild Will Ryan;” and below, in big
red type that crowded the rest almost
off the sheet, “Miss Sadie Simmons,
America’s Queen of the Track.” From
which the sagacious reader will infer
that Miss Simmons was new and un-
proved; otherwise Santoni would in-
fallibly have billed her as “Crazy Sa- |
die,” in suggestion of death-defying |
recklessness.
“Hullo, Teddy!” cried Santoni in his
mighty voice. “What you been doing
to your face?”
“Greasin’ up,” Teddy answered
shortly and cast a malevolent glance
at the bill. “Listen here, San. What's
all this talk about a skirt comin’ on?
We don’t run any musical leg show
here, you know. If you let a dame on
this track, it’s going to put the speeds
on the blink, and then you’ll need a
complete Ziegfeld chorus to hold the
crowd. I've got a fine motion-picture |
of myself bein’ paced by something in |
bag-tights and a picture-hat.”
antoni frowned warningly, jerked
his head toward the half-open door of
his sanctum, and passed a large, em-
barrassed hand over his heavy show-
man’s jowl.
“I do’ know, Ted,” he growled.
“Maybe she ain’t any funeral, either,
if you can believe her. But if you
fancy your chance, you can argue the
point with her yourself, for she’s right
here. Miss Simmons!”
From Santoni’s sanctum came the
sound of a chair abruptly pushed back,
and the click of high heels on the floor.
The proprietor turned away under the
pretense of affixing the poster to the
wall; then the door opened wide and
revealed “America’s Queen of the
Track.”
For a moment she inspected Teddy
Rocco with the interest of a profes-
sional rival. He did not look at all
like a dare-devil just then, but merely
a rather astonished little man with a
_ square mechanic’s jaw and a compact,
wiry figure, his sleeves rolled up and
his arms and face besmeared. There
was some reason for his astonishment,
too, for in “America’s Queen,” instead
of the superannuated, hard-featured
circus-performer he had expected, he
saw a rather shy, spruce little girl,
with bright, black eyes and an ab-
surdly small nose. Her dark hair
hung in two thick, glossy ropes over
her shoulders, and her skirt was short
enough to reveal several inches of
well-modeled ankle.
“What is it, Mr. Santoni ?” she ask-
ed in a small, husky voice.
“It’s only Ted Rocco,” explained the
proprietor. “He don’t think you’ll be
fast enough for this track.” .
The girl s at Teddy as though
he had questioned her respectability.
“How do you know I won't” she de-
manded. A. 1
They were particularly bright eyes.
The daredevil shifted uncomfortably,
and his own eyes wandered over the
room as though in search of suecor.
“It isn’t that, exactly,” he stammer-
ed; “but, you see, Miss, we let ’em rip
here. My makers pay for speed, and
I got to show s or I don’t collect.”
“You aren’t so much,” retorted the | rating person, whom she addressed as
“Queen.” “I bet you don’t average
ninety, and I touched ninety myself at
Coney last week.” :
The daredevil’s eyes ceased to wan-
der, meeting hers in a stare of blank
: he said.
‘i indelibly on his heart; a tiny scarlet
incredulity.
«You did ninety? You!” he said. { Will Ryan, and the wondering “wor-
“For the love of Mike!”
“Why shouldn’t 1? My makers pay |
for speed, too. And when they send the garage,
me along something with more power
to it, I guess, I'll lap you every mile.
I think you’re mean to knock me just
because I'm not a man.” 1 |
“You see?” said Santoni, shrugging
his shoulders. :
Whereupon the
apologies, and retreated to the garage !
in great discomfiture. He sat brood- .
ing on a pile of gasoline-cans and |
watched Wild Will Ryan circling the
track in a private try-out; but instead |
of the racing autocycle, he saw only |
two black eyes that stared reproach-
fully, and heard a small, curiously
deep, and husky voice that assured
him over and over again that he was
mean.
