As they got off, Laura’s left skate clashed with Beth’s right. Both girls might have been thrown; but Beth recovered herself instantly on the other foot and darted off—only a stroke behind the best of the starters. Laura began to shriek:
“Foul! Foul! Baldwin fouled me! ’Tisn’t fair!”
As it chanced, Miss Crossleigh and one of the official starters had seen the accident.
“You are the one who fouled, Miss Hedden,” said the instructor, tartly. “You may race or not as you please. I do not think it was intentional on your part.”
But Laura had wasted so much time calling aloud that she was injured, it was useless for her to attempt the race. Most of the skaters were already half a lap away. But Laura found friends among the other girls and some in the crowd of spectators, to hold up her contention that she had been fouled by Beth Baldwin.
Luckily, Beth knew nothing about this at the time. In her short, close-fitting sweater and cap, with her scant skirt, her gloved hands clenched, she had shot away in the immediate wake of the other girls, scarcely noticing her clash of skates with Laura.
At the far turn on the first lap she “crossed the bows” of several of the other contestants, and took the inside of the course. She knew enough about fancy skating to take short turns without faltering, and in such a brief race as two miles she believed the struggle would be close all the way.
And it was. At the second turn (it was two laps to the mile), Beth was among the leaders—seven of the best skaters in the school. Every girl tried to do her best.
The end of the first mile saw Beth and Miss Rice elbow to elbow. There were others near; but the race was really between these two from this point to the end.
