Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-06-25
The Argus Daily Short Story
Mr.. Stroke-By Kingsbury WEIGH.
Copyrighted. 1910. by Associated Literary Press.

waist. Eight good niSn with not a
pound of fat on any of US and in all
other respects in perfect condition.
had for months been absorbed in what
had now come. For it my studies had
been neglected, and ! would have to
bone all summer to make up 'condi-
tons But / cared nothing for that.
My whole soul was merged In the idea
of beating our opponents.
I'VE pulled into position, the shot
was fred. and we made a good start
on the first trial. our boat half a
| length behind over the line. But we
made this up within a minute and
were soon half a length ahead. 1
| heard none of the wild cheers. / saw
neither the boat, the water nor the
| shore dotted with waving handker-
| chiefs. was conscious only of the
mighty effort 1 was making TO get
the boat over the course. Once only
saw drops of water tossed into the
air when the oar blade of one Of our
| opponents struck the surface instead
of sinking to its proper depth.
would not have been conscious Of this
! had it not been that such splashing
would retard the other boat.
1--WE gained steadily, turning the
stake boat-it was that kind Of
| course-two lengths ahead. AS we
| began to pull back down the course,
| feeling sure Of winning. I was con-
scious of the wild cheering and wav-
| ing. 1t may be that we all somewhat
| relaxed at this time. At any rate, our
| opponents. having turned the stake
| boat behind us, made squirt and over
hauled us. Then down again we got
| to work and had gained three lengths
/ quite enough considering there was
| but a quarter of a mile remaining-to
| give us the race. when"-
The narrator stopped. a pallor came
over his face, and he gasped. Several
of us started toward him, but he waved
us back.
-"something in me gave way fell
! over into the arms of No. Z. Our COM
! petitors shot by us and won the race"
| have never experienced such a de-
/ pressing, not to say thrilling. sensation
| as when the narrative ended. While
the narrator was describing the race
! it seemed as if I could see the boats
dashing onward and hear the cheering.
When he spoke of the disaster some
! how my imagination pictured blood
/ spouting from his mouth and nose.
| Not a man among us but appeared to
! be similarly shocked.
Come" said one of our number,
Get's adjourn to the - and get some
supper"
! Agreed" cried the rest, glad to
break the spell and eager for some
thing to brace us after listening to the
weird narrative.
we went out into the darkness, the
stranger with US. When we reached
| the -, some one asked, where's Mr.
Mr.. Stroke%'
Don't know" replied one behind.
"I thought he was ahead with you fell
| lows
Every one thought he was with some
one else.
Mr.. Stroke, as we called him, had evil
IDENTIFY taken advantage of the dark
ness to steal away unobserved. We
were quite relieved at his doing so.
The effect of his story was, to say the
least, depressing. and we were glad to
get rid of him. We ordered some
supper and while waiting for it talked
about him. wondering who he could
have been and what race it was that
he had lost for his crew. Since he had
not given us his name. we did not feel
that we possessed sufficient data upon
which to make inquiries.
AS the season advanced we forgot
all about Mr.. Stroke and his story. ]
was much interested in the coming re-
gatta and the preparations for it.
though | was not a member Of the
university crew. Our college had been
doing bad work at boating for long
period. In ten years / think we had
beaten our principal adversary but
twice This year we hoped fpr and ex-
pected better things. All went well
till the day of the race, when one OF
the crew fell suddenly Ill and could
not roy. Unfortunately all the avail