Then the crisis came.
In changing his course so much, in order to strike the Lightning squarely in the port quarter, Elmer had failed to realize that he was heading up in the teeth of the wind more than his rival. And in this way he was handicapped so far as keeping up his pace was concerned.
So the Glider swept to the rear of the new boat, just comfortably missing her. The victory had been won, since the Lightning had thus forged ahead, and passed her rival!
Paul started to give a whoop of delight. Then he stopped, for there was heard a sudden loud smash as the boat of the baffled plotters struck the shore.
“She’s done for! Gone to flinders, Harry! Oh, what a race, and they’ve got just what they deserve. But I hope neither of them has been badly hurt!” exclaimed Paul, who, even in the excitement of victory could think of the defeated foe.
“I feel the same way as you do about it, Paul,” replied the pilot at the tiller of the now undisputed champion of the Conoque, as he headed straight up the narrows toward the wide reach above; “but I don’t think that cuts much figure in it, for I’m sure I saw Pud jump to his feet out of the wreck; while Elmer was crawling out, and limping around as we turned that bend just below.”
“Well, if ever a sly schemer got caught in his own trap that fellow was,” remarked Paul, his indignation now getting the better of his sympathy. “And he sure deserves all he’s got. We’ll go on a way further, and then turn back. Perhaps we’ll overtake our two friends, the enemy, limping along the ice on the way home; and they may even accept a lift back.”
But after all, Paul’s good intentions were fated never to be put to the test, for although they saw the wrecked Glider piled up in a shattered heap on the shore in the narrows, nothing of the two unlucky skippers was discovered on the way down the river; and they concluded the boys had made their way ashore, to hire some farmer to drive them all the way back to Rivertown.
When the story of the eventful race was told to the boys of Rivertown most of them declared that Elmer and Pud had been paid in their own coin; and few sympathized with them when they appeared on the streets with sundry strips of court plaster decorating their faces, and with decided limps.
“At any rate,” said Paul, as he separated from his chum at the Watson gate, “we did have a great time of it; and I reckon it’s done you a heap of good, Harry,” in which opinion the other certainly shared; and declared that he was glad he had accepted the invitation to try the new iceboat.