ritted his teeth.

"I'll take you for five dollars," he said to Hall, "but not at those
odds. I'll back myself even."

"It isn't your money I want; it's Hazard's," Hall demurred. "Though I'll
give either of you three to one."

"Even or nothing," Billy held out obstinately.

Hall finally closed both bets--even with Billy, and three to one with
Hazard.

The path along the knife-edge was so narrow that it was impossible for
runners to pass each other, so it was arranged to time the men, Hall to
go first and Billy to follow after an interval of half a minute.

Hall toed the mark and at the word was off with the form of a sprinter.
Saxon's heart sank. She knew Billy had never crossed the stretch of sand
at that speed. Billy darted forward thirty seconds later, and reached
the foot of the rock when Hall was half way up. When both were on top
and racing from notch to notch, the Iron Man announced that they had
scaled the wall in the same time to a second.

"My money still looks good," Hazard remarked, "though I hope neither of
them breaks a neck. I wouldn't take that run that way for all the gold
that would fill the cove."

"But you'll take bigger chances swimming in a storm on Carmel Beach,"
his wife chided.

"Oh, I don't know," he retorted. "You haven't so far to fall when
swimming."

Billy and Hall had disappeared and were making the circle around the
end. Those on the beach were certain that the poet had gained in the
dizzy spurts of flight along the knife-edge. Even Hazard admitted it.

"What price for my money now?" he cried excitedly, dancing up and down.

Hall had reappeared, the great jump accomplished, and was running
shoreward. But there was no gap. Billy was on his heels, and on his
heels he stayed, in to shore, down the wall, and to the mark on the
beach. Billy had won by half a minute.

"Only by the watch," he panted. "Hall was over half a minute ahead of me
out to the end. I'm not slower than I thought, but he's faster. He's
a wooz of a sprinter. He could beat me ten times outa ten, except for
accident. He was hung up at the jump by a big sea. That's where I caught
'm. I jumped right after 'm on the same sea, then he set the pace home,
and all I had to do was take it."

"That's all right," said Hall. "You did better than beat me. That's the
first time in the history of Bierce's Cove that two men made that jump
on the same sea. And all the risk was yours, coming last."

"It was a fluke," Billy