“Seven! Great Snakes, that’s halfway to sundown! That the best you can do?”
“No, sir, I could get up a lot earlier if I wanted to.”
“Well, you get up a lot earlier some morning and we’ll go out to the track and I’ll show you what I’m talking about. Swallow a cup of coffee, or whatever it is you drink in the morning; that’s all you’ll need; we won’t try anything stiff. What do you say to that?”
“Why,” replied Perry eagerly, “that would be dandy! Will you really do it, sir? When?”
“To-morrow—no, to-morrow’s Sunday. How about Monday? Be outside your house at six and——”
Mr. Addicks was interrupted by a knock on the door, and, in response to a lusty “Come in!” Fudge entered.
“Ah,” exclaimed Mr. Addicks, “we have with us to-night Arizona Bill, the Boy Hercules!”
CHAPTER XXII
THE NEW COACH
That early morning session at the track didn’t come off on Monday because it was raining hard when the alarm clock which Perry had borrowed for the occasion buzzed frantically at a quarter to six. It had been agreed that should it be raining the event was to be postponed. So it was Tuesday when Mr. Addicks gave his first lesson. He was already in front of the house when Perry hurried out. He was enveloped from neck to ankles in a thread-bare brown ulster beneath which he wore an old pair of running-trunks and a faded green shirt.