"Hold," said the French sergeant, glancing around at his troopers, all native Algerians. "Do you propose to strip the veil from the face of a woman?" he continued, in a whisper. "Such an outrage of Mohammedan customs would cause these men to fall on us at once, and the town would rise to-night. We must let them proceed without interference." Reluctantly Ducardanoy and Bouchardy turned back toward town with the soldiers. The man on the mule shouted something after them in Arabic. "What did he say?" asked Bouchardy. "He said," replied the soldier, "that he and his wife were riding on a mule and a camel presented to him by the magician Ali Ben Mesrour, which same were formerly the Messieurs Ducardanoy and Bouchardy, transformed into their present shape by his magic arts." "That is not true," said Bouchardy, "for the magician Ali Ben Mesrour made mules of both of them." HURDLE-RACING. From instantaneous Photographs of Ernest H. Cady. [Illustration: 2.] [Illustration: 1.] [Illustration: 4.] [Illustration: 3.] [Illustration: 6.] [Illustration: 5.] [Illustration: 8.] [Illustration: 7.] [Illustration: ERNEST B. CADY.] [Illustration: INTERSCHOLASTIC SPORT] There are two distances for hurdle races which have become recognized by the Intercollegiate Associations and the larger athletic clubs as the standards for this event. The shorter distance is 120 yards, the race being run over ten hurdles, 3 feet 6 inches high, placed ten yards apart, the first and last obstacles being respectively fifteen yards from the starting and the finishing lines. The longer distance is 220 yards, the ten hurdles in this case being 2 feet 6 inches high, twenty yards apart, and the first and last respectively twenty yards distant from the start and finish. These two events are usually spoken of as the "high hurdles" and the "low hurdles," the distances being invariably understood as given above. Hurdling requires skill, strength, spring, nerve, and a cool head; and to become a fast hurdler you must devote several years of hard and faithful practice in this particular event. The training for a beginner should be begun in the gymnasium in the winter, with light calisthenics, rising on the toes, rising on the heels, raising the legs, and practising the double jump on the toes. This double jump is a peculiar exercise, and consists of raising one leg, bent at the knee, forward, and the other leg, bent at the knee, backward, alternating the legs at each jump; this serves to limber the muscles that are used in hurdling, and also helps to lengthen the stride. An occasional short jog out of doors on fair days, and light all-round work in the gymnasium, for general physical development, should be made a part of this preliminary training. One of the best exercises that a hurdler can possibly indulge in is to dance up and down on the spring-board for ten or fifteen minutes every day. This develops that very necessary quality of spring and suppleness.