The crowds were still gasping.
¡Close your mouths!
‘Twas the dingiest trick, too: Queen was just ‘head o’ Ace & just ’bout to reach the finish flame wheel when a string so thin you could only see it by the way it glinted in the sunlight stretched just before them. They had no time to steer ‘way from it–& they ran into it with a force so sharp, it chopped off their heads with the sound o’ jingling keys, splattering blood all o’er in puddles.
Henceforth, every year that day the race would start with a ceremony o’ painting the path red in Queen & Ace’s honors.