The other three young men had abandoned the contest.
The leap of Tim, at the report of the revolver, put him a clean yard in the lead.
"I guess he's professional, all right, all right," Billy remarked.

"An' just look at him go!" Half-way around, Tim led by fifty feet, and, running swiftly, maintaining the same lead, he came down the homestretch an easy winner.
When directly beneath the group on the hillside, the incredible and unthinkable happened.

Standing close to the inside edge of the track was a dapper young man with a light switch cane.

He was distinctly out of place in such a gathering, for upon him was no ear-mark of the working class.

Afterward, Bert was of the opinion that he looked like a swell dancing master, while Billy called him "the dude." So far as Timothy McManus was concerned, the dapper young man was destiny; for as Tim passed him, the young man, with utmost deliberation, thrust his cane between Tim's flying legs.