Pulling excerpt from first post of category

<?php
// the query to set the posts per page to 5
$paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
$args = array('posts_per_page' => 5, 'cat' => 4, 'order' => 'DESC', 'paged' => $paged );
query_posts($args); ?>
<!-- the loop -->
<?php if ( have_posts() ) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
                    <div class="entry" >
                        <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_post_thumbnail(array(150,150), array('class' => 'alignleft shadow')); ?></a>
                        <h2><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>

<?php echo the_excerpt(30); ?>
                        <p class="quick-read-more"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>" class="readmore">Continue Reading...</a></p>
                    </div>
                    <hr />
<?php endwhile; ?>
<!-- pagination -->
<div class="alignright"><?php next_posts_link(); ?></div>
<div class="alignleft"><?php previous_posts_link(); ?></div>
<?php else : ?>
<!-- No posts found -->
<?php endif; ?>