Our best athletes, I believe,
have never, on level ground, made a running leap of much more than half
that distance. Now forty feet, under all the circumstances, would not
strike me as impossible, though thirty-five would better chime with my
ideas of the probable, and thirty would remove all possibility of any
draft on my credulity."
"It is not a question of ideas or of credulity," answered Bainbridge,
"but one of fact. However, we will look at the incident from the
stand-point of reason and experience. Now let us assume that a running
leap of twenty-five feet on level ground would not be beyond the ability
of a trained athlete. I think you will allow to Peters a natural
advantage of seven feet over an ordinary athlete, when you consider the
superiority of his form, so well adapted to leaping--a form that gives
to him the advantage of an orang-outang, without the disadvantage of
hand-like feet, so poorly suited to flat surfaces. From the fullest
information I could obtain from Peters, I believe that in leaping he
obtains more impetus from his arms than from his legs; but even with his
preternatural strength he does not get quite as much impulse-force from
his legs as would an ordinary athlete.
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