At the starting shot--for Miss Etching was not afraid of a pistol and used it to start the race--the thirty-eight girls got away from the line without much confusion. The best skaters were quickly in the lead, so that there was little entanglement at the first stake. By that time the girls were strung out for some yards.

Rounding the home stake for the first time, the seniors and juniors, with Judy Craig and--to Jennie's surprise--Grace Montgomery and Cora, were in the lead. Nancy was trailing them easily, but it worried Jennie.

The latter lost her head and did all her best work--put out every bit of strength she had--in the second lap. She pa.s.sed Nancy and many of the other girls belonging to the freshies and sophs; but she could not reach Grace and Cora. Judy Craig fell back, however.

At the beginning of the third lap more than half the girls dropped out.

The leaders were so far ahead it was useless for them to continue. And their dropping out cleared the course for the real contestants.

Jennie fell back in that third lap, and Nancy pa.s.sed her, still skating easily, and about half a lap behind the leaders.

"Oh, dear, Nance! Do hurry up and beat them," gasped Jennie. "I'd hate to see Grace--or Cora--carry off the glory for our cla.s.s."

Nancy did not speak; she only smiled. She saved her breath--as Jennie might better have done.

For, at the beginning of the fourth lap, both of the girls who called themselves leaders of the freshmen cla.s.s began to fall back, although they still struggled. The race was not 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.s 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 cla.s.smates 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 cla.s.s. 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 cla.s.s.

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 the evening had seemed to put the right temper into her muscles. Having been relieved by Miss Etching of the two girls--her own cla.s.smates--who had attempted to r.e.t.a.r.d her progress, Nancy kept on and on, seeing the distance between herself and the leaders in the race diminishing--by no effort of her own, it seemed--and just enjoying herself.

She skated past Judy Craig, and saw that that eager soph.o.m.ore was sobbing for breath, and could hardly stand. Nancy felt little weariness and still enjoyed the pace. She had not spurted in the beginning and waited for that wonderful "second wind" that is the help of all long-distance racers, before increasing her first easy pace.

Now she increased her stroke for a second time, and almost at once flashed past two of the older girls. One of them was a senior.

The crowd began to shout for her when Nancy came around the home stake now. Jennie Bruce led the freshmen rooters, and the volume of sound they made showed that there were few "dyed-in-the-wool" Montgomeryites, after all.

Nancy Nelson, the single remaining freshman on the ice, was the hope of the cla.s.s. Corinne and Carrie and one of the juniors were still struggling far ahead; but the school as a whole soon began to be more deeply interested in the progress of Nancy than in the struggle of the leading girls.

"That little Nelson is making them all look sick," declared the stout soph, Belle Macdonald. "I hated to see our Judy drop out; but I'd rather see a freshman win over those juniors and seniors, if a soph.o.m.ore can't do it."

"Pah!" exclaimed Cora Rathmore, "Nelson hasn't a chance with that Canuck. None of us had."

"Nancy is skating easier than all of them," observed one of the other girls.

"Wouldn't it be odd if a freshman _should_ win?" cried Sally.

"It wouldn't be funny at all if that Nancy Nelson won," snapped Cora.

"That n.o.body!"

"There'd be no living with her at all, then," added Grace Montgomery.

"Hurrah for Nance!" shouted Jennie Bruce, when the contestants swung past the home stake again. "She's going to win!"

The racers began their eighth lap. Not until now had Jennie really believed her own statement--that Nancy had a chance to win. But it actually began to look so.

They came around again. Carrie had dropped far behind Corinne and the junior. Nancy was swinging along, hands clasped behind her back, taking each stroke firmly--rolling just a little, indeed--and seemingly almost as fresh as when she began.

"Bully for you, Nancy Nelson!" many of the freshies cried. "Show 'em what you can do! Don't give up, Nancy!"

But Nancy had no intention of giving up. She believed she could keep on to the end, and without reducing speed. And on the ninth lap she pa.s.sed Carrie.

Only two were ahead of her now. As she swung down the home-stretch behind the senior and junior, Nancy's mates began to shout like mad girls:

"Come on! Come on! Don't let 'em freeze you out, Nancy Nelson!"

"You're going to beat, Nance!" cried Jennie Bruce, fairly jumping up and down. "Show 'em what you can do!"

There was only one more lap--one-fifth of a mile. Nancy drew in a long breath as she rounded the stake, and looked ahead. Corinne and her nearest antagonist had spurted a little; but Nancy put her head down, and darted up the course at a speed which equalled what the other girls had done at their best.

It was really wonderful how swiftly the freshman overtook her older rivals. Nancy skated more swiftly than she had in that first dash of the evening.

There was n.o.body to shut her off now. Cora was not here to foil or trip her. Corinne and the junior played fair.