When Ryan dismounted, red-eyed |
and hoarse from cleaving the air like i
a projectile, Ted was still fidgeting |
with a wrench and muttering gloom-
ily.
Yits it a goil 7” asked Ryan.
“Search me. It looks like one—a
little brown girl about as big as a ten- |
cent cigar. But with nerve! Tips me
the crinkled nose because I said she
might get in the way on a small track. ,
Reckons I don’t average ninety—me,
that’s held five records! And when
her dear manufacturers, understand
me, send her the cute little peacherino
of a sixteen-cylinder, eighty-horse dy- |
namite-gun that they're building for
her to go to finishing school on, she’s
going to make me look like a pram- |
pusher with paralysis. Can you beat :
it 99
“Never heard of her,” said Ryan.
“She must be a new one in this game.”
“Oh, she’s all kinds of new, take it
from me. But if she tries to do nine-
ty an hour round this saucer, we won’t
pick up enough of her to be worth
dressing.”
Teddy swung off to remove the
stains of toil from his face. When he
reappeared, hormelly dapper, as be-
comes a successful aptocyeclist, he
found little Miss Simmons preparing |
to try the track. Her costume wrung |
from him an involuntary exclamation.
Her cap, coat, and knickers were all
of gleaming scarlet leather.
“Isn’t she the dandy?” grinned Ry-
an, as they stood aside and watched
her. “I reckon she knows the busi-
ness, at that. She just :shooed her
mechanic away, and started in to fix
all the juice connections herself. And
look at her now, testing every spoke
with her fingers. Some great kid!”
“What’s she riding?” asked Teddy.
“Flying Centaur; new make, I
guess. Bet she pulls down a wad for
it, too. Chunky little thing, ain’t she?
You wouldn’t think she carried metal
to see her in skirts. If she took a spill
at ninety, she’d bounce some.”
“Oh, shut your head!” exclaimed
Teddy Rocco, with a sudden anger
that puzzled even himself.
It was not without a tinge of pro-
fessional jealousy that the two young
men stood in the center of the course |
and watched Miss Simmons pull her ;!
bright new machine to the starting-
point and climb into the saddle. In
Teddy’s mind there was also a eertain
jealousy of Santoni, who held her for
the start. But with the the first
healthy rip of the exhaust, and the
first smooth and perfect circle she de-
scribed round the soup-plate, these
feelings were submerged in profes-
sional appreciation.
Moment by moment she gathered
speed, mounting the steep banking ac-
curately with every lap, until she was
roaring and rattling round the very
uppermost edge like a bright-red mar-
ble in a basin. Santoni slowly saun-
tered over to them, performing a sort
of involuntary waltz as he turned to
follow her with his goggle eyes.
“Maybe she ain’t no funeral, either,”
“You ought to be lynched for let-
ting her do it, San,” said Teddy. “It
isn’t a girl’s game.”
“Well, wouldn’t that jar you?” San-
toni turned on Ryan with palms out-
spread. “First he was sore because
he thought she couldn’t ride, and now
he’s sore because she can!” :
Teddy made no reply. A new and
strange feeling gripped him by the
throat until he choked. As he watch-
ed the track, a picture engraved itself
figure astride a machine that roared
round and round with fiendish energy
until it hung out almost horizontally
from the steep rim of the banking.
Sadie’s black eyes were narrowed to
slits; her roped hair flew out behind
her; her lips were compressed in the
lust of speed as she braced her strong
little knees and elbows against the
leaping of her angry motor. This was,
a sort of girl he had never imagined
in ‘his wildest speculations. A girl
who understood motors, he thought,
could not fail to be in every other way
admirable. From such a girl, for ex-
ample, a man need never fear any-
thing less than a square deal. :
’ hen she Sut od her Jpnjtion and
slipped gradually down the banking,
he was the first to assist her to alight.
