THERE WAS A WHITE LINE BEFORE HER! IT WAS THE TAPE.
Page [269].
Sometimes Beth would forge a foot or two ahead; sometimes Miss Rice would make a spurt.
It was grilling work. Beth could not shake off her rival and began to feel her own strength waning. She had to arouse all her energy and determination when she came into the home stretch, the last half lap of the two miles, for she was well spent.
The cheering and encouragement came to her ears faintly. Luckily, she could not hear what Laura Hedden and her supporters were saying.
It seemed to Beth as though all her strength had gone—as though her limbs below her knees were merely wooden props which she could barely push on.
She lost sight of the crowd; and the lights around the course, which were strung on iron pikes driven into the ice, seemed to stand still. She heard heavy breathing—seemingly at her very ear. Was it Rice? Or was another contestant overtaking her?
Then she realized that it was her own breathing she heard. Her lungs were pumping savagely. Only a well-trained body, untrammeled by improper dress, could have stood that strain.
There was a white line before her! It was the tape.
Where was Rice? Where——
She dashed against the tape, and the next moment Molly and Miss Crossleigh caught her. Miss Rice was six yards behind!