Cinder Path Tales

A VIRGINIA JUMPER 153 was the broken ground, showing that the im­ petus was from the joist and the jumper was at a high rate of speed, and had lifted high in the air. When we had argued it all out satisfac­ torily, Tom suggested that we had better measure it before we talked any longer, for it might not show up to what I thought. He took the end of the tape and held it to the joist, while I walked ahead, withthe reel rattling as I pulled it out. By the well- worn figures up to twenty-one I went; twenty- two and twenty-three were slightly blurred, but the twenty-four was fresh and bright, and at twenty-four two and one-quarter I stopped, and looked back to see if the tape was all right. I lifted my hand again, examined the ground very carefully, pulled the tape tight, and made the mark twenty-four feet oneand three-quarter inches, back of which there was not the hint of a break. Then Tom and I changed ends and he found it just the same. There wasno mistake about it. Given a competition and witnesses on that April morning, and the record would not stand to-day at twenty-three six and one-half, but a good seven and one-quarter inches better, and the name of Richard Spotswood Fairfax would be fastened to it.