The race was on at last. At the crack of the pistol, the three boats had
jumped away, Alexandria taking a lead of half a length by a quick start.
The course was straightaway down the river, but against the tide.
A large crowd had assembled near the start and the finish to watch the
race. Those at the starting point cheered wildly as the boats shot away.
Alexandria rowed with short, snappy strokes that made the boat jump,
jump, jump all the time. The strokes of the Blue Cove crew and the Yale
Combine were much alike.
Toots was coxswain in the Yale boat, and proud indeed he was of the
position. His black face shone with delight.
On the river was a small steam launch that was loaded with admirers of
the Alexandria crew. They waved hand and hats and shouted like a lot of
wild Indians when they saw the Alexandria boat increase its lead so that
clear water could be seen between it and the other boats.
With a regular, long swinging stroke, the other boats kept side by side
for a time. Then Frank's crew began to gain slightly on the Blue Cove
lads.
Steadily Merriwell drove them on. He did not attempt a stiff spurt so
soon, but forced them gradually, drawing away from Blue Cove. Soon the
Yale boat was close behind that of Alexandria. The latter spurted, and
then it was that Frank held close, like a leech, determined not to
permit the crew from up the river any further advantage.
The stroke of the Yale crew was strong and steady, sending the boat
through the water at high speed. Before a mile had been made the short
stroke of the Alexandria men was beginning to tell on them.
And Blue Cove was clinging in a remarkable manner, for all of the fact
that it had lost one of its best men at the last moment. Anson Addison,
caught in the dastardly attempt to ruin Merriwell's boat, had been
dropped from the crew and expelled from the club.
In vain Spencer had urged Noel Spudd to take Addison's place in the
boat. Spudd longed to do so, but did not dare disobey his father to such
an extent.
So another and far less valuable man was substituted, and Blue Cove felt
that it had very little show of winning the race.
"You must save us, Merriwell," said Kent Spencer, a few moments before
the start was made.
"I am sure we'll do our best," nodded Frank.
The shouts of the Alexandria crowd on the launch became less and less
confident as the Yale boat was seen to creep up on the leader. At last
it lapped Alexandria. Then, despite the most desperate efforts of the
crew from up the river, the Yale boat crept alongside and gradually took
the lead.
On an elevated bank near the finishing point a crowd was seen. The ones
assembled there were all aflutter with excitement.
Blue Cove was doing good work. Up beside Alexandria the boat was
stealing, and it was plain that a most exciting finish would be made.
The cheering on the launch had ceased. It was keeping near the Yale
boat, and, in the midst of his work, Frank heard a familiar voice
declaring:
"They can't win to-day--not much! The race is not over yet!"
Harlow was on the launch.
But it seemed plain enough to everybody that the Yale boat would cross
the finish more than two lengths ahead of the others, for it was gaining
rapidly now.
The crowd on shore was cheering, and it was a scene of wild excitement.
Suddenly something whizzed through the air and struck the water. Then
there was an explosion, and the entire forward end of the Yale boat was
blown to pieces!
The boat filled immediately, and the crew was in the water, while the
other boats shot past and crossed the line together, it being difficult
to tell which was leading.
"One of the greatest races ever rowed on the river," declared Kent
Spencer in the boathouse that evening. "You Yale chaps would have won
easily if it hadn't been for that bomb that ruined your boat. As it was,
that put you out of the race, and we got over the finish a little in
advance of Alexandria. Blue Cove still holds the championship."
"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the delighted lads.
"It's lucky there were boats ready to give us a lift," said Jack
Diamond. "Hans was floundering about like a maniac, and----"
"Who told me so?" cried the Dutch boy. "Dot Bodomac Rifer vater vos der
thinnest sduff dot efer tried to valk on me. Id don'd seem unaple to
subbort me ven I tried to svim oudt der shore to. I sunk der pottom to
shust like you vos von sdick uf vood."
"Where is Browning?" asked Fred Dobbs.
"Oh, he's in the hotel, having a chill," laughed Rattleton. "The plunge
in the river brought on the ague again."
"I don't suppose there is any doubt as to the identity of the fellow who
threw the bomb?" said Noel Spudd, questioningly.
"Not a bit of it!" exclaimed Bart Hodge. "Miss Bellwood and Miss Spencer
both saw him when he did the trick. He was on the steam launch. Miss
Bellwood was looking at him through field glasses, and she is ready to
swear it was Rolf Harlow."
"In that case," said Spudd, "I presume Mr. Merriwell will see that the
fellow is punished, if he is arrested?"
"Bet your life on it!" cried Diamond. "Merry means to put Harlow where
the birds won't peck him. That chap has given Merry trouble enough."
"Anyway," said Kent Spencer, "we want you fellows to stay at Blue Cove a
while longer. We've had more sport since you struck the Cove than ever
before."
"Had to glear it--I mean glad to hear it," said Rattleton. "But you
haven't had any more sport than we have. It's been the jolliest time of
the whole trip for me, and as for Merriwell, Diamond and Hodge--well,
there are attractions enough to keep them here the rest of their lives."
"The only gal I ever was able to ketch was away aout in Forth Wuth,
Texis," put in Ephraim, grinning. "I kainder knocked the spots aout of a
feller that was cuffin' her brother some, an' she stuck to me zif I was
kivered all over with mewsledge. She was a peach, too, b'jee! Some time
I'm goin' back aout there an' ax her will she splice to me. Ef she'll
have me, I'll have her quicker'n a cat kin wink her eye."