“Say, kid, I want to tell you I'm
sorry,” he whispered before the oth-
ers ran up. “I'm glad you're going to
ride with us.” :
For a moment the “Queen’s” eyes
danced with pleasure; then they be-
came softly diffident again as she
turned away to stable her machine.
“] don’t fancy I'll let the show
down so badly,” she smiled over her
shoulder. No
In truth, the popularity of Sadie
Simmons among the erowds that flock-
ed to the velodrome was immediate
and great. She was irresistibly di-
minutive and dainty, and silent and
retiring in manner when not racing;
but once on her machine, rattling and
bouncing round the circumscribed
track with the noise of a whole ex-
press train, she was transformed into
a little red imp of daring unexcelled
by the men; and though they consist-
ently beat her when it came to a test,
it was Sadie whom the crowds cheered
and the fans i 1 ;
~A faded woman, * of an ‘incurable
possi mism, chucked everywhere after
er, like a hen "after an ‘adventurous
duckling. Except for this unexhila-
“Aunty,” -but. who f tly forgot
fie rated aso a ol
er 8s appeared
alone in the world. She‘accepted with
frank pleasure the friendly advances
hand, ig exhibited a cheek decorated
ia | with the imprint of small and oily fin-
daredevil mumbled gers
- “Yes, and you'll be stiff when I'm
| bucket half full of water,
of the fans, the comradeship of Wild
ship of Teddy Roeco. :
One morning Ryan emerged from
laughing immoderately,
and pressing a hand to his face.
“What's bitin’ you, Irish?” inquired
Teddy.
z Irishman withdrew his
on a ground that flamed scarlet.
“It’s little Sadie; she’s straight,
that’s all,” he replied with a grin, as
though he had discovered a choice wit-
ticism. : :
Teddy tore off his coat and flung it
from him. recklessly, and his cheek
flamed suddenly redder than Ryan’s.
through with you, you big loafer!” he
said savagely. “How'd you find that
out
Ryan stretched forth a long arm,
and. swept his colleague into a hug
like a bear’s. :
“Be aisy, little man,” he said. “I
just tried to kiss her while she was
fightin’ with a set o’ new piston rings.
I got mine all right—from the lady.”
But Teddy tore loose and rushed
into the garage, where he found Sa-
die still struggling with a recalcitrant
piston of her dismounted motor. He
seized a cold chisel from the work-
bench. :
“What did that fresh Mick say to
you?” he demanded.
“Drop it at once, Teddy,” command-
ed Sadie. “When I can’t manage Ry-
an with my own hands, I’ll get a gun.
Besides, I want you to hold these rings
tight for me, so I can push this piston
in.
Teddy obeyed, marveling at the
strength of the small brown fingers
that had essayed the task unaided.
Once more that strange, choking sen-
sation assailed him, as he felt his eyes
unaccountably filling with tears.
“Sadie, you're an everlasting little
marvel,” he said. “I expect youll
marry one of these rich fans; but I
wish it was me.”
“I don’t want to marry anybody,”
the girl replied. “Say, ean’t you hold
those rings in without trembling so?”
“But you got to marry somebody,”
Teddy insisted.
“I don’t have to,—there, that’s well
in at last,—at least not for a long
time, till I get good and ready. And |da;
then he’ll have to be extra good
and handsome and rich. I’m awfully
ambitious, you know.”
“That’s all right, kid,”—Teddy
swallowed a lump in his throat,—
“but take care you don’t put it off too
long.”
The girl looked up from her work
with a puzzled air,
“Take a good slant at me,” explain-
ed Teddy. “Don’t you see anything in
my eyes?” ]
“They look queer, kind of anxious
and strained. They’re like Will Ry-
an’s. ;
“Everybody that stays in this game
as long as we have gets the same look.
It comes from being scared stiff once
or twice, and not being able to forget
“I'm never scared,” said Miss Sim-
mons, with a toss of her shapely lit-
tle head. :
- “You haven’t begun yet. Wait till
some one drops in front of you in the
last lap, and you have just half a see-
ond to make up your mind whether
you'll run over him or take a chance
among the crowd. One stunt like that
and you won’t be so pretty.”
