"On the line there, quick!" called Thompson, watch in his left
hand, pistol in his right. "Ready!"
The hares, each with a bag of torn paper hanging over one hip,
bent forward.
Crack! At the report of the pistol the hares bounded forward.
In barely more than a minute afterwards they were out of sight.
Then followed some minutes of tedious waiting for the Gridley
freshmen.
"Hounds to the line!"
Dick, who had been elected captain of the freshmen team, led his
men forward on all easy lope. Dick took his place at the extreme
left of the pursuing line, with Tom Reade next to him; then Dan
Dalzell.
"Ready!" A pause of a few seconds. Crack!
The pistol sent the hounds away. They did not attempt to run
fast. Captain Dick Prescott's orders were against that. The
hounds moved away at an easy lope, for there were miles yet to
be covered. Six miles, in fact, is more than average High School
boys of the lower classes can make at a cross-country jog.
A go-as-you-please gait was therefore allowed. Either hare or
hound might walk when he preferred.
But for the first five minutes the hounds, who divided into three
squads almost immediately, moved along at an easy jog. Every
eye was alert for the first sign of a paper trail. There were
six upper classmen running with the hounds. Ben Badger was somewhere
ahead, hiding in order not to betray the trail. But, when he
had been passed, Badger would jump up and run with the hounds,
making the seventh judge.
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