As they walked along, the three chums perfected their plans for some fun they hoped would take Frank's mind off his trouble for a while, and, at the same time, afford amusement for themselves.
"Besides it will be a sort of lesson for Jim," said Ned. "He's getting worse and worse. After a bit he'll be too lazy to draw his breath, and then he'll die and it will be our fault."
"I don't see how you make that out," declared Bart.
"Why, it's our duty to prevent him from dying by providing such contests as this I am about to arrange."
"Go ahead," put in Fenn. "We're with you."
The next Monday morning there appeared on the bulletin board in the boys' court of the high school this notice:
ATTENTION!
"Arrangements have been perfected for a grand free-for-all race, for the championship of the school. The affair will be in the nature of a handicap, and there will be three prizes, for the first, second and third winners. Any boy in the school may enter, and there will be no fee collected. The race will take place Saturday afternoon on the school campus. The distance and conditions will be made known at the time of the start. It is hoped that there will be a large number of entries. The more the merrier."
The notice was signed by the school athletic committee, of which Bart was chairman. At the noon recess Bart was besieged by a crowd of boys asking all sorts of questions about the contest, from the kind of prizes to be offered, to the distance to be run.
"I can't tell you any more than is in the notice," Bart answered. "All you have to do is to train for the race, and the committee will attend to the rest."
With this they had to be content. As Ned had suggested, this did serve to take Frank's mind off his troubles to a certain extent. He inquired about the contest, and, when he was sufficiently interested, his three chums took him to one side and explained that it was gotten up for the benefit of Jim Morton.
"Do you think you can get him to enter?" asked Frank.
"I guess so, if I talk to him right," Ned replied. Then he set to work to get Jim to become one of the contestants.
"Why, you know I can't run," Jim complained, when Ned broached the matter to him. "Besides, I don't believe in races. It takes too much time and strength. I'll live longer if I don't hurry so much," and Jim, slowed up in his walk, which was slow enough at best.
"But this is different," Ned went on. "You know you're giving the school a bad name by being so lazy."
"How?" asked Jim, in some surprise.
"Why, you've been made an honorary member of the athletic committee," Ned went on. It was a fact, but he had engineered the matter through. "Now how does it look to see one of our honorary members so lazy he won't even enter a contest? Besides, I think you could win this race, Jim."
"Me win? Why, you know I haven't ever run a race."
"But I think you can win this one," Ned went on, rather mysteriously. "If you'd only train a little bit I know you could beat lots of the fellows. Let me enter you as one of the contestants, and some of us fellows will practice with you nights."
"All right," Jim assented, rather flattered that the chums would go to so much trouble on his account. "I'll try, but I know I can't come in even third."
"You wait," counseled Ned.
The news soon spread that Jim had entered as a contestant in the race. And, what was more surprising, he had begun to train. Few of the High School boys believed it until they saw Jim speeding around the campus one evening, with Ned and his chums. Frank entered into the spirit of the joke, which only the four knew of, and there were impromptu brushes, in which Jim frequently came in ahead. This, of course, was all arranged to give the new athlete confidence in himself. As for Jim, he really seemed to be interested in running. At first he was so stiff, from lack of practice, that he ran like a lame cow. But in a few days he could pick up his heels to better advantage.
"We'll cure him when it comes to the final show-down," declared Ned. "We'll cure Jim of laziness, and it will be a fine piece of work."
"Best of all, though," said Bart, "Frank seems to have forgotten his troubles, and that's why we undertook this."
"If only he doesn't begin to worry, after the fun, we expect to have Saturday, is over," put in Ned, a little doubtful of his own experiment.
There were scores entered in the race, and that insured a good attendance at the event. In spite of many questions the chums refused to tell any details of the contest, and it was much of a mystery as ever Saturday afternoon, when all the boys, and quite a crowd of girls, were gathered on the campus. Ned got up on a box to make an announcement, and to tell the conditions of the race.
"Entries are not limited," he said. "We'll admit boys, girls, dogs, puppies or any animal that walks, flies or crawls."
There was laughter at what they all took to be a joke.
"I mean it," Ned went on. "If any of you have a dog or a goat you want to see race, put him in. We'll make the conditions and the prizes fit any person or animal," and there was more laughter.
"What's the distance?" inquired several of the boys who had donned racing trunks and spiked shoes.
"Five times around the campus," Ned answered. "That's about a mile."
"Where are the prizes?"
"They will be shown and awarded after the race. Now are you all ready?"
"Aren't you going to run this off in heats?" asked Lem Gordon. "There are too many to start at once."
"No, it's a free-for-all race, but those who have been in previous contests will have to start off first."
"Last, you mean, I guess," said Lem. "That's the proper way to handicap."
"Not for this race," Ned replied.
"Why not?"
"Because this is going to be a lazy race."
"A lazy race!" cried half a score of voices.
"Yes, a lazy race. The person or animal who comes in last, after making five circuits, wins."
"Are there going to be animals in this?" demanded Lem.
"Of course there are. This is free-for-all. Here is my entry," and Ned, turning over the box he had been standing on, disclosed a big mud turtle, that started to crawl away as soon as it got into the light.
"A mud turtle race!" cried Lem.
"Certainly! Why not?" demanded Ned, "This turtle has been trained against Jim Morton, champion lazy racer of the Darewell High School!" he went on in a loud voice, to make himself heard above the shouts of laughter. "Now, all ready. Come on, Jim, I believe you can beat the turtle if you half try!"
Such a yell as there was at this! The boys and girls realized the joke that had been played, and even Jim did not hesitate to join in the merriment, for he appreciated the trick which had been worked on him.
"One! Two! Three! Go!" cried Ned. "There goes the turtle!" and he pointed to where the animal was crawling along at a rapid rate. "Hurry up, Jim, or he'll beat you!"
"I guess not," Jim replied. "I'm going to take a rest. This training has tired me out," and he sat down on the grass.
"Any one want to compete against the turtle?" asked Ned. "Come on now. Remember, it's free-for-all."
But no one seemed to care to contest, and, amid yells and laughter at the manner in which they had been fooled, the boys began arranging impromptu races among themselves.
"You worked that pretty slick," Jim said, as the chums approached him. "You jollied me along in great shape. But I'll have to take lots of rest now, to make up for it."
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