“Then you can ask me again,” said
Miss Simmons, with her usual quiet
self-possession. “I can almost see you
doing it.”
“I tell you it’s no game for a girl,”
Teddy persisted.
“Why not?” I'd look nicer dead
than you.”
“Touch wood when you say that,”
advised Teddy, laying his own hand on
the bench.
“I won't,” the girl retorted. “I
reckoned all the chances before I came
into the game, and there's no one to
cry over me if I did get killed except
Aunty, and she’s made up her mind to
it long ago and become quite resigned.
Besides, I've taken chances ever since.
I can remember. Did you ever play
the carnivals? I was raised in them,
if you can call it that. I did the high
dive for years into a sort of canvas
and I don’t
think I’ve a scare in me.” :
Teddy Rocco might have recalled
this conversation, with superstitious
interest in ‘its prophetic nature, the
week before he left for the prize
meetings; but that, with most other
things, was swept out of his mind
when he hunted for Santoni with blood
on his face, swearing that he had al-
ways intended to kill the proprietor
an Lg as well get it over.
It ‘all happened in consequence of
Santoni’s attempt to achieve a gala
finish to his season before his stars
departed. + To that end, he had em-
ployed many banners in decoration of
the velodrome, and one of them, in-
securely affixed to its post, came loose
while the riders were in mid-career.
It fluttered aimlessly down upon the
track, was caught up in the wind of
Ryan’s rush, danced a little behind
him, and finally wrapped itself round
Sadie’s front wheel. There was a gasp
of horror from the spectators as the
flimsy, yellow cotton wound itself
tightly on the hub.
For a fraction of a second the
heavy cycle, urged by its frantic mo-
tor, slurred along the track with its
front wheel jammed; then the tire
burst, the forks snapped like carrots,
and Sadie’s tiny red figure shot ahead
over the handle-bars, struck the wire
fence in front of the spectators, and
fell limply on the track.
In that final emergency she had re-
tained presence of mind enough to cut
off the ignition, and below her on the
incline her machine lay crumpled and
a as silent and shattered as her-
self.
Teddy Rocco was fully fifty yards
behind; that is, he had a good long
second in which to do his thinking.
To his left was Sadie’s machine, on his
right the crowd yelled an inarticulate
chorus of fear and warning, which he
heard above the roar of his motor.
Dead shead of him lay a small, out-
stretched figure in torn and dusty
scarlet leather; and ' immediately
above the whit little face was a cl
foot of almost perpendicular banking.
With a prayer for speed, he tore
his- throttle wide opén, and Sremed |
straight for that pale, blood-stained
face until he could see the dark lash-
es on the flickering eyelids; then with
a violent swerve he shot up the in-
cline, and cleared her by inches.
spectators cried aloud in terror
as his front wheel rose on the wire
mesh in front of them, raced along it
for a yard or two, shaved a fence post,
and slipped back upon the track. The |
machine lurched sickeningly into the
hollow of the banking in a last effort
to recover its balance.
Teddy Rocco’s engine had stopped
as he cleared the girl, and his toe was
pressed hard into the fork of his
front wheel. The braked tire screech-
ed along the track, and when at last
he si
‘ finished his examination; but - her
! black eyes studied his face in an ag-
ony of suspense. A momentary smile,
; accompanied by a raising of his bushy,
: gray eyebrows, fore her the cue.
“Doctor, will I get well?” she asked
almost under her breath.
“Why, of course,” replied the doc-
tor. “As well as ever you were, I'm
hoping.” :
“But—but will I be ugly?”
“Little Miss Vanity!” grinned the
doctor. “You ought to be thankful
‘you have a breath left in your body.
i No, you won’t be ugly, if you mean
disfigured. Of course there’ll be
the ground, his speed was A scars—
not more than twenty miles an hour.
