Page:The purple pennant (IA purplepennant00barb).pdf/339

Rh making, was standing still and the finish line was racing toward him! For a moment he wondered about Kirke, but for a moment only. The tape was but twenty yards away now and it was time for the last supreme endeavor.

Gedge was two paces in front when Perry started his final rush. In ten yards he was level. In five more he was back with Lawrence. Like a white streak Perry breasted the string, his arms thrown up, his head back, and after him came Gedge and Lawrence, Kirke, Knight and Soper.

Once over the line, Perry staggered, recovered and then fell, rolling limply across the cinders. A dozen eager boys rushed to his assistance and he was lifted and borne to the turf where, a moment later, he found his breath.

"Kirke?" he whispered.

"No," was the answer. "They got second and third. You broke the dual record, Hull; twenty-three and four-fifths!"

Perry considered that an instant in silence. Then: "We lose the meet, though, don't we?"

His informant nodded. "Suppose so. There's still the hammer-throw, but I guess we're dished. It isn't your fault, though. You ran a peach of a race, Hull!"

Perry climbed weakly to his feet, with assist-