“Tom must be a good deal hurt,” said Linton.  “What could possibly have made him get in Luke’s way?”

“I don’t know,” said the teacher, slowly; “it looks strange.”

“It almost seemed as if he got in the way on purpose,” Linton continued.

“He is a friend of Randolph Duncan, is he not?” asked the teacher, abruptly.

“They are together about all the time.”

“Ha!” commented the teacher, as if struck by an idea.  He didn’t, however, give expression to the thought in his mind.

A minute more, and Randolph swept into the presence of the teacher.

“I believe I have won?” he said, with a smile of gratification on his countenance.

“You have come in first,” said the teacher coldly.

“Luke was considerably ahead when he ran into Tom,” suggested Linton.

“That’s not my lookout,” said Randolph, shrugging his shoulders.  “The point is that I have come in first.”

“Tom Harper is a friend of yours, is he not?” asked the teacher.

“Oh, yes!” answered Randolph, indifferently.

“He seems to be a good deal hurt.  It was very strange that he got in Luke’s way.”

“So it was,” said Randolph, without betraying much interest.

“Will you lend me your skates, Randolph?” asked Linton.  “I should like to go out and see if I can help Tom in any way.”

If any other boy than Linton had made the request, Randolph would have declined, but he wished, if possible, to add Linton to his list of friends, and graciously consented.

Before Linton could reach the spot, Tom had been assisted to his feet, and, with a dazed expression, assisted on either side by Luke and Edmund Blake, was on his way back to the starting-point.

“What made you get in my way, Tom?” asked Luke, puzzled.

“I don’t know,” answered Tom, sullenly.

“Are you much hurt?”

“I think my skull must be fractured,” moaned Tom.

“Oh, not so bad as that,” said Luke, cheerfully.  “I’ve fallen on my head myself, but I got over it.”

“You didn’t fall as hard as I did,” groaned Tom.

“No, I presume not; but heads are hard, and I guess you’ll be all right in a few days.”

Tom had certainly been severely hurt.  There was a swelling on the back of his head almost as large as a hen’s egg.

“You’ve lost the watch, Luke,” said Frank Acken.  “Randolph has got in first.”

“Yes, I supposed he would,” answered Luke, quietly.

“And there is Linton Tomkins coming to meet us on Randolph’s skates.”

“Randolph is sitting down on a log taking it easy.  What is your loss, Luke, is his gain.”

“Yes.”

“I think he might have come back to inquire after you, Tom, as you are a friend of his.”

Tom looked resentfully at Randolph, and marked his complacent look, and it occurred to him also that the friend he had risked so much to serve was very ungrateful.  But he hoped now, at any rate, to get the watch, and thought it prudent to say nothing.