ool play he'd be apt to conjure up, such as might make Tip
say it was the best and slickest scheme he'd ever heard about?"

"Nick has so many wild ideas that he's likely to attempt nearly
anything," said Hugh. "If he could find a good place where a runner
would have to keep to the road I even believe he'd try to dig a deep
pit, and cover the same over, just as the wild-animal catchers do in
Africa, when they go out after big game for the menageries and zoos."

"Why, would that work, do you think, Hugh?" cried the startled Thad,
mentally picturing his chum crashing through a false roadbed, and
dropping down into a deep hole from which, alone and unaided, he
could not hope to escape until much time had elapsed, and all hope of
winning the big Marathon was lost.

"It might have done so if I hadn't chanced to possess a wide-awake
chum, who gave me due warning, and caused me to keep a sharp lookout.
As it is, if I glimpse a suspicious spot in my path I'll fight mighty
shy of the same; or by a big leap give it the go-by. Of course,
there might be other ways in which they could hope to detain me, such
as dropping down on my shoulders from a tree, and with their faces
covered so I couldn't recognize them."

Thad looked grave.

"Yes, they could do that, for a fact," he admitted. "Seems to me
you'll have to keep one eye aloft all the while, Hugh, while the
other is watching the ground for treachery. I must say this is a
fine state of affairs. Not only does Scranton High have to go smack
up against all the best runners of Allandale and Belleville, but be
on the lookout for treachery at home besides. I'd give something to
be one of a bunch of indignant fellows to take Nick Lang and his two
pals out to the woods some fine night, and give the same a coat of
tar and feathers, or else ride them on a rail. They're a disgrace to
the community, and Scranton ought to take them in hand right away.
That boy will set the town on fire yet I'm thinking, with his
desperate tricks."

"He will, unless he soon sees a light, and turns over a new leaf,"
admitted Hugh, who, it seems, had an idea of his own in connection
with the said Nick, which, perhaps, he might find an opportunity to
work out one of these days; but which he did not care to confide to
his chum, because he knew Thad would be apt to consider it
impossible, perhaps foolish.

"There they go now, Hugh," suddenly remarked Thad in an undertone.
"You see, he has both Tip and