To the crowd it seemed that he lay
‘just where he had fallen, and they
roared aloud in relief, and in admira-
tion of what Appeared to be purely
consummate pluck and skill.
When Teddy recovered his senses,
drank out of a flask that Ryan held to
his lips, and stared about him, the
first thing he saw was a tiny patch of
red disappearing over the edge of the
track in the arms of the attendants.
Behind walked the faded woman he
knew as “Aunty,” wringing her hands
in utterly justified pessimism. At one
entrance a knot of spectators filed
sadly out, and among them a fright-
ened woman wept without restraint.
Teddy went mad. He wanted to
follow the little red patch wherever
it might be bound. Restrained from
this, he desired greatly the death of
Santoni.
“I told him them things was dan-
gerous,” he repeated, with the futile
insistence of an intoxicated man.
When they laid hands on him again,
he fainted, and it. was then that they
had the first opportunity to ascertain
that his shoulder was dislocated. With
the tenderness of a woman, Ryan
picked him up and bore him away.
During the week before he was due
to depart Teddy besieged the hospital
in which lay Sadie’s tortured little
form, and sent up flowers daily, until
at last the nurse assured him that she
had been able to see them, and even
to hold some of them in her hand. At
this he begged and stormed and wept
until he was allowed to see her, des-
pite the fact that, as they explained
to him in vain, it was not visitors’
y.
But when he stood at her bedside,
and she smiled wanly up at him out
of her bandages, and even put forth a
very white little hand for him to
shake, a great peace came over him.
There was still enough of her, after
all, to be worth dressing.
“Tough luck, Teddy-Eddy!” she
whispered in that deep, small voice of
hers. “Just to think I might never
hear the band play for the start again,
or the engine rip when I turn on the
juice—it gives me a lot to worry
about. You ought to be glad I didn’t
take you at your word that day in the
garage when you wanted to lay Ryan
out and asked me to marry you. Look
at what a fix you'd be in now!”
“It wouldn’t have made any differ-
ence,” murmured Teddy. “I’d have
wanted you just the same.” >
“Do you mean to say you’d marry
a wreck like me, Teddy Rocco? I'm
all to pieces; you haven’t a notion
how badly I got mashed.”
“And I don’t. care, neither,”
Teddy stoutly.
Heaven!
and you can smile. Shall I send for a
parson ?”
“What, now 7”
“Only say the word.”
The girl picked at the sheet for a
moment, and her eyes. now ringed
with suffering and no longer bright,
searched his face wonderingly; but
they found no trace of an emotion oth-
er than eagerness to be as good as
his word. i
“I don’t know,” she -said at last;
“it’ll need thinking over. You know,
it was hitting the wire fence that
saved me, Teddy. It was like diving
into a net.”
“Pretty hard net,” grinned the boy,
reminiscently.
“Lucky for you, or you’d have gone
through it. Teddy boy, why didn’t
you run over me? I'm so small!
You must have been mad to ride into
the fence like that.” : ;
“Who told = ?” demanded Teddy.
“Nurse. he said you hadnt a
chance in a thousand to get round me
without breaking your neck. I always
liked you, Teddy. I'm glad you're
brave.” ’
“Then why not marry me, Sadie?”
The boy came closer, while the nurse
hovered about impatiently. “You
can’t come back you know. However
good they patch you up, you're done
with the game.”
“Marry you, after what I said about
looking for a rich guy? I'm bad and
selfish, and I want so much. And I'm
older than you think—nearly nineteen.
I only wore my hair that way for a
stall. Would you really marry me
now, when I'm all cut up and no one
else would look at me?”
“Call me and see,” suggested Ted-
dy, quietly. :
“Tl let you know’ later, Teddy. It
depends—” : :
“But I'm going to Dayton tonight
to race; and then I go South again.
How am I to know?”
Sadie considered for a moment with
eyes closed. When she opened them
again, her face was very grave.
