orth-east, but it was almost behind them and so helped them along.
Pryor nodded towards a dead beech tree beside the road. Jack nodded
back.

"Two miles more," he said.

"Road or hill?" asked Chub, looking around a moment.

"Don't care," answered Pryor.

"Hill," said Jack.

At a turn of the road Chub left it to the right and the others followed.

"Is this--shorter?" asked Roy.

"About--even thing, I think," answered Pryor.

"A whole minute shorter," said Jack.

Roy sighed for the road as he dragged his feet up a little hill and saw
before him a rough bit of country in which rocks and stunted bushes
sprang everywhere. For the next quarter of a mile they were always
either going up hill or going down; level ground was not on the map
thereabouts. Jack took the lead again presently and Chub fell back to
where Roy was heroically striving to keep his place. At last Roy
stumbled over a root, went head over heels into a clump of bushes, and
sat up with the last bit of breath knocked out of him. Chub had stopped,
grinning. Roy shook his head and waved his hand for the other to go on.

"Hurt?" asked Chub anxiously.

[Illustration: "At last Roy stumbled over a root, went head over heels
into a clump of bushes."]

Roy shook his head, found a little breath and gasped:

"I'm--all right. Go ahead. I'll--follow--presently."

Chub glanced hesitatingly from Roy to the others. Then he nodded and
went on. At a little distance he turned, waved a hand to the right and
shouted something about the road. Roy nodded indifferently and then fell
back onto the turf and didn't care a rap what happened. It was blissful
just to lie there, stretch his aching legs and get his breath back.
Anyone who wanted that dinkey pewter mug could have it, as far as he
cared. Only--well, he did wish he could have finished! Then it occurred
to him that he could, that if he went on he might even finish well up on
the list. He judged that five minutes had passed since the others had
left him. He already felt better and had regained his wind remarkably.
Well, he'd just go on and have a try; maybe he could help win the mug
for the Second Seniors. So he climbed to his feet and set off in the
direction taken by Chub.

But a minute or so later he concluded that he had lost the way, for now
the wind instead of being behind him was coming against his left cheek.
Of course the wind might have swung around, but it was much more
probable that he had unconsciou