Read Ebook: For the Honor of Randall: A Story of College Athletics by Chadwick Lester

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Ebook has 2298 lines and 63176 words, and 46 pages

"Get aboard!" invited Tom, and several of his friends among the students piled on.

"May we have a ride?" asked three pretty girls from the town. None of our friends knew them, but it was a common custom to give all a ride for whom there was room, introductions being dispensed with.

"Pile on!" invited Tom.

"I want the one with the red scarf!" sang out Frank, and this girl, with a laugh that showed her even white teeth, took her place behind the steersman. Her companions joined her, with happy laughs. The bob was almost full.

"Room for any more?" asked a voice, and Tom looked up to see a young man and lady looking at him.

"Oh, hello, Mr. Beach!" he exclaimed, as he recognized a friend of his who lived in town. "Of course there is. Get on Mrs. Beach, and we'll give you a fine ride!" The young married couple had often entertained our four friends at their home, and, as Mr. and Mrs. Beach were fond of fun, they had come out to enjoy the coasting.

"All right!" cried Sid, clanging the bell.

"Push us off; will you?" Tom requested of a merry coaster, and the lad with some others obligingly shoved the bob to the edge of the hill. Then they were off, going down like the wind, while the runners scraped the frozen snow sending it aloft in a shower of crystals that the moon turned into silver.

"Oh, this is glorious!" cried the girl back of Frank. "Say, did you ever try to go through the hollow, and up the other hill?"

"No, and I'm not going to," replied Frank, turning his head toward her for an instant, and then getting his eyes on the road again, for there were many sleds and bobs, and it needed all his skill to wind in and out among them.

"Why not?" persisted the girl, with a laugh.

"Too dangerous, with a big sled. We never could make the curve at this speed."

"Some of the town boys do it," she went on.

"Not with a bob like this. Look out there!" Frank yelled as he narrowly missed running into a solitary coaster.

The path to which the girl referred was a sort of lane, running off the main hill road, dipping down, and then suddenly shooting up again, crossing over a slight rise, and finally going down to a small pond. It was a semi-public road, but seldom used. To attempt to negotiate it with a swift bob was perilous, for the least mistake in steering, or a slight accident would send the sled off to one side or the other of the small hill, making an upset almost certain, and, likely broken bones, if nothing worse.

"There goes one boy, now," went on the girl back of Frank, as a coaster shot into the hollow.

"Oh, no indeed!" she hastened to assure him. "This is too much fun. It's good of you to ask us."

The coast soon came to an end, and then came the hard work of dragging the sled up the hill again.

"I wish they had double acting hills," remarked Tom as he pulled on the rope. "Slide down 'em one way, and, when you get to the bottom they'd tip up, and you could slide back--sort of perpetual motion."

"You don't want much," commented Sid with a laugh.

As the boys reached the top of the slope there dashed up a sled filled with young people, drawn by two prancing horses. And fastened to the rear of the sled, was a large bob.

"Now for some fun!" cried a girl's voice.

"Did you hear that?" asked Tom, of Phil. "It sounded like your sister Ruth."

"It is Ruth!" cried Phil, as he caught sight of the girl who had called out. "It's a crowd from Fairview," he added, naming a co-educational institution not far from Randall, at which college Ruth Clinton attended. "Hi, Ruth!" called her brother, "how are you?"

"Oh, Phil," she answered. "So glad to see you! Are the other inseparables there?"

"All of us!" cried Tom, as he glimpsed Madge Tyler. "Come have a ride on our bob."

"Next time," answered Mabel Harrison with a laugh. "We have a prior invitation now."

"Who are with you?" asked Phil of his sister as he reached her side. "Whose bob is that?" and he pointed to the one back of the sled.

"Hal Burton's. He's a new student, rather rich, and sporty I guess. He made up this little party. Oh, it's all right," she hastened to add, as she saw her brother look at her curiously. "We have permission, a chaperone and all the fixings. Trust the ogress, Miss Philock, for that. Isn't it a glorious night?"

"Fine," agreed Phil. "But who is this Burton chap?"

"Come on, and I'll introduce you," and Ruth presented her brother. Among the other girls was a Miss Helen Newton, whom Tom and his chums had not before met. She was also made acquainted with the inseparables.

"And so you won't ride with us?" asked Tom, looking rather regretfully at Miss Tyler.

"Not this time, old man," broke in Burton, with a familiar air that Tom did not like. "I'm going to pilot 'em."

"Do you know the hill?" asked Phil quietly. Somehow he did not like this new student, with his calm air of assurance, and he did not like Ruth to ride with him.

"Oh, I've coasted bigger hills than this," declared the owner of the big bob. "This isn't anything, even if it is a new one. Get on girls and fellows!" he cried. "We'll beat everything on the hill."

"Insolent puppy!" murmured Tom, as he helped swing their own bob around for another coast.

The sled owned by Burton was a fine one, and larger even than that of our friends. There were back-rests for each coaster, and a gong as big as a dinner plate.

"See you later, Phil," called Ruth, as she and her girl friends, together with a throng of others, got aboard.

The big bob was pushed off, Tom and his chums watching with critical eyes. Burton seemed to know his business.

"Well, we might as well go down," remarked Frank, as he took his place. There was a moment's wait, while their bob filled, the same three pretty girls taking their places. Then they were off, Sid ringing the bell vigorously.

Hardly had they started, however, almost in the wake of Burton's sled, than Frank gave a cry of alarm.

"What is it?" shouted Tom, getting ready to jam on the brake. "Steering wheel busted?"

"No, but look!" cried Frank. "That chump Burton is headed right for the hollow cut-off! He'll never make it at that speed, and there'll be a spill!"

For a moment there was a silence, broken only by the scraping of the runners on the hard snow. Then Frank yelled:

"Keep to the right! Keep to the right, Burton! You can't make that turn!"

But Burton either did not hear or did not heed. Straight for the perilous cut-off he steered, and then, as the girls saw their danger, they cried shrilly. But it was too late to turn aside now, and Tom and his chums, coming on like the wind behind the new bob, wondered what would happen, and if there was any way of preventing the accident that seemed almost sure to take place.

BAD NEWS FROM HOME

Years ago, it was the custom, for a certain style of stories, to begin something like this:

"Bang! Bang! Seven redskins bit the dust!"

Then, after the sensational opening, came a calm period wherein the author was privileged to do some explaining. I shall, with your permission, adopt that method now, with certain modifications, and tell my new readers something about Randall College, and the lads whom I propose to make my heroes. It is, perhaps, rather an inopportune time to do it, but I fear I will find none better, since Tom and his chums are so constantly on the alert, that it is hard to gain their attention for a moment, after they are once started.

And so, while the bob containing the girls, in whom our friends are so much interested, is swinging toward the dangerous hollow, and when Tom and the others are preparing to execute a risky manoeuvre to save them, may I be granted just a moment? My former readers may skip this part if they choose.

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