“‘Pardon me, McNulty, but I wish to catch up with the procession.’”
“And he did,” said Bascomb.
“The trouble was the procession did not keep up with the music Merrill played; the time was too rapid,” Herbert Nazro said.
“How it cuts Clemmons.”
“Yes, he feels his defeat more keenly than Merrill enjoys his victory—here comes Clemmons now.”
And Clemmons walked up, his face flushed from exercise, and a look in his sunken eyes as of an overworked man.
“Well, Clemmons, you got one of the prizes,” said Byrd Bascomb.
“Give it to McNulty, for I take only first prize or none,” was the ill-tempered response.
Bascomb’s face flushed, and he said:
“You would have won if it had not been for one thing, Clemmons.”