ng recovered his wind, he crept out southward
until he came to the foot of the hill, and entered Glade's lane, heading
straight for the river across the wide plain. Pewee, who had perched
himself on a fence to rest, caught sight of Jack first, and soon the
whole pack were in full cry after him, down the long, narrow,
elder-bordered lane. Bob Holliday and Riley, the fleetest of foot,
climbed over the high stake-and-rider fence into Betts's corn-field, and
cut off a diagonal to prevent Jack's getting back toward the
school-house. Seeing this movement, Jack, who already had made an
extraordinary run, crossed the fence himself, and tried to make a
cut-off in spite of them; but Riley already had got in ahead of him, and
Jack, seeing the boys close behind and before him, turned north again
toward the hill, got back into the lane, which was now deserted, and
climbed into Glade's meadow on the west side of the lane. He now had a
chance to fetch a sweep around toward the river again, though the whole
troop of boys were between him and the school-house. Fairly headed off
on the east, he made a straight run south for the river shore, striking
into a deep gully, from which he came out panting upon the beach, where
he had just time to hide himself in a hollow sycamore, hoping that the
boys would get to the westward and give him a chance to run up the river
shore for the school-house.

But one cannot play the same trick twice. Some of the boys stationed
themselves so as to intercept Jack's retreat toward the school-house,
while the rest searched for him, beating up and down the gully, and up
and down the beach, until they neared the hollow sycamore. Jack made a
sharp dash to get through them, but was headed off and caught by Pewee.
Just as Jack was caught, and Pewee was about to start homeward as fox,
the boys caught sight of two steam-boats racing down the river. The
whole party was soon perched on a fallen sycamore, watching first the
"Swiftsure" and then the "Ben Franklin," while the black smoke poured
from their chimneys. So fascinated were they with this exciting contest
that they stayed half an hour waiting to see which should beat. At
length, as the boats passed out of sight, with the "Swiftsure" leading
her competitor, it suddenly occurred to Jack that it must be later than
the school-hour. The boys looked aghast at one another a moment on
hearing him mention this; then they glanced at the sun, already
declining in the sky, a