"Oh! who is it?" cried Cissie Anderson shrilly, as she stood up, everyone being on tiptoe with excitement.
"Fred Fenton!" shouted Cornelius Shays, apparently taking it for granted that their favorite athlete would be the first to come in.
"No! no, it can"t be Fred, because he was Number Six, and that seems more like a Seven!" another boy shouted; at which Flo Temple turned really pale with bitter disappointment, for she had hoped it would be Fred.
"Colon! Hurrah for Colon!" whooped several enthusiastic Riverport rooters.
"Look again, and perhaps you won"t crow so loud!" the saucy girl from Mechanicsburg exclaimed, her eyes dancing with eagerness. "I"ve got pretty good sight, and that looks like a Figure One to me. Besides, I ought to know how Billie Ackers runs, for he happens to be my own brother!"
The stranger in town had raised his field-gla.s.ses meanwhile, and he hastened to remark, turning sideways toward Flo Temple and Cissie:
"Yes, that is a Figure One, most a.s.suredly!"
As though the adherents of the up-river school had discovered this gratifying truth for themselves, wild cheers now began to be heard, coupled with the Mechanicsburg favorite school song, sung by a glee club that suddenly sprang into view, waving flags, and throwing up their hats in enthusiasm.
"It"s the Mechanicsburg Wonder!"
"We told you he had their measure taken, didn"t we?" shouted Sherley, the football quarterback.
Boom!
"Another runner has just turned the bend, and see him gaining on Ackers, would you? Why, what"s this I see---that number looks like Eleven, and didn"t Badger of the Pauldings carry that? Will you see him tearing off the s.p.a.ce on your tired-out Wonder? It"s good-night to Ackers, Mechanicsburg!"
"That may be, but where do you fellows here in Riverport come in?"
shrilled the girl from up river whose brother was plainly being beaten.
Boom!
"Oh! there"s a third runner in sight, and just see how he is tearing along like a scared wolf. We ought to know that style, Riverport, and n.o.body but Fred Fenton could show such terrific speed at the close of a twenty-five mile race. That"s because he pays more attention to condition than speed!"
"Will he overtake the other runners before they get to the goal?"
shrieked an almost crazy rooter, as he stood on his seat, and waved both arms wildly again and again.
Thousands of anxious eyes watched the approaching figures of the three contestants. It was still an open question who would come in ahead. The Wonder was evidently at almost his last gasp, while Badger, the Paulding runner, could hardly be said to show much better form, for he too wobbled constantly from side to side, as though kept going only by sheer grit.
Fred, coming strong from the rear, was speedily overtaking them both.
When Badger, looking over his shoulder, saw this, he started a feeble little spurt, but it excited only derisive whoops from the frenzied crowd.
"No use, Badger, you"ve shot your bolt! Give way to a better man!"
shouted the captain of the Riverport cheer squad through his megaphone.
"And look at the poor old riddled Wonder wobble, would you? There, if he hasn"t taken a header in the bargain! It"s all up, boys, all over but the shouting!"
"Oh! the poor fellow has gone down in a heap!" gasped Flo Temple, as Ackers after stumbling fell to his knees in his weakness.
"Look at him trying to get up, but he can"t do it!" cried Cornelius Shays. "The tape is only thirty feet away, and Ackers is trying to crawl there on his hands and knees. Now Fred is on him, and has pa.s.sed to the front, with poor Ackers rolling over like a log in a dead faint!"
Such a tumult of wild shouting as broke out when Fred Fenton, pale of face, and bearing the marks of his hard run in the agonized expression of his face, staggered past the judges, and fell into the arms of several friends who were antic.i.p.ating some such collapse at the end of the fiercely contested Marathon.
Nor were the plucky Ackers and Badger forgotten by either friends or rivals in the many wild cheers that followed.
"Where"s Colon?" a dozen people were asking anxiously, for a strange rumor had flashed around through the great crowd, to the effect that because the second favorite had not shown up at all, he had fallen and broken his ankle.
Fred quickly set these stories at rest by telling just what did detain Colon, and how having been injured by running a thorn in his foot, he had decided to stay there by the two children to watch the man who had been caught beating the boy.
Later on, of course, all of those who had been left up in the woods arrived in town, having been met on the way by Chief Sutton in a car, and given a lift. Colon saw to it that the three woodchoppers were well paid for their part in the affair.
Fred walked home with Flo Temple that evening, not a particle spoiled, she really believed, on account of all the praise showered upon him by the pleased partisans of Riverport High.
Other rivalries would likely have to be settled between these neighboring towns, with their lively high schools, but it would be a long time before the a.s.sembled crowds could ever experience such tremendous excitement as came about when Fred Fenton caught up with Badger and the Mechanicsburg Wonder on the home-stretch of the twenty-five mile Marathon, and managed to win by a scant fifteen feet.
Corny Ludson being taken in charge by the police was in due time placed on trial charged with serious offenses. There was no difficulty in proving him guilty of both robberies, and of course he received a long sentence, which would keep him from preying on the public, or annoying the children left in his charge by an unsuspicious brother.
Upon investigation by Judge Wallace it was found that while he had really been the legally appointed guardian of his nephew and niece, and had squandered all the spare money he could get his hands on, there was quite a snug amount in securities that he could not touch.
This would be ample to provide Sam and Sadie with all necessary comforts while they went to school, and grew up. They were speedily placed in a comfortable home with an old couple who would take the part of parents to them, and it may be easily understood how from that time on both of them rested in the belief that there was no fellow in all Riverport quite the equal of Fred Fenton, because he had had so much to do with bringing them their present happiness.
They do say that Flo Temple inclines the same way, for she and Fred continue to be good friends, and are seen together at all the dances, and other entertainments.
The End