“I’m going to stop the boat anyway,” cried Jack, and continued to swim toward the craft.
As Jack did this, Andy measured his distance and suddenly dove out of sight. Andy was as good at swimming as he was at acrobatic feats, and he did not come up until he was close to the side of the rowboat. Then, before Baxter knew what was up, he had hold of one of the oars and jerked it out of the bully’s hand.
“Hi, give me back that oar!” cried Baxter, in alarm.
“Not much,” said Andy. And then, as Baxter tried to hit him with the other oar, he dove under the boat and gave it a sudden push that nearly upset the craft.
“Oh!” yelled Mumps, in alarm. “Don’t! We are going over! Help!”
By this time all of the crowd in the water were surrounding the rowboat, and Jack lost no time in pulling an oar from Paxton. Then he shoved the end of the blade against Dan Baxter, and in a twinkling the bully fell over against the gunwale. Here Pepper caught him by the arm, and over went Baxter into the water with a loud splash.
“Don’t throw me over!” screamed Mumps. “Don’t! I—I can’t hardly swim a stroke.”
“Do you surrender?” demanded Jack.
“Yes! Yes! Please don’t throw me over! I—I wasn’t going to do anything!”
“Paxton, do you surrender?” asked Jack.