The High Calling. Charles Monroe Sheldon
Table of Contents
WHEN the gun marked the second mile of the race there was not a quarter of a boat's length distance between Burrton and Brainerd, but Burrton was leading. By a system of flag signals, the spectators on the grandstand at the end of the course were informed of the relative situation of the two crews at every quarter mile. Both crews were apparently in good condition and rowing in splendid form. The last mile was always the hardest fought. As the boats began to enter the last quarter of this mile, the excitement rose to the highest pitch. First Burrton made a spurt that put them a boat's length ahead of their rivals. Then Brainerd responded to its coxswain's call and closed up the gap, gradually lapping its bow past the stern of the Burrton shell. Then Burrton drew away again for half a boat's length. Brainerd doggedly clung to that position for a short distance and then began slowly to fall behind, as the boats shot into the last eighth of the mile. Only a hundred yards now, and the race was won for Burrton. Pandemonium reigned on the seats at the goal post end of the course. Shouts of "Carlisle! Carlisle!" rose up through the din of megaphones and screech of whistles from the launches. Paul looked at Walter. The boy had risen, flung his hat up anywhere and was waving his arms like a maniac, screaming out the name of Carlisle, the crack stroke of Burrton. And then, without a second's warning, the big stroke, the hero of the Burrton crew, whose name was on a thousand tongues, suddenly bent forward and collapsed over his oar. The oar itself crashed into the line and the Burrton boat lurched over on the opposite side.
"Row on, row on!" screamed the Burrton coxswain. "Only ten yards to the green and red post."
But Brainerd shot by grimly, her bow slipped past the crippled shell and across the line, a winner by more than a length, and the race was over.
For the first few seconds the Burrton crowd did not realise what had happened. The Burrton's shell swung up sideways to the referee's boat and the crew sat sullenly stooping over their oars. Carlisle lay in a huddled heap, a sorry spectacle for a school hero, while the coxswain scooped up handfuls of water and flung them over him.
Then a hubbub of questions rent the air.
"How did it happen?"
"Are we really beaten?"
"Did Brainerd foul?"
"Was Carlisle doped?"
"What was it? Half a length?"
"Ours by a fluke."
"Who was to blame?"
Added to all the rest, Paul was smitten with the torrent of profanity that burst from scores of Burrton men as the truth that they were beaten began to come forcibly home to them. Paul had lived long enough to know that the passion of gambling always rouses the worst exhibitions of human selfishness. But it was a new revelation to him to see these smartly dressed rich men's sons cursing God and profaning the name of Christ because they had bet heavily on their boat crew and lost. In the midst of all their oaths the name of Carlisle came in for heavy scoring. From the heights of the most extravagant hero-worship he had suddenly tumbled into this cesspool of profane unpopularity. All of which goes to prove any number of useful things, among them the necessity, if you are going to be stroke oar of a boat crew, it is best if you would retain your popularity to keep in training until the season is over, and even then it is not certain that you will always escape the other extreme of being overtrained.
But Paul's attention was speedily directed to Walter. The boy looked perfectly dazed as the final result of the race broke upon him. After two or three eager questions put wildly to those nearest him, he had sunk upon the seat, and when his father spoke to him he did not at first seem to hear. Then he roused up and slowly went down off the stand and walked along by his father like one going to execution.
It was a characteristic of Paul Douglas to go straight at a difficulty or a question and make a frank and honest attempt to clear away all mystery and trouble.
He saw plainly that some unusual thing was agitating Walter. The boy was under some great stress of feeling and could not conceal it.
So when the two were back in Walter's room, Paul at once began to seek the cause of the boy's trouble.
"What is the matter with you, Walter? You have not been yourself all day."
Walter was very white, and what he said to his father's question was so inaudible that Paul could not understand it.
"What is the matter with you, Walter? Are you sick? Tell me," said his father sharply.
"I can't, father, I can't," Walter stammered and looked so wretched that his father said more gently:
"Don't be afraid of me. Speak out if you are in any trouble. I want to help you. Don't you know that, Walter?"
"Yes, but------"
"Has it any thing to do with money matters? Tell me."
"Yes, I can't! Can't do it, father. I don't mean----"
And then Walter broke down completely. He laid his head down on his arms and cried hysterically. Paul sat looking at him sternly. For the first time that day an inkling of the truth began to dawn on him. At first it did not seem possible to him that his boy could do such a thing. It was so incredible to him at first that he sat silently eyeing the bowed head with an entirely new and bitter feeling.
When he finally spoke it was with a slow and steady measure of speech revealing great self-restraint.
"Did you bet on the race? Is that what's the matter?"
Walter lifted up his head and looked with a terrified face at his father.
"O father, don't be hard on me! I felt so sure we would win! I didn't see any risk! And all the fellows in Burrton bet on the race. A fellow isn't considered loyal to the school unless he bets something."
"How much did you lose?"
"I put up that last one hundred you sent me and fifty more."
"When do you have to pay?"
"I suppose at once. That's the rule."
"What other debts have you?"
Walter hesitated; then he said feebly, "I owe five week's board and some items at the men's furnishing."
"How much will it all come to?"
"I don't know."
"About how much?"
"About seventy-five dollars."
"When do you have to pay that?"
"There's no hurry. It can wait."
"Do you mean to say that a bet, a gambling debt, an obligation made on a dishonourable basis, takes precedence in time over honest claims for food and clothing?"
"It's the rule here in Burrton," said Walter sullenly. "If a bet is not settled at once the fellows lose their standing. The same is true at all the eastern schools. You have got to meet debts of honour promptly."
"Debts of dishonour, you mean."
"That isn't the standard here, father. The standard at Burrton is different from the one at home."
"I see it is," replied Paul, drily. "But the one at home is------" he paused, rose from his seat and went over by the window and stood there looking out over the school campus.
Paul Douglas had had in his fifty years of life many interesting and profoundly moving experiences, but it is doubtful if in all his life he had faced anything which stirred him so deeply as this. His high standard of conduct made him loathe the entire gambling transaction. It was agony to him to find that his own son was swept off his feet by a custom which had nothing except common custom to excuse it. Above all, Paul felt the bitterness that comes to a father when he realises that the careful teaching of years has been deliberately disobeyed or ignored. There was a mingling of bitterness and shame and anger and sorrow and heartache in Paul that Walter could not possibly understand as he sat there looking dully at his father's broad back and wondering what his father would do.
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