The Plastic Age Percy Marks (read full novel txt) 📖

Calvert pranced around easily; he seemed entirely recovered from his great effort in the hundred. Finally the starter called them to their marks. They tried their spikes in the starting-holes, scraped them out a bit more, made a few trial dashes, and finally knelt in line at the command of the starter.

Hugh expected Calvert to lead for the first hundred yards; but the last hundred, that was where Calvert would weaken. Calvert was sure to be ahead at the beginning⁠—but after that!

“On your marks.

“Set.”

The pistol cracked. The start was perfect; the five men leaped forward almost exactly together. For once Calvert had not beaten the others off the mark, but he immediately drew ahead. He was running powerfully, his legs rising and falling in exact rhythm, his spikes tearing into the cinder path. But Hugh and Murphy were pressing him close. At the end of the first hundred Calvert led by a yard. Hugh pounded on, Murphy falling behind him. The others were hopelessly outclassed. Hugh did not think; he did not hear a thousand men shouting hysterically, “Carver! Carver!” He saw nothing but Calvert a yard ahead of him. He knew nothing but that he had to make up that yard. Down the track they sped, their breath bursting from them, their hands clenched, their faces grotesquely distorted, their legs driving them splendidly on.

Hugh was gaining; that yard was closing. He sensed it rather than saw it. He saw nothing now, not even Calvert. Blinded with effort, his lungs aching, his heart pounding terribly, he fought on, mechanically keeping between the two white lines. Ten yards from the tape he was almost abreast of Calvert. He saw the tape through a red haze; he made a final valiant leap for it⁠—but he never touched it: Calvert’s chest had broken it a tiny fraction of a second before.

Hugh almost collapsed after the race. Two men caught him and carried him, despite his protests, to the dressing-room. At first he was aware only of his overwhelming weariness. Something very important had happened. It was over, and he was tired, infinitely tired. A rubdown refreshed his muscles, but his spirit remained weary. For a month he had thought of nothing but that race⁠—even Cynthia had become strangely insignificant in comparison with it⁠—and now that the race had been run and lost, his whole spirit sagged and drooped.

He was pounded on the back; his hand was grasped and shaken until it ached; he was cheered to an echo by the thrilled Sanford men; but still his depression remained. He had won his letter, he had run a magnificent race, all Sanford sang his praise⁠—Norry Parker had actually cried with excitement and delight⁠—but he felt that he had failed; he had not justified himself.

A few days later he entered Henley’s office, intending to make only a brief visit. Henley congratulated him. “You were wonderful, Hugh,” he said enthusiastically. “The way that you crawled up on him the last hundred yards was thrilling. I shouted until I was hoarse. I never saw anyone fight more gamely. He’s a faster man than you are, but you almost beat him. I congratulate you⁠—excuse the word, please⁠—on your guts.”

Somehow Hugh couldn’t stand Henley’s enthusiasm. Suddenly he blurted out the whole story, his drunkenness at the Prom, his split with Cynthia⁠—he did not mention the visit to Norry’s room⁠—his determination to redeem himself, his feeling that if he had won that race he would at least have justified his existence at the college, and, finally, his sense of failure.

Henley listened sympathetically, amused and touched by the boy’s naive philosophy. He did not tell him that the race was relatively unimportant⁠—he was sure that Hugh would find that out for himself⁠—but he did bring him comfort.

“You did not fail, Hugh,” he said gently; “you succeeded magnificently. As for serving your college, you can always serve it best by being yourself, being true to yourself, I mean, and that means being the very fine gentleman that you are.” He paused a minute, aware that he must be less personal; Hugh was red to the hair and gazing unhappily at the floor.

“You must read Browning,” he went on, “and learn about his success-in-failure philosophy. He maintains that it is better to strive for a million and miss it than to strive for a hundred and get it. ‘A man’s reach should exceed his grasp or what’s a heaven for?’ He says it in a dozen different ways. It’s the man who tries bravely for something beyond his power that gets somewhere, the man who really succeeds. Well, you tried for something beyond your power⁠—to beat Calvert, a really great runner. You tried to your utmost; therefore, you succeeded. I admire your sense of failure; it means that you recognize an ideal. But I think that you succeeded. You may not have quite justified yourself to yourself, but you have proved capable of enduring a hard test bravely. You have no reason to be depressed, no reason to be ashamed.”

They talked for a long time, and finally Henley confessed that he thought Cynthia had been wise in taking herself out of Hugh’s life.

“I can see,” he said, “that you aren’t telling me quite all the story. I don’t want you to, either. I judge, however, from what you have said that you went somewhere with her and that only complete drunkenness saved you from disgracing both yourself and her. You need no lecture, I am sure; you are sufficiently contrite. I have a feeling that she was right about sexual attraction being paramount; and I think that she is a very brave girl. I like the way she went home, and I like the way she has kept silent. Not many girls could or would do that. It takes courage. From what you have said, however, I imagine that she is not your kind; at least, that she isn’t the kind that is good for you. You have suffered and are suffering, I