Frank had sprung the question so suddenly that the answer came from Jack before the latter realized what he was saying. When Frank shouted with laughter, Jack felt the hot blood rush to his face, but he doggedly said:
“She is that! Laugh if you want to! I don’t care!”
“It’s plain it’s not so much Blue Cove as what you have found at Blue Cove that is attracting you and making you feel as if you could stay here the rest of your life.”
“I don’t know but you are right,” confessed Jack, honestly.
“Well, I don’t blame you,” declared Frank. “Kate is a fine girl—not quite like Elsie, but a fine girl, all the same.”
While Frank and his friends were enjoying themselves and getting ready for the race, Blue Cove was keeping up a hot correspondence with Alexandria, the club of the latter place having protested against admitting the Yale Combine to the race.
Blue Cove insisted, and the mail bore letters each way. At last Dobbs, who as secretary was carrying on the correspondence with Alexandria, plainly hinted that the eight of the latter club could row in a three-cornered race or not at all.
That brought a proposal from Alexandria that the Yale Combine be admitted with the understanding that it was to row for honors only. If it won over both Blue Cove and Alexandria, it was not to claim the championship of the Potomac. In that case, the championship remained with Blue Cove. But if Alexandria led at the finish, the championship was to go to the latter place.
This was more liberal than the boys of Blue Cove had expected, and they readily accepted the terms, so that an agreement was made without delay.
From this proposal from Alexandria, however, it was plain she expected to win over both her rivals. Otherwise she would not have been so liberal.