me than this has. Why, they planned to get you
to cross here all by yourself, and then lay you out so you couldn't run
for a month. Didn't I see how they kept kicking at my shins all the
time, and I reckon that's what they did with you. I've a welt on my leg
right now from a heavy brogan; and I'd like to bet you they put on that
sort of foot-wear so as to make their kicks hurt like fun."

"Yes, they did seem to keep kicking at me, every chance they found,"
admitted Fred, as though partly convinced by the other's argument.

"See?" flashed Colon. "I told you how it was. They had that all laid
out, and after it was carried through you'd be laid up and lame for the
whole of the Spring. When a fellow means to run a twenty-five mile race,
he's got to keep in tiptop condition right along, or he'll get soft; and
if you couldn't practice every day, why what would be the use of your
starting in? Five miles would make your ankle so sore you'd have to be
carried home on a hayrick."

"They tried their level best not to give themselves away," continued
Fred.

"Hardly ever used their voices,---only when they just had to grunt and
groan, after you touched 'em up with that bully walking-stick. Fred."

"And," continued Fred, "they had their hats pulled down over their faces,
collars turned up, and some sort of thing over their chins, so their best
friend wouldn't have recognized one of them."

"Oh! it certainly was a pretty smart trap, and it failed to work on
account of a few things the plotters hadn't thought of," observed Colon,
with a vein of satisfaction in his voice.

"One of which was my great luck in having you along with me, Colon."

"Oh! I don't know that that counted any to speak of," objected the
other. "Why, when I saw the way you slung about you with that
walking-stick, Fred, I knew as sure as anything they were in the soup.
And chances are, it'd have been just the same if you'd come along here by
yourself. The biggest piece of luck you had was when you took that
notion to carry your dad's heavy cane."

"Perhaps you're right, Colon," admitted Fred, as he felt of the heavy
stick, and then remembered with what a vim he had applied it without
stint wherever he could get an opening. "And I ought to really thank Flo
Temple for that, oughtn't I? Only for the way she joked me about needing
a crutch or a cane, I'd never have thought of playing it on Bristles.
And I want to tell you I'd hate to have this thing