Pegasus’s remarkable speed fanned the spectators’ excitement to a fever heat. Andy had done so much shouting that his voice was reduced to a whisper. Standing on the top rail, his arms waving, he was shouting huskily, “Come on, Connie! Come on, Connie!”
Donald’s dark eyes were glowing as he watched the slender figure clinging to the flying horse’s bare back. “What a pity if she loses,” he said under his breath. Leaping to the rail, he joined in the shouts of encouragement to the straining Pegasus.
With one hundred yards to go, Connie uttered one last appeal to her flying steed. Above the drumming of hoofs the spectators heard her voice ring in passionate entreaty. “Now, Peg! Now! Go! Go!”
With nostrils distended, his breath coming in choking gasps, his eyes bulging, and the voice of his adored mistress ringing in his ears, the gallant animal with a burst of speed that made the onlookers marvel, ranged himself alongside his labouring rivals.
Ten yards from the finish—five yards—they were neck and neck. Then, summoning his last ounce of strength, Pegasus leaped forward as though he would annihilate time and distance. With eyes nearly blinded with dirt, tears and the roaring air, Connie saw Pegasus hurl himself past the winning post—a winner by half a length!
The ear-splitting roar that went up from the race-mad crowd must have caused the marmots on the slides near the distant glaciers to seek their holes in terror. A flock of mallard ducks, which had floated peacefully near the centre of the placid lake throughout the day’s commotion, rose with frightened cries to seek a more secluded spot in which to finish their afternoon’s siesta.
The crowd had seemingly gone mad. The atmosphere pulsated with a wild tumult of sound. Hats were thrown in air and throats were strained with shouting.
Donald found himself with his arms about Andy, dancing and cheering in a frenzy of joy.
Connie made no attempt to check her cayuse’s onward flight. She was in no mood to listen to the kudos of the admiring crowd; she wanted only to get away from the scene as quickly as possible. The movement toward the centre gave her the opportunity she desired, and she urged the weary cayuse through an opening on her left. Many hands were reached up to congratulate her, but she pushed her way through to the trail.