“I don’t blame you, Maxwell!” exclaimed Gif. “I thought you’d get enough of him before long!”
“How about the races?” called out Jack. “All ready for them?”
“We’ll be ready when the time comes,” answered another one of the Longley boys.
“How are you going to keep house without Jeff?” questioned Andy.
“Oh, we’ll get along all right enough,” replied Paul Halliday. “We made him put everything in apple-pie order before he left.”
“And you’ll find it in apple-pie order when you get back—I don’t think,” muttered Randy in a low tone, and then the boats separated.
“I’d give a dollar to be on hand when they arrive home,” said Spouter, with a laugh. “Won’t they be mad?”
“Well, it’s tit for tat,” returned Jack. “They mustn’t think they can trick us and get away with it.”
At last came the day for the boat races. The Rover boys and their chums had practiced constantly under Gif’s directions and felt that they had done all they possibly could to win.
“If only the girls were here to see these races,” remarked Fred.