"Thank you, old bunkie! The best ever!" glowed Hal, as without a backward look he raced to pick up his wheel. "Hurt?"
"Not a bit," gasped Noll, his wind jarred out of him for the moment.
"Then I'll finish the ride!"
To the thrilled, throbbing spectators there did not come a thought of "accident."
Clearly this whole splendid scene had been only a glimpse of practical military training.
It had all been planned, of course, so the audience supposed, that the tree trunk should snap and that the other young sergeant should be there to perform the swift work of rescue.
Even at that it was a wonderful sight, and again the spectators were on their feet, cheering more hoarsely than ever.
Yet hardly had they started to cheer when, some how, in a way they did not quite grasp, Sergeant Hal Overton had climbed up out of the gully, carrying his wheel with him.
Now he was mounted again! On the further side of the gully the young Army dispatch rider was racing forward again.
His wheel, somewhat damaged by the fall, was moving stiffly now, but Overton put into his pedaling every ounce of energy left to him.