Page:Boys of Columbia High on the River.djvu/68

58 Sure enough it was the missing boat!

Frank rushed over alongside, his heart, figuratively speaking, in his mouth. Had those vandals injured the precious cedar craft, a fine example of the up-to-date boat-builder's art.

He went from one end to the other, and when he failed to discover anything that looked like damage, he sighed with satisfaction. If this were all, he might even find it in his heart to forgive the prank, though it had cost him nearly an hour of agonizing anxiety.

In a few words, he explained to the foreman how much depended on that boat being lowered safely to the ground.

"Can you get your men to do it for us? I will promise five dollars from the boat club, to be divided among them, if they lower it without banging the sides. It's almost like paper, you see, and one hard knock would punch a hole in it, which we'd have no time to fix up before the race. Please do all you can. We need this boat on the river this morning the worst way," Frank said; and his plea met with a hearty and instantaneous response at the hands of the obliging Irishman.

"Sure, we kin do it, and, depind on it, we wull. Wait till I get some more of me min up to handle the derricks, and thin it's over in a jiffy," he