fifty miles five miles ahead of you. He probably will. But we will beat him on the last ten miles, or perhaps the last five.
"Good luck, boy. God keep you."
Thus Ali and Joie started on the first lap of the long, hard run for the purse of five hundred dollars.
The course was across a desert of perhaps twenty miles, along a little-used road, then over a mountain trail for ten miles, and up a valley on the farther side for twenty more, to the little town of Prago. This was the first leg, and the second was to return along the same course.
When Ali reached the outskirts of the town and turned into the desert trail he could barely see Ben Abi and Black Araby. They were probably three miles away, but Ali was not discouraged. This
