IV
The next day a small friend of his, Phil, told him something that filled him with delight. The Cresta was closed for that season, for one of the banks was considered too weak, and it would be impossible to rebuild it, for the thaw was beginning to set in. This meant that all the bars would be taken away, and the run left to thaw, and that all the little boys from the village would come and slide about on it, and soon spoil its beautiful, smooth surface. It also meant that there was now nothing to stop any one who liked taking a toboggan, and going down the whole course!
“I’ll tell you a secret, Phil,” said Harry. “To-morrow morning, before any one is up, I am going to go down the Cresta from the top. You can come with me, and we’ll get Dick and Reggie to come too, as witnesses to prove I can do it, and teach those rotters not to laugh.”
Phil was delighted at the prowess of his friend. “What if you get killed?” he said.
“Oh, then it will prove that I couldn’t do it, and they were right!” said Harry.
At 8.30 the next morning, just as the sun peeped over the snowy mountains, Harry, with knee and elbow pads, and “rakes” (or spikes) fixed on his toes, crept out, dragging a heavy toboggan. He was followed by his three friends. They walked down by the run first. Every bar had been taken away, it was clear and free.
“Now for it!” said Harry, as he stood at the top, his heart beating fast with excitement. Lying flat on his toboggan, he slid off down the first incline, down towards the steep and sudden dip called “Church Leap.”
At this moment his friends saw a tall figure walking down the path by the run, away by the big corners known as “Battledore” and “Shuttlecock.” In a moment they recognized him by his orange scarf—it was Uncle Hugh! He had stopped, for he had heard the rush of a toboggan on the run. What would he say when he saw it was Harry? But even as they saw him stop, they saw something else that made their blood run cold!
At the place where the run cuts across the road, and is usually guarded by a man with a red flag to keep people from crossing, a wood sleigh suddenly appeared. It advanced slowly and drew up, the horse standing straight across the run. Once a rider has started down the Cresta Run there is no way of stopping—he must rush on at sixty miles an hour! The three boys’ hearts seemed to stop with terror. Hugh was standing still, his eyes fixed on the place.
And what of Harry? Long as this takes to tell, it was all a matter of less than a minute. Harry had rushed in a glorious, thrilling whirl down most of the run—the worst was over. He was now on the long steep straight, and there were only small corners to get round. The cold air seemed to whistle in his face and make his eyes stream, for he was travelling at a very high speed. And then—then he saw the terrible sight. A horse and sleigh was standing across the run!
There were only a few seconds to think what to do as he flew onwards. But Harry did not lose his head. At one glance he had noticed that the horse and not the sleigh was across the run. The driver was round at the back, fixing up a log that had slipped. Lying very flat, and guiding himself straight as an arrow, Harry kept his course, and passed like a flash beneath the horse, between his four great legs! He was safe!
The three boys, watching from the top, threw their caps in the air, and cheered and laughed for joy! Hugh, standing by “Shuttlecock,” his teeth clenched, gave a sigh of relief. “Thank God!” he said. “Thank God! He’s a sporting kid, right enough, and he’s got some wits to have done that—it was his only chance!”
No one at the hotel laughed when they heard the story. Harry was thoroughly scolded, of course. But everyone looked at him with admiration. “Some day he’ll be the champion on the Cresta,” said an old Colonel, who had won the Grand National many years ago.