ain of the freshmen team, led his
men forward on all easy lope. Dick took his place at the extreme
left of the pursuing line, with Tom Reade next to him; then Dan
Dalzell.

"Ready!" A pause of a few seconds. Crack!

The pistol sent the hounds away. They did not attempt to run
fast. Captain Dick Prescott's orders were against that. The
hounds moved away at an easy lope, for there were miles yet to
be covered. Six miles, in fact, is more than average High School
boys of the lower classes can make at a cross-country jog.
A go-as-you-please gait was therefore allowed. Either hare or
hound might walk when he preferred.

But for the first five minutes the hounds, who divided into three
squads almost immediately, moved along at an easy jog. Every
eye was alert for the first sign of a paper trail. There were
six upper classmen running with the hounds. Ben Badger was somewhere
ahead, hiding in order not to betray the trail. But, when he
had been passed, Badger would jump up and run with the hounds,
making the seventh judge.

"I wonder if we've a ghost of a show to win," muttered Tom Reade.

"Every show in the world---until we're beaten!" replied Dick,
doggedly. "It isn't in the Gridley blood to wonder if we can
win---we've got to win!"

After that Dick closed his lips firmly. He must save his wind
for the long cross-country.

On the left the runners were now in a field. The center was moving
along the highway, the right wing being in a field over beyond.

"Wow-oo! wow-oo! wow-oo!" sounded a deep, far-away chorus.

"There's the trail, away over to the right!" shouted Captain Dick.
"Come on, fellows!"

On an oblique line he led them, toward the road. They took a
low stone wall on the leap, vaulting the fence at the other side
of the road. The center squad had already overtaken the discoverers
of the trail.

"Run easily. Don't try to cover it all in a minute. Save your
wind!" admonished Dick to his own squad.

The upper classmen judges ran well behind the hounds. It was
needful only that they be near enough to see and decide any disputed
point of capture.

It was all of twenty-five minutes over a course that led across
fields and through woods, ere the hounds caught the first glimpse
of their quarry. Yet, all along, the paper trail was in evidence.
One of the hares was required to strew the small bits of paper.
When his bag was empty another hare must begin dropping the white
bits.

"I'l