“Oh, Nancy! Oh, Nancy! Come on!”
Nancy heard Jennie Bruce’s voice above all the turmoil ahead. Her eyes had begun to water, and the white, badly cut-up ice of the straight course seemed to waver before her.
At her ear she could hear Corinne’s labored breathing. The ring of her rival’s skates rasped upon the younger girl’s nerves, too.
She was under a great strain now. Another full lap would have been more than she could have skated without a breakdown. It was being pressed so close and hard that was wearing Nancy down. She was not used to such contests.
But her roommate’s cracked voice, shouting again and again for her, kept Nancy to the mark. Corinne should not pass her!
She flung herself forward against the wind and worked with teeth that sank into her lip and drew the blood! On—on—on——
She felt something against her hands—against her breast—she was tangled up in it! Something had fouled her, and she had failed, for Corinne swept by at that moment.
And then the girls caught her—Jennie and many of her own class, as well as some of the older girls. They were cheering her, and praising her work—for it was the tape she had run against.
The race was finished and Nancy had won!
Three-quarters of the school were on the ice. Something like three hundred girls can make a lot of noise!