“Come past here on your way to the
said
“You're alive, thank
depot,” she said, “and look at this win-
dow above the bed. It's the fourth
from the end. If the blind’s up, you
can bring along your parson.”
“And it it’s down 2” :
“If it is down, it will mean that
you'd better forget all about me.”
“Then leave it up Sadie,” he whis-
pered as the nurse bustled up sug-
gestively. “I'm only two thousand
short of buying a garage in Florida,
where I used to work. V-n’d love to | Ply.
be down there—all sunshin~. pelicans,
ms, and sugar-cane, and butter-
ies ‘as big as your hand coaring
about. You'd get well and s‘rong
down there, Sadie, and I'd be s- ~ond
to you! Don’t let them pull it do n'”
to fidget with the pillows.
“I'll have to get you to leave now,
young man,” she said. “The doctor
will be here in a moment.”
“Take care of yourself, Teddy,”
smiled the girl, waving her hand fee-
bly as he tore himself away. “Touch
wood as you go out.” ¢
She set her teeth for the doctor's
visit, and said not a word until he had
And you're Sadie Simmons,
The nurse came nearer and began
“Do you think I'll be able to ride
again ?” persisted the girl.
“I don’t know why you shouldn’t be
{ able to ride; but I guess when you set
eyes on the track you won’t want to.
{ As for the rest the cuts are pretty
| and not deep. I should say, on
i the whole, that you'll have to look
! fairly close into the glass to see the
{ one on your cheek, and your hair will
{ cover the scalp wound. The others
aren’t anywhere to prevent you from
{ wearing low-cut frocks. Now, are
you satisfied, daughter of Eve?”
i “Yes, thank you, Doctor. If the
bone in my arm mends all right, that
is. It’s hurting a whole lot today.”
i “That means precisely that it is
- mending,” said the doctor as he picked
{ up his bag to depart. “And now that
‘ you’re sure of your precious beauty,
you'd better try to get some sleep.”
| Sadie closed her eyes obediently,
* but her brows were knitted in thought.
: When the doctor had moved on, she
looked up again with a sigh.
“Nurse, the light bothers my eyes,
and I can’t turn my head,” she said.
“Will you please pull down the
{ blind ?”
While it is still young and overflow-
ing with vitality, the human frame is
able to summon life forces to its aid
that can sometimes knit up broken
bones and torn tissues as though by
magic power. Teddy Rocco had seen
various striking demonstrations of
this quality in his racing career, but
it had never occurred to him that a
mere girl might possess it. He was
greatly astonished, therefore, on
meeting Ryan at a southern track, to
hear that Sadie was once more riding
for the “Flying Centaur” people.
“She don’t look a cent worse,” said
Ryan. “Same little red suit, same lit-
tle smile, same throaty little voice.
And she’s making good, too. Been all
over the West, and packed up a nice
parcel of the long green. Not that
she'll ever need it; that kid will mar-
ry a million some day. One of the
guys that was following her round
was big rich.
All that day Teddy rode entirely
without judgment, and his old dare-
devil dash was not in him. In fact,
that was becoming his consistent ex-
perience. - Every time he would set
his teeth and let his engine out to the
last notch to pass the man in front, a
blind seemed to shut down in front of
him, or a little red figure would ap-
pear stretched on the track ahead, and
he would let the chance slip by.
Consequently, when he returned to
give exhibitions at the Devil’s Soup-
plate, he was no nearer the white
southern garage of his dreams than
‘he had been the previous season. And
fthe life of a’ speed-man is short—
much shorter, as a rule, than that of
a boxing champion.
That garage, gleaming in the sun,
with a palm or two in front and liz-
ards basking in its shadow, had been
Teddy’s lodestar for years; but on the
first day of their meeting, Sadie’s
brisk little figure had slipped into the
picture, and he could not imagine the
place now without seeing her standing
at the door in a white dress, with no
hat, but with a bunch of crimson flow-
ers at her waist.
