The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1913-03-12
THE RACE OF CAR
NUMBER NINETEEN
A STORY IN TWO PARTS.
Part III.

AS No. Is rolled up to the tape
the grand stand burst into cheering
and clapping of hand. No. IS was
easily the favorite. 1t was made by
a famous firm, and had won several
smaller races during the summer and
had made good showing in France
in the Gordon Bennett Cup Race. Its
driver, Pearson, was skillful and
reckless; and though he habitually
disregarded the rights of other driv-
ers, this affected him little with the
public, which sees only results and
Judges by them. As he bolted away,
Pearson responded to the applause
! with a jaunty wave of a gauntleted
hand.
Nineteen was next. The grand
stand looked on listiessly; she was
the nobody Of the race. Jack crank
ed the engine, which started going
with the din of a rapid-hre gun, and
leaped in. Morgan pulled his Cog
giles down over his eyes, and sat
tensely waiting, while the starters.
who shared the grand stands opin-
ion Of Nineteen, perfunctorialy
shouted the seconds into his ears:
"Fifteen-ten-fve - four - three
-" he turned his head and had a
glimpse OF smiling figure leaning
over box railing-"two-one-
co." He let the clulth in slowly,
and the car moved easily away from
the silent grand stand-silent save
for one pair of clapping hands. He
shifted to the high gear, the car fair
" sprang into sprinting speed, and
flashed away down the oiled road
and the race that was to mean every
thing or nothing to Morgan was on.
On the racer sped, the incarnation
of velocity. To drive this creature OF
steel and fire is the most dangerous
thing man does in the name OF
sport. Mans highest development OF
Gods material is in it, but under so
terrific strain mans best may snap.
The course is narrow and has It's
turns, and only the coolest nerve and
the steadiest, quickest hand can hold
the creature to her path. A snap, or
an instant's unsteadiness Of hand
and the race may be forever over for
| man and machine. And there may
be a ragged hole in the bordering hu-
man wall where the machine tore
| through.
Morgan had the hand and the
nerve; and this flying ton of steel
was as obedient to his will as though
it had been flesh and bone of his own
body-which, indeed, it was. The
wind roared about them; the road
side trees were a green smear; the
two lines Of people were not people,
but two black walls-and the throb-
bing racer shot onward, onward like
a bullet aimed at the red eye Of the
rising sun.
To keep your machine in the
road, and to keep it going at eighty
an hour on the straightaways and at
forty on the turns-that's the sub
stance of driving a racer, barring
mishaps. And that was the sub
stance OF Morgan's first round. He
crep up to within half a mile OF
Eighteen and was holding that posi-
ton when he skinned past the
grand stand. The grand stand
blur to him, but the corner of his
eye caught the waving Of a single
| handkerchief.
Thirty minutes" Jack announc-
ed. Great"
Morgan nodded, his eyes on the
oiled roadway.
A few miles on Pearson had a
ouncture in his rear tire, and stop
Led in the very middle Of the road
to repair it. It was such breaches
Of racing etiquette as this that made
him so cordially detested by other
drivers. Morgan, tearing on be-
hind, had to slow down and run al
most off the course to get by. The
showdown cost him a quarter Of a
minute; and three-hundred mile
races are sometimes won by little
| more.
A little further on, Morgan, him
self, had a rear tire pucture. He
stopped at the next tire station and
had it replaced, and was starting it
off again, after loss of three min:
ues, when Pearson came whizzing by.
Morgan set out in grim pursuit and
gradually closed the gap between
them. When thirty yards behind, he
sounded his HON for Pearson to give
him half the road, but Pearson, de-
spite the rule that machine being
overtaken must Keep to the right,
held the middle Of the course. Tney
ran so for a mile, then the way
broadened and Morgan touched his
accIerator. Nineteen responded like
horse to whip, darted. forward,
swung around Eighteen and again
took the middle OF the road. When
they flashed by the grand stand
Eighteen as mile behind.
Her third round was done in twen-
ty-nine minutes. The grand stand
began to be interested. The fourth
round in the same-a slight cheer
came from the stand. The fifth round
ir the samoa louder cheer. The
sixth round Nineteen came by in
twenty-seven minutes, leading the
next machine, Pearson's by more
than half a lap. A roar went up
from the grand stand, so great that
it drowned to .Morgan's ears the ter
rife artillery of his flying car, and
the roar thundered along the parallel
human walls through which he Sped
Nineteen had become the favorite.
On on the car sped, increasing her
lead every mile over Eighteen,
which still held second place. Near