Beckner alone seemed untired. Carl’s cheeks were white, and had two spots of crimson in them. Bannet was looking pretty well used up, but Bobby seemed not yet fagged and hung on to Bannet closely. He had never tried himself to any extent in the two miles, but I thought that he was doing better than he had done in the mile.
Getting tired of making pace Green swung aside and let Beckner take the lead. Green fell in behind Carl, who was still treading in Beckner’s tracks. Then the distance between the first group and the second began to open; Bannet was tiring. For a while Bobby regulated his speed by Bannet’s, but soon he went round outside Bannet and passed him. That seemed to do Bannet good, for he spurted and kept close behind Bobby all round the track. The third Maynard man and Fuller were out of it for good by this time, and the eighth man had left the track.
There were only two laps left now, and the shouting was pretty continuous. Up at the head Beckner seemed to want Carl to take the lead, but Carl refused. That cheered us considerably, for it seemed to show that Beckner was weakening. Finally Green went to Beckner’s rescue; but he almost pumped himself out in doing it, and only set the pace for a few hundred feet, making it so slow that Bobby and Bannet closed up half the distance between them and Carl. Then Green fell out again and Beckner was once more ahead, but Carl was holding on grimly.
So it was when they turned into the home stretch. The shouting was tremendous now, for the spectators had left the stands and lined up along the track.
“Last lap! Last lap!” shouted the judges.
We shouted to Carl to keep it up! And the Chamberlain people, who liked us better than they liked Maynard, shouted the same thing. Even Bobby and Bannet were applauded, and I shouted to Bobby to go on and win.
On the turn Bannet stumbled and half fell, and lost several yards; that seemed to take the heart out of him. When the runners turned into the back stretch, Bobby was all alone a dozen yards behind Beckner, Carl and Green.
About the middle of the stretch Beckner started to draw away from Carl; but he only opened up about three yards before Carl was after him. That put Green out of it. We saw him wabble once and then throw up his arms and go over on the turf.
“Bobby’s going to get third place!” cried John. And, sure enough, there was Bobby still running, and running strong.