“This is my finish,” he told Santo-
ni; “I'm a has-been. I’ve started see-
in’ things. I won’t ride after this sea-
son.
Then he learned, with a shock, that
Sadie was to be his racing-companion
once more. She had walked into San-
toni’s office and offered to give exhi-
bitions on the old terms; and Santoni,
being too good a business man, and
too stout withal to stand on his head
for joy, had shaken her by both hands,
and spent an afternoon in devising a
poster more sensational than any he
had previously compassed.
When he wrote “America’s Fore-
most Queen of the Track” it seemed
to him weak and colorless; and he
threw adjectives into it until Sadie
had a title as long as her arm.
Teddy slipped away and hid himself
when he saw her arrive, with a knot
of admirers, to survey the track. An
sized her recent prosperity, and her
obvious gaiety of manner was like a
snub. When she laughingly pointed
out to her companions the precise spot
on which she had struck the providen-
tial wire fence, Teddy shuddered and
turned away.
In the garage he came upon a me-
chanic overhauling her mount, an ex-
cessively powerful machine with four
cylinders, its frame enameled bright
scarlet, and nickeled in an unusual de-
gree. It looked a sufficiently danger-
ous mount for a strong and skillful
man racing on a spacious track. He
shrank from seeing Sadie ride it in
the restricted circle of the soup-plate.
When they appeared on the track
in the evening, however, he could no
longer ignore her presence. Indeed,
she came behind him and slapped him
gaily on the shoulder, such a trim,
joyously captivating . ‘midget, in her
scarlet leather motor-jacket, that his
heart leaped at the sight of her.
“Who said I couldn’ come back,
Teddy Rocco?” she asked, and the fa-
miliar, curious huskiness of her voice
thrilled him so that he could not re-
“I'm going to. make you look like a
never-was tonight, Teddy-Eddy,” she
went on, with a sort of malicious ex-
hilaration in her manner. “I expect
you're still single?”
“Oh, cut it out Sadie!” he pleaded.
“I never done you any harm.”
i “Do you love me as much as ever?”
' asked little Miss Simmons, with an
'unwonted feline delight in eruelty.
“The villain thought he had the poor
i little girl just where he wanted her,
didn’t he? But the kind, handsome
doctor rescued her all right; and now
she’s going to Make the villain look
like thirty cents.
© #You’ll have to go some,” said Ted-
expensively tailored costume empha-
dy, grinning miserably, as he. stoopec
to adjust his carbureter. When h¢
mounted his machine he was. in 2
white-hot, searing temper. If all the
women in the world had been laid side
by side on an endless track, he woulc
have ridden over their necks at tha
moment with an exquisite pleasure.
But though he rode with the cour
age of bitterness and desperation, h¢
soon found that Sadie had the heels
of him. Once or twice when she sho’
past him with an almost crazy reck
essness, the thought flashed throug!
his mind that an imperceptible swerw:
of his handle-bar would all but inev
itably end both their lives, and h«
weakly throttled down his engine
fearful lest the subconscious working
of his tortured mind might communi
cate a tremor to his arm; and ever
time that Sadie passed him with :
vicious spurt of her diabolical scarle
mount, he caught in her eye a glean
of impish triumph.
It was when he found himself rid
ing behind her, with his front wheel :
hand’s-breadth from her hind one
that he realized how utterly his nerw
had failed. Ever and again, under hi
front wheel appeared a white, blood
flecked little face, with eyelashes tha
quivered in agony. With a sob, hi
cut out his engine and slid slowl
down the track.
“I'm through,” he said to a mechan
ic who seized his eycle. “I don’t thin!
I'll need her again.”
For a long time he sat in the gloon
of the garage in dumb agony, an
even there the rip of Sadie’s powerfu
engine followed him above the cheer
of the crowd. Now and then, in th
midst of the uproar, he could hear th
voice of Santoni yelling the laps; the:
there was a final outburst of cheering
When it died away, Sadie’s motor wa
silent. A moment later, as it seeme
to him, the door of the worksho
slammed, and he looked up, to see he
standing before him, her black eye
dancing in that strange exhilaratio:
that he had noted before, her ches
heaving with excitement under th
vivid scarlet of her jacket.
