e kind who would make a leap and take a chance of getting
away without a broken neck. Fred, while quite as ready to take the leap
if it were necessary, would first figure out where he was going to land.
A deep affection bound the two boys together, and Fred was kept busy
trying to get Teddy out of old scrapes and keeping him from getting into
new ones.

At school, Fred was a leader both in study and sports. He was one of the
best scholars in his class and it was his ambition to graduate at its
head--an ambition that was in a fair way to be realized.

In the field of athletics, his unusual strength, both of body and will,
made him easily the first among his companions. Tall, strong,
self-reliant, with clear gray eyes that never flinched at any task set
before him, the other boys admitted his leadership, though he never made
any conscious claim to it.

He shone in football as the fastest and cleverest fullback that the
school had known for years, and he had well earned his position as
captain and pitcher of the baseball team.

With the boys trailing on in the rear, the coach had now nearly reached
the bottom of the hill, and was gathering speed with every jump of the
frightened horses. A man rushed out from a house beside the road and
grabbed at the bridle of the gray, but was thrown to the ground and
narrowly escaped being trodden under foot.

On and on they went, until they were close to the little river that ran
along at the foot of the hill. A bridge, about twelve feet in width,
crossed the river at this point, and along this Jed tried to guide the
horses. But just before they reached it, the passenger, who evidently
feared that the team would crash into the railing, took a flying leap
over the side of the coach and plunged head first into the river below.

The stage took the bridge, escaping the rails by a miracle. On the other
side, the path curved sharply, and the team, keeping on blindly, brought
up in a mass of bushes on the side of the road. The shaft snapped, and
the driver was thrown over the horses' heads and landed in a thicket,
badly scratched but otherwise unhurt. Two of the boys, who had now come
up, rushed to the heads of the trembling horses, and, with the aid of
the driver, got them under control.

The others, including Fred and Teddy, ran to the assistance of the man
in the water. He had come up, spluttering and snorting, but unharmed,
except for the fright and the wetting. His hair was plaster