There was no response in words, but each boy grasped his double paddle with a firmer hold, dipped one blade of it into the water and leaned forward so that he could put all his strength into the first stroke, which was given before the notes of the bugle had fairly died away.
The thirteen contestants got off well together, and for a while it was any body's race; but by the time a quarter of a mile had been passed over, Arthur Hastings and Roy Sheldon, who "made the pace", began to draw to the front, while others fell behind, and when they rounded the stake-boat the line was very much broken. Tom Bigden did not try to win. According to the agreement this was not his race. He simply kept close beside his cousin—he had harder work to do it than he expected to have, for Loren sent his canoe through the water at an astonishing rate of speed—holding himself in readiness to frustrate any attempt at trickery on Frank Noble's part, or to foul Frank if he showed speed enough to beat Loren fairly.
How the struggle would have ended, had each
