"Same here!" cried several of the others.
"What's the use?" demanded Ben Comas. "We won't have a show."
"Of course we can't get the best of those fellows, for they're professionals," Pudge groaned.
"Do you really mean to try it again, Horrors?" murmured Kirby.
The black-eyed fellow had waited impatiently for them to subside. Now he stopped Kirby's further speech with a gesture, exclaiming: "That's enough! I don't want to be jollied. I know I'm the failure, not you fellows."
"My jinks!" squawked Hicks. "You pull the best oar in the boat—bar Kingdon."
"Thanks. You're the cox and you should be able to judge some. Don't matter how good an oar I pull. I can't make the rest of you pull your best, so—I'm a failure."
"As stroke?" grunted Red.
"Exactly," confessed Pence, and none of them—not even Kingdon—knew how it hurt him to make the admission. "I see now that you can't train all crews alike. I've been copying Belding methods."
"Good methods under conditions," murmured Kingdon.