The chain-bearer, glancing slowly back, stepped slowly to the right of the course until Tom's hand fell abruptly.

Then the chain-bearer stopped, knowing that he was on the right line.

A metal stake, having a loop at the top from which fluttered a marker of red flannel, the man stuck upright in the ground.

Tom took a peep, signaling so gently that the man moved the stake just half an inch before Reade's hand again fell.
"That stake is right; go ahead," ordered Tom, but he said it not by word of mouth, but merely with a slight gesture of pushing forward.
"You've been well trained, I'll bet a hat," smiled Butter.

"I can tell that by the practiced way that you signal.