Of course it was Knight! There could be no mistaking that terrible scar down his left cheek, which was plainly visible through their glasses.
“Well, it’s hard work to get ahead of Frank Merriwell!” chuckled Berlin Carson. “He must have found a way to trace Knight and rescue him. The freshmen will win!”
“It looks that way,” admitted Carker; “but in times of greatest prosperity have come upon us our greatest calamities.”
They felt like punching him, but of a sudden their attention was wholly given to the race. Surely something was wrong! See! the freshman stroke reels in his seat! It is Starbright! Something has fallen to the bottom of the shell—something that sounds suspiciously like a stone.
Then the sophomores begin to forge ahead.
The consternation in the freshman boat has spread to the shore. The race is ruined. Something had knocked the stroke-oar out, and that settles it.
But look again! A strange thing is happening. The coxswain, with amazing skill, grasps the senseless stroke and swings him aft, taking his place and his oar.
As he seized the oar the new stroke cries:
“Pull!”
Never before on Lake Whitney had such a remarkable thing happened. The freshmen quickly recover, and their oars rise and fall. With tremendous energy they almost fling the boat out of the water.