kate into the
freeze is counted out," replied Thomp.

Just as the contestants were moving out Greg Holmes came hurrying
down to the ice.

"Am I too late?" he called.

"Not if you think you've got anything good," replied Badger.

Greg promptly proceeded to put on his skates, covertly watching
the performance of the first fellow to show off. It was good
work that Greg watched, but he thought he could beat it.

"You'll have to go last on the list," nodded Ben, as Greg came
skating up.

Greg merely nodded, though inwardly he grinned. "That just suits
me," he told himself. "The fellow who skates last will be freshest
in the minds of the judges."

When it came Greg's turn he avoided most of the fancy figures
that the other fellows had shown off amid much applause. Still,
Greg showed a bewildering assortment of "eights," "double-eights"
and some magnificent work along the "turn promenade" order that
Ripley had been doing before the accident.

Then Greg came in, promenading backward on his skates.

"I'm going to fall," he called to the judges, "but it will be
intentional."

"Fall it is, then," nodded Sam Edgeworth, one of the judges.

Greg was moving jauntily along, still doing the backward promenade.
Suddenly one of his skates appeared to catch against the other.
Down went Greg, backwards. Despite his announcement the moment
before, a sympathetic murmur went up from many of the onlookers.

But Greg, sitting down suddenly as he did, pivoted around like
a streak. Throwing his hands back of his head, he sprang to his
feet. At the first he was doing the forward promenade. The whole
manoeuvre, including the fall, had occupied barely four seconds.
Now, wheeling into the back promenade Greg glided before the
judges.

"Time," called the holder of the watch.

"I'm willing," nodded Greg. "And I'm willing any contestant who
wants should try my stunt before the verdict is given."

The conference between the judges did not last long and Greg got
the decision.

"The freshman mile will come along later," announced Ben, through
the megaphone. "The committee want to put in a freak race first."

The "freak" was a quarter mile, nearly go-as-you-please. In this
race each contestant had on his left skate, but no skate on the
right foot. The contestant who reached the finish line first
won---"even if he slides on his back," Ben announced, sagely.

Tom Reade hurried onto the ice as one of the entrants in this