Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-03-13
By Dornford Yates

TOBY. This sun
The heat was awful.
Every steep and shoulder of the
mountains was wrapped in a simmer
ing haze.
Forty laps, and each lap eleven miles
Ions. Four hundred and forty miles
at eighty-five miles an hour. Five miles
on md at an average speed of a mile
ana 4 half a minute-and under that
sur and over that burning road.
Gyneth glanced at her wrist watch.
-Four to five minutes now, and he would
be round again. At least, he should
be. OF course, if he stopped at the pits,
or-Or anything
In four to five minutes" said Gy-
meth firmly.
For the hundredth time she regarded
the back of her program and counted
the strokes she had set there each time
that st. Loe went by. Nineteen. Yes,
that was right. Nineteen. The next
would be twenty. And the next he
would be more than half way.
Another car passed, and then an
other, with a driver in a blue silk dust
coat, with a shade to his cap. She
knew him for the last of the string.
The eight had gone by. There had
been thirteen, to start with, but five
were gone. Stopped. or crashed, or
something. Anyway, they were out of
four. between three and four-the lead
ing car, an Italian, would pass again.
And behind him. Roderick.
st. Loe had been lying second for
nearly an hour.
For all his cunning, experience had
told at the start, and he had been left
seventh. behind a formidable field. Ma
son. Caperletti, Detroit-men whose
names ran through Europe-and, fl
nally, the great Birot.
During the tenth lap Birot had taken
the lead. This wa expected. His name
was on every tongue. What was not
expected was that Roderick, then lying
fourth, would presently pass Caperletti
and them Detroit.
He had actually won second place be-
fore the girls terrified eyes. At the
bend before which she was standing
he had pulled out abreast of Detroit
and the two had raced for the corner
two miles away. They had flicked out
of sight together, a splash of blue, and
none could tell which was leading until
they came round again.
After that, st. LOe and BirOt had
drawn away.
Gyneth recounted her strokes.
Very Don he must stop for fuel-so
Toby had said. But SO must Birot and
the rest. That meant some shutting
of positions, but, unless there was bun
Cling at the pits, by the time that all
had fueled the order should be the
same. Of course, if plugs had to be
changed
Birot, st. Loe, Detroit.
Two minutes to go.
Gyneth got to her feet.
Leaden fOtted, the seconds went by.
Then, suddenly, the wasplike note.
A blue car flicked out of the village
Birot had stopped for fuel.
st. LOe was leading-for the moment
AS the latter whipped out of sight
the Italian appeared.
Detroit was now close to Birot, with
Caperletti and Akers a mile behind
The others, it seemed, were as good as
out of the race.
Hell stop this time" said Toby. "De
come and have something to eat"
MOT yet" said Gyneth.
AAA~ WV aOWAA ~ OAlC OuSllB 81 doo
Half Spain seemed to be keeping hol-
iday.
BY the end of the twenty-thir lar
all live had taken in fuel. Birot wa
leading again and Detroit was up or
st. Loe. Caperletti and Akers were {
mile and a half behind.
One thing was clear. st. Loe hac
lost time at the pits-or Detroit wa
out for blood.
Next time he passed the pits, st
Loe received the signal to "let her CO.
There was no doubt about it. Birot
the great Birot, was being pushed.
He had meant to win comfortably
and now he was being pushed.
He had seen the signal made to st
Loe and had smiled in his heart. He
would show them how to let a car 20
And so he had-for one hundred anc
twenty miles. Eleven fastest" laps
And o he was being pushed.
The pace was truly appalling.
Gyneth, Judy Boleyn and Toby stoot
together at the point overlooking the
corner, above the road.
Detroit, driving like a mailman, wa.
lying fifth. He had had to stop twice
for water, and Akers and Caperett
were a mile and a half ahead. Ant
four miles ahead of them st. Loe wa
on Birot's tail.
OF the thirteen starters, these five
alone were left.
The surface of the road at the corner
was breaking up. The cars bumped
there like the devil. Caperletti plainly
disliked it. You could see him lay hole
Of the wheel as he came to the bend
whats this lap?" said Gyneth.
1.-The ~thirty-eighth," said Toby. "Wher
they pass next time it'll be the last time
but two"
An instant later a red car spurtee
from the village, with a blue car righr
on it's heels.
Birot was going "all out"
The man was leaning forward, TIL,
dust on his great brown Jaw wa.
streaked with sweat. He seemed to b,
urging his engine with all his might
st. Loe was not clean behind him
but was more to the left. 1t was per,
fectly plain that, if, and when he coult
do it, he meant to attempt to pass.
Two flaps, like those Of a sail, ant
the two were by-St. Loe q little wild,
at the corner and Birot shaving tn
wall. His was a rough passage, bu
meant no more to him than the dus
on his face. The car, however, wa
shaken. ST. Loe, going wider, gained
as much as he lost.