"Well, honest now, I ain't sorry to know it," declared Lil Artha; "though, if I had to do it, I reckon I could crawl along a little farther, p'raps a dozen or two miles. If anything's won this walk for me, fellows, it's just been pluck. You can tell me all you want to about athletes and such, but in my opinion that's what counts above condition and everything else. As long as you keep up heart you've got a look-in; but when the sinking spell comes, good-by." Ten minutes later they entered among the houses. Immediately some boys in khaki who were posted along the road as a sort of vedette corps, began to call out to one another, uttering cries like the fox and the bear, which doubtless denoted the nature of their patrols. Presently there was quite a crowd accompanying Lil Artha as he headed for the church where the local troop of Boy Scouts had their headquarters. Here there were many lights, and a lot of people assembled. When Lil Artha passed through the open doorway a tremendous outburst of applause greeted his appearance. He doubtless felt something of the thrill of victory that used to come to the Grecian victor in those old days of the Marathon races. Mr. Garrabrant beamed with pleasure when he saw that it was a Hickory Ridge boy who had come in first. Heartily did he shake hands with Lil Artha and congratulate him on his pluck in making the entire distance with hours to spare. And when a little later on, while waiting to see if Felix came in before the storm broke, the scout master listened with the greatest possible interest while Elmer related what was known about the evil intentions of those four scheming lads from Fairfield; and also laughed when he heard how their designs had been signally defeated by the bravery and intelligence of Lil Artha's faithful chums. CHAPTER XVI. "THE FINEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO FAIRFIELD!" AFTER the second in the race, Felix Wagner, had come in, one of the first things the boy from Fairfield did was to hunt out Lil Artha, shake hands with him heartily, and congratulate him. "I'd like to have beat you, all right," he said with a whimsical grimace; "but I take it no fellow had need of feeling ashamed about playing second fiddle to such a giant on a hike as you, Lil Artha. And that goes." Elmer had watched this meeting with eagerness; and he immediately turned to Mr. Garrabrant. "That settles one thing I've been worrying about," he declared, emphatically. "Meaning that this Fairfield lad has had no knowledge of the miserable game that some of his misguided friends were engineering in his behalf; is that it, Elmer?" remarked the gentleman, understanding what he had in mind. "Yes, sir," came the reply. "You see, from all accounts, in the old days this same Felix Wagner was one of the right bowers of Matt Tubbs. And somehow I seemed to be making up my mind that if _he_ had a hand in this ugly deal, there was a screw loose somewhere in this reformation business over there."