THE FLOOD
"Hello, you fellows!" called Dave Ogden, who was acting as the coxswain
of the shell, waving his megaphone at them. "Out for practice?" and he
grinned as he looked at the heavy barge.
"Yes, we're getting ready to order a new shell," answered Tom.
"Ha! Ha! That's pretty good. Maybe you think you can beat us rowing!"
and Dave looked not a little proudly at the eight lads whose efforts he
had been directing. They had been out for a spin on the lake, and were
now coming back rather leisurely.
"We will beat you--some day!" declared Frank.
"Maybe you'd better not tell them about our shell until we get it,"
suggested Tom, in a low voice.
"Oh, they'll have to know it some time or other," declared Frank. "It
will be all over the college in a day or so, and Boxer Hall is sure
to learn of it. Besides, I want to get things stirred up a bit. But
they'll only think we're joking, so far."
The eight-oared shell passed on with a sweep, the rowers making good
time against the current. But then the craft was so much like a knife
that it offered scarcely any resistance to the water.
"Row easy, all!" came the command from Dave Ogden, and the rowers
reduced the number of their strokes per minute. They were closer to
shore now, and out of the worst grip of the current. The coxswain
waved his megaphone at our friends in a friendly fashion, and then
gave his attention to his crew. Though there was rivalry--sometimes
bitter--between Randall and Boxer Hall, the students were, for the most
part, very friendly.
"Jove! It will be great to get in that game!" exclaimed Tom with a sigh,
as he watched the rival's shell.
"And we'll do it, too!" declared Frank, earnestly.
"Well, let's be getting back," suggested Sid; and the others agreed that
this might be a wise thing to do.
And while they are returning to college I will, in order that my
new readers may have a better understanding of the characters, tell
something of the books that precede this in the "College Sports Series."
Our first volume was called "The Rival Pitchers," and told how Tom
Parsons, then a raw country lad, came to Randall College, with the idea
of getting on the baseball nine. He succeeded, but it was only after
a hard struggle and bitter rivalry. Tom made good against heavy odds.
The second volume had to deal with college football, under the title,
"A Quarter-back's Pluck," and in that I related how Phil Clinton, under
trying circumstances, won the championship gridiron battle for his
eleven.
"Batting to Win," the third book of the series, was, as the title
indicates, a baseball story. Besides the accounts of the diamond
contests, there was related the manner in which was solved a queer
mystery surrounding Sid Henderson. Going back to football interests,
in the fourth book, "The Winning Touchdown," there will be found many
accounts of pigskin matters. Also how Tom Parsons, and his chums, saved
the college from ruin in a strange manner.
The book immediately preceding this volume was "For the Honor of
Randall," and while it was, in the main, a story of various college
athletics, there is detailed how a certain charge, involving the honor
of Frank Simpson, and incidentally his college, was disproved.
My old readers know much about Randall, but I might mention, for
the benefit of my new friends, that the college was located on the
outskirts of the town of Haddonfield, in the middle west. Near the
institution ran Sunny River, as I have said, and it was on this stream,
and the connecting lake, that it was proposed to have Randall enter into
aquatic sports. Randall, Boxer Hall and Fairview Institute--the latter a
co-educational college--had formed the Tonoka Lake League in athletics,
though in rowing only the two latter colleges had competed. But this was
soon to be changed.
At the head of Randall was Dr. Albertus Churchill, dubbed Moses, in
affectionate terms. Dr. Emerson Tines, alias "Pitchfork," was head
Latin instructor, and Mr. Andrew Zane was proctor. Dr. Marshall was a
physician in residence, and also gave instruction in various lines.
Tom, Phil, Sid and Frank roomed together. Formerly they had had a large
single dormitory to themselves, doing their studying there, and going
from there to classes, lectures or chapel--but not the latter when it
could conveniently be "cut." In the book just before this I told of the
Spring track games in which Randall had managed to come out the victor.
These had been past a week or two when the present story opens.
Just after the games there had been thrown open to the use of the
students a new dormitory, and study-building, with rooms arranged _en
suite_, and the four chums had taken a large central apartment, with
bedrooms opening from it. This gave them a much more convenient place
than formerly.
