competition chanced to be keen.

The boys, as a rule, looked very much like lithe grayhounds, for your
natural runner is light of body, and can course along like the wind.
Still, this applies more to short-distance sprinters than those whose
specialty is endurance in a fifteen or twenty-mile race.

Several of the fellows wore quite muscular in build, and gave evidence
of a grim determination such as the bulldog possesses. These chaps
might be easily distanced in the start, but they would keep doggedly
on, under the spur of the knowledge contained in that old adage that
"the race is not always to the swift."

Hugh Morgan was, perhaps, the best built of them all, neither too
heavy, nor yet betraying a weakness that would crop out after the
first five miles had been covered, as might be the case with the more
slender fellows.

They stood in line, listening to the last words of caution delivered
by Mr. Hitchens, a former Yale man who had umpired the baseball games
the preceding summer in such an impartial manner that everyone had the
utmost reliance on his fairness.

He explained to them the simple conditions of the race,---how there
must be no fouling of any kind; just how often and where the contestants
must register their names in books kept by judges on the course; how
each was supposed to give his word of honor not to accept any sort of
lift for even a dozen feet; and that the great crowd assembled would
be waiting to acclaim the first comer as the victor in the greatest
long-distance race ever attempted by high-school boys, at least in
that particular county.

They were allowed a certain latitude as to their methods of running.
If any of them could cut across lots, and still cover the entire
course, as well as register faithfully wherever required, that was
to be their option.

Having finished his little fatherly talk, the referee stepped to one
side, and gave the word for the runners to make ready.

Every eye was glued on this or that contestant, according to the humor
of the spectator. Each Allandale visitor saw only Allandale in that
long line, swaying back and forth a trifle, like a reed shaken in the
wind. They could not believe it possible that any other fellow had
the slightest chance of coming in ahead of those fleet-footed boys
upon whose ability they pinned their full trust.

So it was with the Belleville rooters; while, of course, the natives
were certain the prize was already as good as won b