Page:The purple pennant (IA purplepennant00barb).pdf/283

Rh covered to his surprise that he was very much of a duffer at it. Mr. Addicks made him arrange his holes further apart in each direction and showed him how to crouch with less strain on his muscles. And he showed him how to get away from the mark with a quicker straightening of the body, so that, after a week of practice, he could find his stride at the end of the first fifteen yards and be running with body straight and in form. And then at last one morning there came a time-trial over the two hundred and twenty yards and, with Fudge sending him away and Mr. Addicks holding the watch at the finish, Perry put every ounce of power into his running and trotted back to be shown a dial on which the hand had been stopped at twenty-four and one-fifth!

"Why—why" stammered Perry breathlessly, "that's a fifth under the time Lanny made last year!"

"That doesn't signify much," replied Mr. Addicks. "This time may be a fifth of a second wrong one way or another. And you must remember that White probably made his record when he was tired from the hundred yards. Anyway, it's fair time, Perry, and if you can do as well as that in the meet you'll probably get second place at least."

Fudge, hurrying up to learn the result, stuttered