half over and only ten girls
remained in it. Jennie fairly fell to the ice, and sat there, panting.
But she cheered Nancy when her chum passed her on the next--the
fifth--round.

"Go it, old 'slow but sure!'" she cried. "You're going to make your
mark, I see."

It was only a few minutes later that Nancy, without increasing her
speed, was right on the heels of Grace and Cora.

Ahead of these two freshmen were only two seniors, four juniors, and one
soph. The leading girls--three of them--were more than half a lap ahead
of Nancy; the others were strung out along the course.

Grace and Cora saw Nancy creeping up on them. They were losing ground
steadily, and there was no "spurt" in them. Cora, indeed, was crying
with vexation and nervousness.

"She's going to pass us, Grace--the nasty thing!" she panted.

"Keep up, Cora!" begged her friend, and deliberately crossed in front of
Nancy at the post, to keep her back.

Nancy lost stroke a little. They came down the course toward the home
stake on this--the fifth--lap. Miss Etching skated slowly forward to
eye the line of struggling girls. She had personally taken several of
the younger contestants out of the race because she saw that they were
doing too much.

Nancy tried to shoot ahead of her two classmates again. Grace and Cora
almost collided in their attempt to balk Nancy.

But the physical instructor saw them.

"Miss Montgomery! Miss Rathmore! Out of the race!" she commanded, in a
tone that was heard by most of the spectators gathered near.

"And just as I was getting my second wind!" cried Grace, angrily, as she
came down to her waiting friends.

"I put you out for fouling," declared Miss Etching, firmly. "Miss
Rathmore, too. You are traitors to your class. Miss Nelson has a chance
to make a record for you and you deliberately tried to keep her back.
She is the freshest girl on the ice at this moment," declared the
teacher, with enthusiasm.

But Nancy did not hear this. She had rounded the stake in the wake of
the older girls, and kept "plugging along" as though tireless. She was
doing her part as usual--faithfully but not brilliantly--and had no idea
that she was in danger of making a record for the freshman class.

CHAPTER XX

THE FRESHMAN ELECTION

The night was cold, but delightful. Nancy Nelson had never felt so sure
upon her skates, or so able to keep up her steady stroke for a long
distance, as she did now.

The struggle earlier in t