YSOPBTB, A POOT-RAGEB. 235 IshOt out ot a gun; but the older men have had morie /experience andrealize the impossibility of continuing i such a pace. The younger men, therefore, are quite in advance, and,' ate foolish enough to-pat themselves with the contemplation that the (M fellows were not in it. But the hindm^ost are not old; none, are over thirty years of age; Ysopete is twenty- seven. There are six who run {abreast at a long swinging gait; they even waste a little breath by remai'king the swift run the youngsters are keeping up; but each fiiaile, as much as to say, they will find out. There is not much to record until after they have reached the starting place the first time, Or five miles; the (Six professionals are still abreast, but they even intimate to each other that after the turn is made they intend to increase the rate, for & number of those in the lead appear so far ahead that to the inexperienced it would seem impossible to overtake them, but this does not worry the six, for they have been there be- fore. V What is uppermost is how many of the hind- Inost party wiU have the" best staying powers. At the turn Ysopete meets the eye of his god, Alonso, who does everything possible to encourage his dusky admirer, and not only is it our hero who wishes the guide to be the victor, but the general and every man in his troop, for he has proven himself to be truthful and faithful, so is there any wonder with such en- couragement shouted to him as he passed that his very soul should be imbued with the desire to win? Again his young townsman, who was thfe svdftest of the 600 the day before, is npt an ingrate, and from childhood having participated in foot-racing knows
