him.

The struggle grew more violent. Tim's supporters strove to hold him off
the floor so that his hand would still be above the grasping hands that
shot up. Once, for an instant, his arm was jerked down. Again it went
up. But evidently the paper had broken, and with a last desperate
effort, before he went down, Tim flung the coin out in a silvery shower
upon the heads of the crowd beneath. Then ensued a weary period of
arguing and quarreling.

"I wish they'd finish, so as we could get back to the dancin'," Mary
complained. "This ain't no fun."

Slowly and painfully the judges' stand was cleared, and an announcer,
stepping to the front of the stand, spread his arms appealing for
silence. The angry clamor died down.

"The judges have decided," he shouted, "that this day of good
fellowship an' brotherhood--"

"Hear! Hear!" Many of the cooler heads applauded. "That's the stuff!"
"No fightin'!" "No hard feelin's!"

"An' therefore," the announcer became audible again, "the judges have
decided to put up another purse of twenty-five dollars an' run the race
over again!"

"An' Tim?" bellowed scores of throats. "What about Tim?" "He's been
robbed!" "The judges is rotten!"

Again the announcer stilled the tumult with his arm appeal.

"The judges have decided, for the sake of good feelin', that Timothy
McManus will also run. If he wins, the money's his."

"Now wouldn't that jar you?" Billy grumbled disgustedly. "If Tim's
eligible now, he was eligible the first time. An' if he was eligible the
first time, then the money was his."

"Red-head'll bust himself wide open this time," Bert jubilated.

"An' so will Tim," Billy rejoined. "You can bet he's mad clean through,
and he'll let out the links he was holdin' in last time."

Another quarter of an hour was spent in clearing the track of the
excited crowd, and this time only Tim and Red-head toed the mark. The
other three young men had abandoned the contest.

The leap of Tim, at the report of the revolver, put him a clean yard in
the lead.

"I guess he's professional, all right, all right," Billy remarked. "An'
just look at him go!"

Half-way around, Tim led by fifty feet, and, running swiftly,
maintaining the same lead, he came down the homestretch an easy winner.
When directly beneath the group on the hillside, the incredible and
unthinkable happened. Standing close to the inside edge of the track was
a dapper young man with a light switch cane. He was distinc