“I've shaded your track recorc
Teddy Rocco!” she eried. “I've beat
en you to bits! Now say I can’t com
back! I’ve come, haven't 1?”
“I guess,” said Teddy, humbly.
“And what’s more, I've cleaned u
three thousand dollars this seasor
and I haven't a scar left on me tha
you could see in this light. But youl
have to take my word for that. W
can talk on level terms now Teddy. I'r
as good as ever I was, don’t yo
think 7” :
“I expect so,” stammered Teddy
“It’s me that’s in bad. I've lost heart
Sadie, and my nerve’s gone. I'v
been scared a time too many.”
. “Then get your machine and rus
me away,” cried Sadie, “and marr
me the first minute you can; and we’
get out of this to Florida in the morr
ing, and see the garage and the sur
shine and the butterflies. It’s a squar
deal now, Teddy-Eddy. Stand up an
kiss your honey-bird, you brave, silly
big-hearted, mush-headed little man
for I love you so much I couldn’t hav
offered you anything less, and I'v
waited so long, my heart feels like ;
will burst!”—By Joseph Ernest, i
The Century Magazine.
GAME IS INCREASING
IN PENNSYLVANI/
Harrisburg, Pa.—Protection ¢
small game through exterminatio
of the animals that prey upon the:
has been remarkably successful, th
State Game Commissioner report:
and small animals are thriving @
never before.
During the last two years an ur
ceasing war has been waged on gam
destroying animals of all kinds re
sulting in 130,000 of this type bein
killed. Wildcats, gray and red foxe
weasels, hawks, owls, crows and stra
dogs were included in the list of an
mals killed. .
To the increase in bounties and tk
vermin trapping contest are attribu’
ed the success of the war. During tk
past two years, the State paid out
total of $189,714 in bounties.
Weasels led the list of animals kil
ed for bounty. A total of 95,036 we:
killed by trappers during the peric
from June 1, 1922, to May 31, 192
Gray foxes were next with 12,26
then red foxes with 7,952 while wil
cats brought up the foot of the li:
with 968.
“Game conditions generally are in
proving,” Seth E. Gordon, secretax
of the Commission reported, “becaus
of the reduction of the danger fro:
vermin and the favorable weath¢
conditions.” :
In discussing the various species «
ame to be found in the State, M
rdon said that elk are increasin
slowly and deer are increasing rapi
ly. During the 1923 season a total
6,452 deer were killed while in 197
the EN of the legal bucks totalle
Sportsmen favor a change in ti
hunting laws which would precluc
the killing of deer having less ths
two points on their horns, Mr. Go
don said. {
Bears are increasing rapidly ar
have been found in territory whe:
they had not been previously seen fi
twenty years. Only 500 bears we:
killed in 1923, with the prize blac
bear ‘bagged by Norman Coykenda
of Millford, near Governor Pinchot
home, His rifle brought down a be:
weighing 633 pounds, was nine fe
in length and measured nineteen inc!
es from eartip to eartip.—Ex.
Forest Trees.
Young forest trees can be secur
in lots of 100 or more for plant
on waste lands by citizens of . x
State, free of charge except the 3
tual cost of packing and transport
tion. 2
White pine, red pine, Norway spru
and’ larch trees will be available f
distribution next spring. i
Application for these trees shou
be sent in now to the district foreste
or Dept. of Forest and Waters, Ha
risburg, Pa. a
—~—-1In the year 1907 China enac
ed the most spectacular moral refor
in history. To free thmeselves of t!
opium slavery they plowed up t
poppy on 8 million acres of land, clo
ed up 500,000 opium’ ‘dens, and o¢
smokers stacked up their pipes in t
market places and burned them.