Page:Boys of Columbia High on the River.djvu/139

Rh would pick him up, if so be he was unable to swim to the shore.

The shouts from without told that the power-boats had been sighted on their return, and that the race would soon be over.

"Who leads?" asked Frank, indifferently, as he bent over to examine some mark on the delicate shell in which they would go to victory or defeat presently.

"They say it's Lef in his ten-horse engine racer. He's coming like the wind, too. Lucky he knows the channel, for if ever he struck a snag at that rate that boat would go all to smash. They put him back of all, but he's there with the goods."

A minute later a tremendous shout went up.

"That Clifford boat is overtaking him hand over fist. Look at it come, will you. Let her out, Lef; hit up a pace, or you're a goner!" arose a shout through a megaphone.

If the race had been continued fifty feet further Lef would have possibly found himself beaten, since the other boat seemed to have struck a new pace.

The booming of the cannon announced that another credit had come to Columbia.

"Say, fellows, we just can't lose to-day!" shouted the cheer captain, as he led his flock into a mighty yell that drowned all other sounds, and thrilled the nerves of every old Columbia graduate.