On so short a course the first few strokes, even, sometimes tell the tale. The Keyport crew took the lead at the start, but both East High and Central High of Centerport were close after the leader. The Central crew, indeed, for some rods were only half a length behind the Keyport shell.
It was a pretty fight, and the voices of the spectators grew in volume as the five shells shot along the course.
CHAPTER XXI—THE FINISH OF THE BOAT RACE
Chetwood Belding and his chum, Lance Darby, were in a motor-boat and that boat kept pace with the racing shells. The boat belonged to Prettyman Sweet; but Purt could not run the craft and depended upon his friends to run it for him. “Pretty Sweet” couldn’t do much of anything, so it seemed, and therefore, as Chet remarked, things were made “pretty soft for him.”
The boys in the launch cheered the girls of Central High vociferously. Laura and her comrades rowed like veterans. They “kept their eyes in the boat” and Celia pulled a stroke that was both quick and long. The shell was driving through the water at increasing speed.
But the Keyport boat kept ahead. And she seemed to be gaining on Central High, too, though that gain was very slow. The shell of the East High girls crept up, nearer and nearer, its bow overlapping the stern of the Central High shell.
But of a sudden West High of Centerport, coming up on the other side, fouled East High. Their oars crashed together for an instant. It scarcely cost the East High girls an inch; but the colliding boat fell out of the race and dropped back behind the Lumberport shell.
This latter came up with a rush. East High kept ahead of Lumberport for a few yards, and then fell back. The girls from the upper end of the lake came on with increasing speed. Keyport was struggling to maintain its place in the lead. The Central High girls were dropping back by inches.
It was useless for the latter crew to strain further. Lumberport was passing them. Yet Celia set the pace for a spurt and her comrades did their level best. Bertha, in the stern, however, got excited, and shifted her seat. It made the boat drag heavily, and the Lumberport shell passed them with a rush.
Those last few yards all three of the head crews were under great strain. But each held to its work as truly as had the boys’ crews earlier in the day.