in any of my
classes who isn't 'hep' to what I'm after by this time, and if I would
cajole them a little they would naturally be on my side, especially if
their attention were called to that incident of yesterday; but you said
I have to beat him with my brains, by doing better work than he does; so
about the biggest thing I can honestly tell you is that I have held my
own. I have only been ahead of him once this week, but I haven't failed
in anything that he has accomplished. I have been able to put some
additional touches to some work that he has done for which he used to be
marked A which means your One Hundred. Double A which means your plus
I made in one instance. And you needn't think that Oka Sayye does not
realize what I am up to as well as any of the rest of the class, and you
needn't think that he is not going to give me a run for my brain. All
I've got will be needed before we finish this term."

"I see," said Linda, slowly nodding her head.

"I wish," said Donald, "that we had started this thing two years ago, or
better still, four. But of course you were not in the high school four
years ago and there wasn't a girl in my class or among my friends who
cared whether I beat the Jap or not. They greatly preferred that I take
them motoring or to a dance or a picture show or a beach party. You're
the only one except Mother and Louise who ever inspired me to get down
to business."

Linda laid her palm on the top of the sand heap and pressed it flat. She
looked at Donald with laughing eyes.

"Symbolical," she announced. "That sand was the Jap." She stretched her
hand toward him. "That was you. Did you see yourself squash him?"

Donald's laugh was grim.

"Yes, I saw," he said. "I wish it were as easy as that."

"That was not easy," said Linda; "make a mental computation of all the
seconds that it took me to erect that pyramid and all the millions of
grains of sand I had to gather."

Donald was deeply thoughtful, yet a half smile was playing round his
lips.

"Of all the queer girls I ever knew, you're the cap sheaf, Linda," he
said.

Linda rose slowly, shook the sand from her breeches and stretched out
her hand.

"Let's hotfoot it down to the African village and see what the movies
are doing that is interesting today," she proposed.

CHAPTER XXI. Shifting the Responsibility

On her pillow that night before dropping to almost instantaneous sleep
Linda reflected that if you could not ride the King's