"Leave it to us. And as for gettin' up, we turn out at daylight. I don't reckon he could sleep none after that if he tried." Stover pointed to the striped elastic coils of the exerciser against the wall. "I didn't want to speak about it while they was here," said he, "but one of them young ladies lost her garters." "That's not a pair of garters, that's a chest-weight." "Jest wait for what?" "Chest-weight--chest-developer." "Oh!" Stover examined the device curiously, "I thought a chest- developer came in a bottle." Fresno explained the operation of the apparatus, at which the cow-man remarked, admiringly: "That young feller is all right, ain't he?" "Think so?" "Sure! Don't you?" Fresno explained his doubts by a crafty lift of his brows and a shrug. "I thought so--at first." Stover wheeled upon him abruptly. "What's wrong?" "Oh, nothing." After a pause the foreman remarked, vaguely, "He's the intercollegit champeen of Yale." "Oh no, hardly that, or I would have heard of him." "Ain't he no champeen?" "Champion of the running broad smile and the half-mile talk perhaps." "Ain't he a foot-runner?" "Perhaps. I've never seen him run, but I have my doubts." "Good Lord!" moaned Stover, weakly. "He may be the best sprinter in the country, mind you, but I'll lay a little bet that he can't run a hundred yards without sustenance." "Without what?" "Sustenance--something to eat." "Well, we've got plenty for him to eat," said the mystified foreman. "You don't understand. However, time will tell." "But we ain't got no time. We've made this race 'pay or play,' a week from Saturday, and the bets are down. We was afraid the Centipede would welsh when they seen who we had, so we framed it that-away. What's to be done?" Again Fresno displayed an artistic restraint that was admirable. "It's none of my business," said he, with a careless shrug. "I--I guess I'll tell Willie and the boys," vouchsafed Bill apprehensively. "No! no! Don't breathe a word I've said to you. He may be a crackerjack, and I wouldn't do him an injustice for the world. All the same, I wish he hadn't broken my stop-watch." "D'you think he broke it a-purpose?" "What do you think?" Stover mopped the sweat from his brow. "Can't we time him with a ordinary watch?" "Sure. We can take yours. It won't be exact, but--" "I ain't got no watch. I bet mine last night at the Centipede. Willie's got one, though." "Mind you, he may be all right," Fresno repeated, reassuringly; then hearing the object of their discussion approaching with his trainer, the two strolled out through the bunk-room, Stover a prey to a new-born suspicion, Fresno musing to himself that diplomacy was not a lost art. "You're a fine friend, you are!" Speed exploded, when he and Glass were inside the gymnasium. "What made you say 'yes'?" "I had to."