Trix saved her breath to taunt her rival later, and, skating around the bits of ice, won the heat before Agnes, much shaken and bruised, had climbed to her feet.
"Oh, Aggie! you're not really hurt, are you?" cried Ruth, hurrying to her sister.
"My goodness! I don't know," gasped Agnes. "I saw stars."
"You have a bump on your forehead," said one girl.
"I feel as though I had them all over me," groaned Agnes.
"I know that will turn black and blue," said Lucy, pointing to the lump on Agnes' forehead.
"And yellow and green, too," admitted Agnes. Then she giggled and added in a whisper to Ruth: "It will be as brilliant as Neale's hair was when he dyed it!"
"Well, you showed us what you could do in the first heat, Aggie," said Pearl, cheerfully. "I believe that you can easily beat Trix."
"Oh, yes!" snarled the latter girl, who over-heard this. "A poor excuse for not racing is better than none."
"Well! I declare, Trix, if you'd fallen down," began Eva; but Agnes interrupted: