Evening star., 1935-06-16
June 10, 1885

Grogan' voice, hoarse andinarticulate.
Once the voice became articulate.
Ten hard onesp' it croaked. NAVY
must be right on top of them. All
about Dan now there were shadows
and within him too. the shadows had
started to come. He heard, dimly.
cries and the sounds of whistles, and
knew that they must be between the
lines of yachts near the finish.
He wondered when he would break.
when the others would break. He
waited to feel with his body the culver
that would pass along the shell and
the lose of run as somebody collapsed.
Still Grogan cried hoarse orders and
still his tiller- grips beat out a stroke,
but whether Grogan followed him or
he followed Grogan, Dan was not sure.
But he, Dan, would go down into the
darkness all about him trying to do
this thing he had told the others he
would do.
Then he heard the hoarse voice
croak: Weigh enough" and he knew
the race was over. All about them
Whistles and horns sounded, guns
doomed and thousands of voices
roared like water and very gently
Dan Haley's body slumped forward
and his head fell on his knees.
He thought he had tainted. Then
he realized that in some incredible
fashion his body had tainted, but his
mind had remained conscious and
active. Behind him in the boat there
was no sound. and the shell swung
badly. He heard launch nearby, and
suddenly he did not want anyone to
see he had tainted. Slowly. pressing
on the gunwales with his hands, he
raised his body and his head.
Murtaugh stood in the bow of the
launch and didn't speak, but his face
in the gloom said they had won.
Cold was Murtaugh. That was
pretty grand" he said.
Dan didn't say anything. He was
suddenly so weary that he did not see
how he sat erect. But he must do
something. He turned his head and
looked behind him in the boat. Seven
men lay slumped over their oars. AS
Dan looked, two of them, Swiderski
and Stony Thomas, began to move.
Dan was cold, and somebody was
throwing something over him and
helping him to step from the shell onto
the yacht. Men spoke to Dan and
shook his limp hand. and Dan smelled
the faint, subtle odors the girls on the
yacht wore, but he did not see either
the men or the girls. He stood by the
rail with a dirty sweat-shirt over his
shoulders and watched the rest of the
crew carried or helped onto the deck
of the yacht. Those about him with
drew a little, repelled by his aloofness,
his Indifference to them.
Dan stood there and watched. The
other oarsmen started to come to and
Stony Thomas, from a deck chair even
raised hand in some vague gesture of
salute. Presently, Dan knew, they
would come to him and call him names.
But for the moment he savored his
own grimness. his own starkness. In a
few minutes he would be of these
others and for the rest of his life. But
now he stood and watched, and the
people on the yacht stood in circle
little from him and looked at him.
Now. out of the dim circle of faces,
Murtaugh's approached Dap. He held
out a hand. and Dan took it.
I'm sorry" Mtrtaugh said. He
stopped, groped for a word, but
couldn't find it. There must have
been a lot of headaches" he said.
I'm sorry. l wish could do some
thing to make up for it." He stood
there, pathetic "a strong man fun
bling and lost.
Dan felt little sorry for him, but