“I can do it!” he told himself. “There is a wide space between the ninth and tenth hurdles, and there is where I’ll get ahead of Random.”
Never in all his life had he felt more confident of winning any kind of a contest.
When the ninth hurdle was reached Bart had fallen a trifle to the rear, but he leaped nearly at the same moment with Merriwell.
Then a cry came from Bart as his foot struck and he was thrown forward heavily upon his head.
He struck the ground with a sickening thud, and lay still.
In a moment Frank Merriwell stopped, all thought of winning the race being banished from his mind. He was quickly kneeling beside the fallen lad trying to discover how badly Bart was injured.
Hodge was unconscious, so Frank lifted him and bore him from the track, while Wallace Random raced on and won over Perkins by a wide margin.
Bart was carried into the shade of a large tree, where a physician began to work over him. The physician could not discover that any bones were broken, and he believed Hodge had been stunned by the fall.
This proved true, for Bart was restored to consciousness after a short time, and the first person he saw was Frank close at his side, watching him with the greatest anxiety.
Bart reached out and grasped Merry’s hand, saying feebly: