ads went out. Small boys joined the pursuing crowd, and dogs barked
indiscriminately and uncertainly at the heels of everybody. There were
cries of "Hurrah for long Ben!" and "Hurrah for Hoosier Jack!" Some of
Jack's old school-mates essayed to stop him to find out what it was all
about, but he would not relax a muscle, and he had no time to answer any
questions. He saw the faces of the people dimly; he heard the crowd
crying after him, "Stop, thief!" he caught a glimpse of his old teacher,
Mr. Niles, regarding him with curiosity as he darted by; he saw an
anxious look in Judge Kane's face as he passed him on a street corner.
But Jack held his eyes on Long Ben, whom he pursued as a dog does a fox.
He had steadily gained on the fellow, but Ben had too much the start,
and, unless he should give out, there would be little chance for Jack to
overtake him. One thinks quickly in such moments. Jack remembered that
there were two ways of reaching the county clerk's office. To keep the
street around the block was the natural way,--to take an alley through
the square was neither longer nor shorter. But by running down the alley
he would deprive Long Ben of the spur of seeing his pursuer, and he
might even make him think that Jack had given out. Jack had played this
trick when playing hound and fox, and at any rate he would by this turn
shake off the crowd. So into the alley he darted, and the bewildered
pursuers kept on crying "Stop, thief!" after Long Ben, whose reputation
was none of the best. Somebody ahead tried to catch the shabby young
fellow, and this forced Ben to make a slight curve, which gave Jack the
advantage, so that just as Ben neared the office, Jack rounded a corner
out of an alley, and entered ahead of him, dashed up to the clerk's desk
and deposited the judgment.

"For record," he gasped.

The next instant the shabby young fellow pushed forward the mortgage.

"Mine first!" cried Long Ben.

"I'll take yours when I get this entered," said the clerk quietly, as
became a public officer.

"I got here first," said Long Ben.

But the clerk looked at the clock and entered the date on the back of
Jack's paper, putting "one o'clock and eighteen minutes" after the
date. Then he wrote "one o'clock and nineteen minutes" on the paper
which Long Ben handed him. The office was soon crowded with people
discussing the result of the race, and a part of them were even now in
favor of seizing one or the other of the runners f