But, if they changed their room, they did not change the furniture--at
least they kept all the old, though getting some new. Among the former,
were the two ancient armchairs, known to my readers, and the decrepit
sofa, which had been mended until it seemed that nothing of the original
was there. And then there was the alarm clock, which served to awaken
the lads--that is, when they did not stop it from ticking by jabbing a
toothpick somewhere up in the interior mechanism.
As for the friends of our heroes they were many, and their enemies few.
You will meet them, old as well as new, as the story progresses.
"There sure is some water!" exclaimed Tom, as he gazed from shore to
shore of the turbulent stream.
"And it's getting higher," added Phil.
"And going to rain more," came from Sid.
"Oh, there'll be a flood sure, if you calamity-howlers have your way,"
remarked Frank. "Give way there! What are you doing, Phil--stalling on
me?"
"Say, who made you the coxswain, anyhow?" demanded the aggrieved one.
The boys reached Randall just as the downpour began again, but their
spirits had been raised by the row, and by the good news which Frank
had heard. It was confirmed a little later by an announcement on the
bulletin board, calling for a meeting of the athletic committee, within
a few days, to consider the matter.
"Say, this is going to be great!" cried Holly Cross, one of the football
squad. "Rowing is something Randall always needed."
"And she needs rowers, too, don't forget that, Holly, me lad!" exclaimed
Bricktop Molloy, a genial Irish lad who was taking a post-graduate
course, after an absence of some time at Columbia and with a mining
concern. Some said he came back to Randall merely because he loved her
athletics so, but Bricktop, with a ruffling up of his red hair would
say, half-savagely:
"I deny the allegation, sir, and I defy the alligator!" an old joke but
a good one.
"Oh, we'll get the rowers," was the confident declaration of many, and
then the lads, gathering in the gymnasium, or in the rooms of one and
another, talked over the coming rowing contests.
It rained all night, and part of the next day, and then seemed to clear
off for good.
"What about another spin on the river?" asked Tom, after his last
lecture. "I'm ready for it."
"So am I," declared Sid, and the remaining two fell into line. Several
other lads agreed to accompany the four inseparables, and soon quite a
group was headed for the river.
"Say, look at that; would you!" cried Phil, as they came in sight of the
stream. "That's a flood all right!"
"I should say so!" remarked Tom. "Why, it's almost up to the doors of
the boathouse, and it hasn't been that high in years!"
"Some water," agreed Frank. "I wonder if it's safe to go out? Look at
that current!"
"Safe! Of course it's safe!" exclaimed Phil. "I've seen it worse."
"But not with so much wreckage in the river," added Tom. "Look at those
big logs. If one of them even hit the barge it would smash a hole in it."
"There's part of a chicken-coop!" cried Sid, pointing to the object
floating down the river.
"Yes, and there's half a cow-shed, if I'm any judge," went on Frank.
"The river sure is high," conceded Phil. "I did want to take a run down
to Fairview, and see Sis, but----"
"See your sister!" jeered Sid. "I know who you want to see down there
all right," for while Phil's sister, Ruth, attended the co-educational
institution, so did Madge Tyler, of whom Phil was very fond, and also
Mabel Harrison, in whom Sid was more than ordinarily interested.
Besides, there were "others."
"I was going to row down," declared Phil, stoutly. "But I can go by
trolley."
"Oh, let's try a little row," suggested Tom. "If we find the current is
too strong, we can come back and take a car. I'd like to see the girls."
"Brave youth! To admit that!" exclaimed Frank. "I fancy we all would.
Well, let's get out the boat."
But they found the flood too much for them. Venturing only a little way
out from shore they were gripped in the current with such force that
they saw it would be folly to proceed. Accordingly, they put back, as
did their companions in other boats.
As they were tying up at the boathouse, Wallops, one of the college
messengers, came in.
"Did you hear about it?" he demanded, apparently much excited.
"About what?" he was asked.
"A lot of boathouses down the river have been washed away in the flood,"
he went on. "The small one at Boxer Hall came near going, but they
anchored it with ropes. One of their small shells was smashed. Oh, it's
a bad flood all right!"
"Well, we can't help it," said Tom. "I guess the trolley cars are still
running. Come on, fellows, if we're going to Fairview Institute."
So, leaving the boathouse, they started for the trolley line.
"We'll take a row down the river to-morrow, and see what damage the
flood did," called Sid to Wallops, as they moved away. They little
realized what they would find, or what part it would play in the history
of Randall.