Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1865-06-07

K Frank offered his arm to Belle. II
didn't know then that his future wifi
! hung upon his arm.
4 THE RESCUE OF THE BoQUET.
Boating continued to flourish. Othe
n clubs we're organized; other scullboat
s were to be seen on tie river. And final
ly some original genius proposed a single
y scull regatta and champion belt, with ev
. cry thing in the regular style. The ides
e pleased. A very handsome belt was pur-
? chased By subscription, and the race ad.
, vertised as "open to all Peddingtonians.
; This turned out to be great mistake
, All the she'll boats on the river were own.
, ed by club boatmen when the notice oI
/ the race was published. Butthe "roughs'
{ got wind of the value of the belt. They
, dubbed together, bought second hand
shell, and chose Jimmy Doran, the skif-
ferryman, their champion. And as Jim
my beat all the silk stockings" every
time he met them practicing, it looked
very much as though the silver champion
belt would go into peculiar keeping.
The young lady friends of the boat
club were, of course, intensely interested.
Belle Bogart poured forth her griefs to
Frank Mitchell one evening.
" I thought my cousin Dick was going
to win; everybody said SO and so I
promised to present bOquet out of my
own garden to the winner; and now the
skif-man is going to beat them all and
Harry Seymour told me to-day that he
was going to have beautiful "bookay"
given him by a young lady. wish
somebody would beat him. Won't you?
Frank laughed, and said he had no
boat.
They were four entries for the belt
until within FIVE days of the race, when
/ its trustees received by mail the entrance
fee required, and a request thattho name
Memo might be added to the rest.
Who was Memo? was now the great
question in boating circles. Where did
he get his practice?
No one could answer these queries
No one had seen any strange oarsman on
/ the river. Jimmy Dorau wished he
could have one brush with him.
This mysterious entry disquieted jim
my's soul. lie haunted the river at
strange hours, getting up at midnight of
a moonlit night and securing the stream
before the city, but in vain
! The eyentful day came. Peddlington
/ had poured forth its swarms Of specta-
tors, who were spread along the river
banks like strips of variegated ribbon
The Judges were in their boat. The
names of the first four entries were
called, and answered to, but Memo
answered not. Jimmy was relieved.
That there Nimmos a fraud, he
said. exuItingly, to his hackers.
As if in answer to this declaration
from among the crowd of skifis which
lay little way from TIE judges, shot
forth shell. It came very swiftly to-
ward fhe scene Of action
The other boats shone forth in all the
glory Of brilliant colors and coach-body
finish. Not so this coming boat. Rusty
I'of canvass, and dingy of paint, it formed
a great contrast to its opponents.
It was, of course, contemplated with
intense curiosity, especially by Jimmy
Doran, Every one knew it was Memo.
Every one wished to know who Memo
was. Every one was disappointed.
He wore a fine wire half-mask, which
allowed him to see perfectly without be-
ing recognized. Loud was the buzz of
astonishmont. Who could it be q? Belle
Bogart thought for a moment of Frank
MITCHELL but this "man with the iron
mask" had no whiskers. The men drew
for positions. Memo had the inside
" One two! go" and they were off;
Dick ahead, Jimmy hard after him,
Memo pulling quietly behind; the rest
nowhere, except one was in the river,
under his boat. Belle watched them
with her opera-glass. Dick, knowing he
couldn't compete with Jimmy all the
way around, determined to keep ahead
up to the stake-boat and then pull home.
Bellies heart reioiced whR she saw him
turn in advance; but then he suddenly
stopped, having bethought him Of a new
expodient. Ho dropped one scull over
board as if by accident, and was a great
while fishing it up. That &" horrid" jim
my now had it all his own way. The
fshlip boys, and the foundery lads
passed on to victory. To victory Not
so fast! That dingy boat, roWed by the
man in the iron mask, is somehow or
other sticking fast to Jimmy. Jimmy
tries a squirt. Worse than that, it gains!
Slowly it crcops up till it is fairly along
side. There it stays-Jimmy spurts
again-the dingy boat keeps its position
Jimmy growls out an oath-the unknown
smiles benignly. They we're half mile
from home. Jimmy was just screwing
himself up for tremendous rally, when