There was no time to recover.
Frank slid over the starting line, prostrate on the ice; but Paul Rains crossed it upright, and at least three yards in advance.
Rains had won! An accident had prevented Frank from winning, for his skate had struck a flaw in the ice, and he had been thrown with stunning force.
Great was the excitement.

Merriwell was picked up and carried to the shore, where a dash of cold water brought him round.
Rains was quite used up for a while, but he soon recovered.

His friends crowded round him to offer congratulations.
"You beat Merriwell this time, Paul," they said.
"But he fell," said Paul, bitterly.

"That makes the victory anything but satisfactory.

However, I will race him again at any time and any place." Little did he think how soon they would race again.
Within a short time after the finish of the race, a sudden cry of alarm and terror went up from the throng.
"Look--look there! Two girls have broken through the ice! They will be drowned!" At a certain point in the pond there was a dangerous bit of ice, where some springs deep down at the bottom continually bubbled up and kept the water alive, so the ice did not form solidly.