Page:Boys of Columbia High on the River.djvu/232

218 to shout and act like mad. Clifford must be gaining; I'm sure of it. Poor Frank!" cried Helen.

Minnie on the other hand was not ready to flinch.

"Don't you dare pity Frank when we don't know yet what is happening. Perhaps it's our fellows creeping up on the others. I'm going to cheer as hard as I can up to the very second the race is over, I don't care if Columbia is away behind. That's what we're here for, to give encouragement, and not cry," she said, stoutly.

"Hear! hear!" laughed Ralph, finding a little nourishment himself in these brave words of the girl who waved Columbia's colors more determinedly than ever.

Every eye was focussed on the bare flagpole at the bend.

At any moment now they knew the boats would appear at that curve in the stream, and the vital question that presented itself was, which would be in the van?

The shouting seemed to grow closer.

"They are coming! Oh! how excited I am; just feel my hands, Minnie. There, look one of them is coming around now! Oh! which is it, which is it?" whimpered Helen, her voice failing her in the crisis.

"There they are, both of the boats, and side by side!" cried Minnie; "didn't I tell you Frank would do it, Helen? There goes the flag, and, yes, it is