As for the striving contestants they were too intent upon the race to perceive the strange turn of affairs until the wild mirth upon the "mainland" apprised them of it. They must have looked funny enough from the shore frantically pursuing the fugitive turning post, and the unhallowed joy of the spectators was only increased by Pee-wee's heroic efforts in the emergency as with a long pole he strove to stay the progress of the recreant island. Failing in these herculean efforts, he still tried to save the day by shouting to the racers. "_Keep up_! _Keep up_!" he yelled. "You can go around it. You're going faster than the island is. _Don't give up_! It makes it all the more exciting. It's like--like--like--kind of--like running up an escalator! Don't stop! Keep it up, it's an escalator race!" It certainly made it "all the more exciting." As for the inhabitants of the island, they were carried away in more than one sense. Townsend lay flat upon the ground in a spasm of silent laughter. Several others of the new Alligator Patrol sat on the edge of the stern and rock-bound coast, their legs dangling in the water, and seemed in danger of falling in, so gymnastic was their merriment. As for the occupants of the grandstand, they probably thought (if they were able to think at all) that ten cents was a small price to pay for such an exciting race. Only one occupant of the fleeing island was up and about and fully conscious. With his companions lying flat or doubled up and screaming so that the woods along shore echoed with their insane mirth, our hero stood amid the chaos, shouting to the racers at the top of his voice. They were almost abreast of him now, and laughing themselves, for the race had become a farce. "Come on! Keep it up!" he shouted. "You can go around it while it's sailing just as good as if it were standing still! The race kind of stretches out like an elastic--it's an extensible race. Keep it up! Keep it up!" "Don't," moaned Townsend from his place on the ground. "This is too much----" "It isn't enough!" Pee-wee shouted. "The race is better because it's longer--it stretches out--it's an extensible race--I invented it----" "What on earth is the cause of it?" laughed one of the girls. "Extra--extra--ex--ex--ex--extra high tide caused by the r--r--rain," shrieked Townsend, hardly able to get the words out. "This is the cli--cli--climax of Eas--Eas--Easter vac--c--c--c--c--_cation_!" Amid screams and catcalls from the shore an official launch came chugging up the course. By that time the two canoeists had given themselves up to laughter and sat shaking as their canoes drifted. Only the island continued merrily upon the flood tide. "Called off?" somebody called from the shore. "Certainly it's called off," said the official in the launch. "This was supposed to be a race, not a game of tag."