St Nicholas [serial] . Hiswatch had been carefully regulated and was clad as warmly and as lightly as couldbe. In his pockets were the only weights hepermitted himself—a few sizable cobblestoneswhich he meant to throw at any dog that mightharass him. At first he hoped that the message mightcome to him ahead of time. As the minutesdragged on with no sign of Punk on the horizon,he began to despair. As the hour of the sched-ule came, he grew more solemn. Fifteen min-utes went by, then twenty, then thirty, and hewas as restless as a caged panther. At last he caught sight of a little speck i
St Nicholas [serial] . Hiswatch had been carefully regulated and was clad as warmly and as lightly as couldbe. In his pockets were the only weights hepermitted himself—a few sizable cobblestoneswhich he meant to throw at any dog that mightharass him. At first he hoped that the message mightcome to him ahead of time. As the minutesdragged on with no sign of Punk on the horizon,he began to despair. As the hour of the sched-ule came, he grew more solemn. Fifteen min-utes went by, then twenty, then thirty, and hewas as restless as a caged panther. At last he caught sight of a little speck in thedistance. It grew slowly into the semblanceof a bicyclist. It was Punk, exhausted, and ignorant of thethirty-five minutes handicap he had given Quiz. 4§4 THE LAKERIM ATHLETIC CLUB. [April, Quiz went out to meet him, and rode along-side, taking the precious parcel as they flung it over his shoulder and darted away,leaving Punk to fall off into a convenient softspot and regain his breath at his THE fellow leaped up from a fence-corner to head him off. Punk was alarmed at the speed with whichQuiz began his relay, for a long, steep hill con-fronted him. He yelled out a word advisinghim to go slow at first and save himself; but Quizknew that hills have both ups and downs, andhe knew that, especially in relay-racing over rough country, it is best to apply the strengthwhere it will give the best results. So he pumped and drove his pedals roundand round, as if he were on some heavy tread-mill. He strove till every muscle in his legswas an ache and everybreath like a knife in hislungs. It seemed thatthe hill was never toend. But, wavering andbeaten out, he finallymade the crest in won-derful time, and givinghimself a good startover it, planted his wearyfeet on the coasters andlet the wheel do therest. His speed grewand grew till he was aregular comet. He flewinto ruts that threat-ened to fling him, struckrocks that tried to givehim headers, and sweptaround curv
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidstnicholasserial251dodg
