d of us,
and we was enjoyin' ourselves too much to want to hurry anyway. We got
to the track a good hour before the first race was slated to start, and
after puttin' our bike in a safe place we meandered around, seein' if we
could locate anybody we knew. We hadn't gone far when I heard someone
callin' my name, and when I turned I saw a feller named Robertson, a man
I'd worked for once. I introduced Barney, and we hadn't talked very long
before Robertson informed me that he was one of the committee in charge
of affairs. 'Come on around with me to the judges box,' he invited, 'an
I'll get you a couple of good seats.'

"O' course that was pretty soft for us, so we trailed along with him and
he located us in fine seats not far from the judges box. Of course we
thanked him and then he shook hands and hurried off.

"Well, the first events passed off all right, although they were rather
tame, and then came the big race, which for that day happened to be a
tandem race. There was a big purse offered for the winner, and there
were several entrants. But for some reason there was a long wait, and
first thing we knew there was Robertson coming toward us, his face red
and perspirin' and his collar wilted.

"He rushes up to us, and leans over and whispers:

"'Say, Reddy,' he says, 'you can help us out if you want to. We're shy
an entrant. One of the teams hasn't shown up, and according to the
conditions of the race no less than six entrants can start. We've only
got five, and if the race isn't ridden the crowd will go wild. Here's a
chance for you and your friend to help us out of a bad fix and at the
same time maybe win a nice piece of money for yourselves.'

"Well, at first Barney and me was knocked flat, an' then we turned down
the proposition cold. But Robertson wouldn't take no for an answer.

"'It can't hurt you any, can it?' he said. 'An' if you should win, think
of the coin you'd pull down. Why, you've got everything to win and
nothing to lose.'

"Well, to make a long story short, he finally talked us into it, and we
beat it around and got our machine. By the time we got on the track the
crowd was getting pretty impatient, and Robertson hustled us around to
the starting line.

"'Do your best, boys,' he says, 'it's a ten mile race, so don't put all
your steam into it at once. Let one of the others set the pace and then
you come up at the end.'

"It sounded easy all right, but I guess both Barney and I were more
than