FOOTNOTE:
[1] See "The Boy Scouts on Crusade."
CHAPTER II
TRACK TROUBLE
Before the end of the first lap, Rodman Cree had quit. It could hardly be called his fault, because the elastic waistband which held up his running pants had snapped, and a further awkward gallop with his hands holding up the slipping garment proved futile. So he veered off the track.
"No use!" he laughed. "Besides, I'm not a runner, anyhow."
It was the laugh that brought the scowl to Spec's face. "Of course, it was not his fault," he grunted, "but why does he laugh about it? He's running for us to-day; he's our eighth man in the patrol. Doesn't he understand that we want to win?"
It had been rather a last-minute affair, this field day between the Black Eagles and Buck Claxton's team, which he had called the All-School; and it was Specs who had quite unconsciously started it all.
"I guess everybody knows," Specs had said in a loud, clear voice during the first morning's recess, "who it was that made this school possible."