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Rh soon as the race was ended they locked arms to show their good feeling. Then Marley came in with Sandwick at his heels. In deep disgust Peter Slade refused to finish, but circled to one side and hurried to the boathouse, there to take off his skates and disappear.

"It was a well-skated race," declared George Strong. Then he asked Dick and Larry if they wanted to skate off the tie.

"We won't bother," said Dick, after consulting his chum. "We are satisfied to let it stand as it is, considering that there was no prize to be awarded."

The fact that he had lost the skating race made Peter Slade more sour than ever, and after that, whenever he met Dick, he glared at the eldest Rover boy defiantly.

"He acts as if he had a personal grudge against me," said Dick to his brothers.

"Well, he acts that way to me, too," answered Tom.

"He ought to have his head punched well," was Sam's comment.

Peter Slade did not seem to care that Larry had beaten him—his enmity was directed mainly at Dick.

Slade was in one of the lower classes, but one day one of the teachers announced a lecture on the battleships of the American navy, and a large