iverport school should be anxious.

"Do we start soon, Brad?" he asked, as the captain of the track team
reached convenient talking distance.

"The rest do; but the committee have decided to make a change about your
running, Fred," were the surprising words he heard.

"Oh! that's all right," Fred replied, smiling; "I'm ready to give up to
some better man, if that's what you mean."

"What?" gasped Dick Hendricks.

"Oh! rats!" cried Brad. "There's no better man in this matter at all,
Fred. Fact is, you're the only one in our string who stands a good
chance of beating that speedy Boggs in to-morrow's race. I've heard some
talk among a lot of Mechanicsburg fellows. They're trying to get a line
on your kind of running, Fred; which shows that they know right well
you're the only one they need fear."

"Oh! well, they've seen me run lots of times when we played baseball and
fought it out on the gridiron," remarked Fred, naturally flushing a
little under the kind words of praise.

"Yes, that's so; but it's got out that you've picked up a new kink in
the way of getting over ground. They kept harping on that all the time.
And I got the notion they've some of their crowd posted along the course
to-day to take notes and compare time, so they can spot what you do. If
you've got a weak point, climbing hills for instance, they'll report,
and that's where Boggs will pass you."

"Well, you've got something up your sleeve, Brad, when you tell me this;
so out with it," Fred observed, reading the other's face cleverly.

"It's this," the track captain went on; "when the rest of the string
start you drop out, and disappear like fog. Then they'll have their
trouble for their pains."

"That sounds nice, but tell me where does my needed exercise come in?"
remarked Fred; "and I'd like to get a line myself on what I can do."

"See here, don't you know of some other five mile course you could take
on the sly, without anybody being the wiser for it?" asked Brad.

"Why, yes, I do, only it happens to be a harder run all told, than the
course mapped out by the committee," replied Fred, promptly.

"That oughtn't to make much difference," the other went on, with a sigh
of relief; "you'll know right well that if you can make it in the same
time you've done the regular course, it'll be all the better."

"Is this really necessary, Brad?" asked Dick; "lots of us expected to
get a line on Fred ourselves; and if he sneaks off unbeknown, how're w