"
A flag is waved from the judges' stand. Madame van Gleck rises
in her pavilion. She leans forward with a white handkerchief in
her hand. When she drops it, a bugler is to give the signal for
them to start.
The handkerchief is fluttering to the ground! Hark!
They are off!
No. Back again. Their line was not true in passing the judges'
stand.
The signal is repeated.
Off again. No mistake this time. Whew! How fast they go!
The multitude is quiet for an instant, absorbed in eager,
breathless watching.
Cheers spring up along the line of spectators. Huzza! Five
girls are ahead. Who comes flying back from the boundary mark?
We cannot tell. Something red, that is all. There is a blue
spot flitting near it, and a dash of yellow nearer still.
Spectators at this end of the line strain their eyes and wish
they had taken their post nearer the flagstaff.
The wave of cheers is coming back again. Now we can see.
Katrinka is ahead!
She passes the Van Holp pavilion. The next is Madame van
Gleck's. That leaning figure gazing from it is a magnet. Hilda
shoots past Katrinka, waving her hand to her mother as she
passes. Two others are close now, whizzing on like arrows.
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