"He knows what he has at stake. He sees the prison cell staring him in the face again. You'd do your best, too, if you were in his place."
"I'm doing my best now, Dick. On we go!" and Tom renewed his exertions. Dick set a faster stroke than ever, having caught his second wind, and the rowboat flew over the calm surface of the lake like a thing of life.
"Keep off!" The cry came from Baxter, while he was still a hundred yards from the eastern shore. "Keep off, or it will be the worse for you!"
"We are not afraid of you, Baxter, and you ought to know it by this time," answered Dick. "You may as well give in now as later on."
"Give in! You must be crazy!"
"We are two to one, and you know what we have been able to do in the past."
"Humph! I don't intend to go to jug again, and that is all there is to it."
"Maybe you can't help yourself."
"We'll see about that. Are you—going to keep off or not?
"Don't ask foolish a question."