"Vale," said Hans, with unusual sadness, "I don't peen aple to had a
girl catch me. Vot vos der madder, somehow? Don'd I peen peautiful py my
faces?"
"Oh, yes!" cried Rattleton; "you are a perfect chromo! I don't
understand why all the girls are not trying to catch you."
"Mebbe you understood dot shust as pad as I did. I sed ub nighds dryin'
to haf dot vigger me out vot id vos, but now I don'd knew so much apoud
id as you did pefore."
Frank Merriwell came bounding into the room, waving a scrap of yellow
paper over his head.
"A dispatch!" he cried. "It was just brought me from the nearest
station. Harlow has been arrested in Alexandria!"
"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the boys.
"Will you appear against him?" asked Harry of Frank.
"I think I ought to."
"Certainly," came from several of the Blue Cove boys.
The matter was talked over for half an hour, and then Frank set off for
the jail in which Harlow had been confined.
On the day following the rascal was brought out for a hearing.
He was held for trial and bail was placed at several thousand dollars.
As he could find nobody to go his bondsman he was compelled to remain in
jail for the time being.
The boys of the Yale Combine remained with their friends for two days
more. During that time Frank saw Elsie twice, and when the pair parted
it was with a promise to write every week or oftener.
The combine got a rousing cheer on leaving Blue Cove, the celebration
being fully equal to that participated in at Lake Lily.
"Virginia is all right," said Frank to Jack. "I don't wonder that you
are proud of your mother State."
The tour now led northward, toward New York, and two days later found
the boys in the southeastern portion of Pennsylvania.
Here the roads were found to be fairly good, and they took again to
their bicycles, but taking their time, for Bruce and Hans absolutely
refused to hurry.
"The boat race nearly killed me," growled the big fellow. "Give me a
chance to recover."
As for Hans, he wanted to stop and eat five or six times in every
twenty-four hours.
"Dot draining vos make me empty by mine heels up," he declared. "You
could eat me mine own head off alretty, ain't it?"
On one occasion Frank felt like spurting ahead and did so. He was
quickly joined by Barney, and the two kept it up until they were well
out of sight of the rest of the crowd.
"Sure an' this tickles me to death," observed Barney. "Me wheel acts
loike grased lightning, bedad!"
"I love a spurt myself," replied Frank. "Especially when my wheel is
just in proper trim."
They had passed over a slight rise and were now on a down grade where
coasting became a double pleasure. There was a wood on either side of
the road, with great trees interlocking their branches high overhead.
"Listen!" cried Frank, presently. "What is that?"
"Sure an' somebody is gettin' a drubbin'," replied Barney. "Come on,
we'll see who it is!"
"Confound the beast!" came the cry from a curve ahead. "I will teach the
beast how to mind!"
And then followed more blows, mingled with a low cry in a female voice.
Rounding the curve, Frank and Barney saw a man and a girl who were
mounted on handsome horses. The man was belaboring with his riding whip
the horse he bestrode, while the animal danced about, refusing to go
ahead.
At every blow of the whip the horse under the girl started in fear,
trembling and snorting. She was obliged to give him much of her
attention, but she sharply called to the man:
"Don't whip Firefoot that way, Cousin Stephen! He is not used to your
harsh ways, and----"
"I'll make him used to them!" grated the man, his face flushed with
anger. "He is a miserable brute anyway!"
"But not half such a brute as the man on his back!" muttered Frank.
"Roight ye are, me b'y," agreed Barney. "It's a foine lookin' crayther
he's batin' there."
"And a fine creature it is," declared Frank; "but it will not take long
to spoil it in that way. The fellow doesn't know how to ride, and he has
confused the horse between yanking and whipping it. It's likely the
creature stopped and began to rear and back because it did not know what
its rider wanted."
The sight of the approaching bicycles seemed to startle the horse more
than ever, and it bolted out of the road with its rider, who was nearly
swept from the saddle by an overhanging limb.
Again the man fiercely applied the whip. Then he, too, saw the
bicyclists, and cried to them in a snarling voice:
"What do you mean by riding along here like this? You chaps have no
right in the road, anyway! Can't you see you have frightened this
horse?"
That brought a touch of warm color to the handsome face of our hero, but
his voice was calm and steady as he retorted:
"We have as much right on the public highway as you. The trouble with
your horse is that you have abused and frightened it. You are not a fit
person to ride a horse or have any dealings with one."
That seemed to make the man more frantic than ever. He tried to force
the horse at Frank, but the creature shyed at the wheel, so the rider
did not accomplish his design of riding Merriwell down.
With a muttered cry of anger, the man struck at Frank with his whip, and
the lash fell upon the boy's shoulder, so that he felt the sting through
his coat.
Then of a sudden, away leaped the horse, nearly unseating its rider. The
girl followed.
"Confound him," muttered Merriwell, watching the retreating figure of
the horseman.
"May th' Ould Nick floy away wid him!" cried Barney. "Did he hurrut yez,
Frankie?"
"No. If he had, I might be tempted to follow him. Let him go. It is
plain he thinks he is a blue blood and owns the earth. What he really
needs is a sound thrashing."
"An' ye're th' b'y to give him thot, Frankie!"
"I want no quarrel with him, though it did make me hot to see him lash
that horse. Look at him now! See him bob in the saddle and saw at the
reins! He will ruin the mouth of that horse, as well as spoil its
temper. It's a shame!"
"So it is!" nodded Barney.
The man and girl disappeared from view, and gradually the sound of the
galloping horses died out in the distance.