But though he rode with the courage of bitterness and desperation, he soon found that Sadie had the heels of him. Once or twice when she shot past him with an almost crazy recklessness, the thought flashed through his mind that an imperceptible swerve of his handle-bar would all but inevitably end both their lives, and he weakly throttled down his engine, fearful lest the subconscious working of his tortured mind might communicate a tremor to his arm; and every time that Sadie passed him with a vicious spurt of her diabolical scarlet mount, he caught in her eye a gleam of impish triumph.
It was when he found himself riding behind her, with his front wheel a hand’s-breadth from her hind one, that he realized how utterly his nerve had failed. Ever and again, under his front wheel appeared a white, blood-flecked little face, with eyelashes that quivered in agony. With a sob, he cut out his engine and slid slowly down the track.
“I’m through,” he said to a mechanic who seized his cycle. “I don’t think I’ll need her again.”
For a long time he sat in the gloom of the garage in dumb agony, and even there the rip of Sadie’s powerful engine followed him above the cheers of the crowd. Now and then, in the midst of the uproar, he could hear the voice of Santoni yelling the laps; then there was a final outburst of cheering. When it died away, Sadie’s motor was silent. A moment later, as it seemed to him, the door of the workshop slammed, and he looked up, to see her standing before him, her black eyes dancing in that strange exhilaration that he had noted before, her chest heaving with excitement under the vivid scarlet of her jacket.
“I’ve shaded your track record, Teddy Rocco!” she cried. “I’ve beaten you to bits! Now say I can’t come back! I’ve come, haven’t I?”
“I guess,” said Teddy, humbly.
“And what’s more, I’ve cleaned up three thousand dollars this season, and I haven’t a scar left on me that you could see in this light. But you’ll have to take my word for that. We can talk on level terms now, Teddy. I’m as good as ever I was, don’t you think?”
“I expect so,” stammered Teddy. “It’s me that’s in bad. I’ve lost heart, Sadie, and my nerve’s gone. I’ve been scared a time too many.”
“Then get your machine and rush me away,” cried Sadie, “and marry me the first minute you can; and we’ll get out of this to Florida in the morning, and see the garage and the sunshine and the butterflies. It’s a square deal now, Teddy-Eddy. Stand up and kiss your honey-bird, you brave, silly, big-hearted, mush-headed little man; for I love you so much I couldn’t have offered you anything less, and I’ve waited so long, my heart feels like it will burst!”
