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.

"Thought it might do me good to take a little exercise while I'm out there," he explained. "I haven't had these things on for years, and wasn't sure I'd kept them until I rummaged through my trunk. Couldn't find my shoes, though." Perry saw that he was wearing a pair of rubber-soled canvas "sneakers" which had probably been white