CHAPTER XIX.
THE SKATING RACE—DAN BAXTER IS CORNERED.
The wind had been with the racers thus far, but as one after another of the skaters turned the mark they found the wind now full in their faces, and it was blowing freshly.
"Mumps will win, beyond a doubt!" was the cry, as the lad from the Hudson River forged still further ahead.
"My skate is loose!" cried Larry, and a second later the skate came off and flew fifty feet away.
By this time Dick and Fred were coming up, slowly but surely. It seemed to be nip-and-tuck between them, and the friends of each cheered wildly.
"Go it, Dick; you can come in second anyway!"
"Make him follow you, Fred! You can do it if you try!"
On and on went the racers, Mumps still ten feet ahead, Fred and Dick side by side, and the others in a bunch just back of them.
But the strain was now beginning to tell upon
