"Did Sam and Nick make good time?" asked Tom, of the football captain.
"Very good, yes. They were among the first ones in. I'm sorry about you boys."
"I suppose we're out of the game," hinted Jack.
"Well, not altogether, but it'll set you back. However, I'll do what I can. Better turn in now. You must be tired."
"Tired isn't a name for it!" groaned Bert. "I'll sleep like a locomotive to-night."
They were all slumbering almost as soon as they tumbled into bed, and, though they had been well soaked, they experienced no ill effects the next morning.
To their delight the football captain and coach said nothing about their ill-luck in being outside the time limit for the cross-country run, and they went to practice as usual.
"Huh! I wonder if they call that fair?" sneered Sam, when he saw his enemy, and the latter's friends, in their usual places.
"It's not right," asserted Nick, "after we made the run, and got in on time."
"Well, you didn't get lost in the woods," said George Abbot, who was at least on speaking terms with Sam and his crony. "A farm fellow told us to take the wrong road to avoid a hill."