better for him. Even the boys noticed it at the
breakfast table, but said nothing.
The whole morning was taken up with gayeties.
Heath University being only a few miles away
had sent a big crowd of fellows to yell for their
favorites, while Simms and
. Long had a great
many sympathizers on the grounds. Bands of
students marched through town all morning dis
playing their colors, blowing tin horns, yelling at
the top of their voices and flirting with all the
girls they could find on the streets. A great
many passed the time away in becoming acquaint
ed with the new men from the different colleges
and the athletes who were to contest in the after
noon. Several of Jack's fraternity men from
Heath and Long were among the visitors,' and
most of his time was spent that morning in help
ing to give them a royal welcome at the chapter
house.
About half past twelve the crowd began to
move toward the athletic field and about the same
time Jack with his blue and white flag and several
yards of ribbon started out for the Archibald man
sion. He found Miss Carrie dressed as patriot
ally as she could possibly be. Her gown of dark
blue was trimmed with white, while her white stu.
dent's cap embroidered in blue and yards upon
yards of ribbon helped to complete her outfit. He
thought 'she never looked so pretty as this after
noon while they strolled along under the shade
of the maples and horsechestnuts now in bloom
that lined the street leading up to the cam
pus from that part of the town. A great deal of.
her old vivacity had come back. She .too felt
that things would turn out all right after all. It
was a hard trial for both of them, after they had
reached the athletic field, to bear the scowls and
black looks of disappointment that greeted Jack
on every side. From the most popular man in
college, he .had dropped to be, at least for the
moment, the most unpopular. It was harder still
for her to bear the "I told you so" look that
Madge Graham gave her as they pssed down
THE FREE LANCE.
through the crowd
, on the grandstand to their
seats which were very fortunately near the front.
The contests soon began, and then nobody had
eyes for them or anything else but the events tak
ing place on the field: Officials, big with their
own importance, bustled around inside the enclos
ure, while bare armed and bare legged athletes
lay around in their sweaters or long bath robes;
or grouped themselves pitcturesquely around the
doorway of the athletic house. Heath won the
hundred yards dash with Nordson a close second,
and the Varsity a third. The two-twenty went to
Nordson, while the Varsity counted a' second and
Heath a third. The Varsity also picked up a
point in the four-forty.
Simms made her first points in the high hurdles,
winning first and breaking the record by four
fifths of a second. Then she won the broad jump
and.a number of other points among them, the
half mile in which her man lowered the record
three seconds. Everybody had programs. By a
carefully arranged chart, and through the courtesy
and obliging good nature of the announcer, all
could follow ' the scores as they were made and
see which way the land lay. Simms and the Var
sity were almost neck and neck with Heath and
Nordson good seconds. Toward the end, Simms
was gradually drawing ahead and after the two
twenty hurdles the points stood ; Simms twenty
four, the Varsity twenty-one, Heath seventeen,
Nordson twelve, Lithe Lake nine, Long four.
The mile run, mile walk and pole vault were
still to come off. Heath had a sure first on the
vault and the Varsity and Lime Lake would di
vide the other three points. On the walk the
Nordson man was conceded to be the best and
Simms and the Varsity would have to divide the
other two places. It all depOded on the mile
run, and then it began to dawn on the people that
they had nobody that would stand 'a ghost of a
chance against the man from Simnis who had
broken the half-mile record and was going to run
in the mile for a certainty except—
Sonie one suddenly called from the back of the