Another wave told that Lanky understood. Immediately the course of the Red Fox was changed, so that she began to circle around.
"What ails the fellow? Looks as if he'd been up against trouble!" said Paul.
"That's certainly a fact, for his face is smeared with patches of blood. I wonder——"
"What?" demanded Paul, as his friend and chum stopped short.
"If he did it," remarked Frank, with a peculiar smile.
"Suppose you explain; none of us are mind readers, are we girls, and we like to know what all this mystery is about?"
"I beg your pardon, ladies; I forgot that you weren't in the secret. The truth of the matter is Lanky has been making a very solemn vow; and from present indications I imagine he's also been keeping the same," Frank went on.
"I see, and to make a guess myself I should say that Lef Seller had something to do with that same vow. Anyhow, the fact that Lanky is pushing up the Harrapin in Lef's pet motor-boat makes it look that way," smiled Paul.
"You're a champion guesser, my boy, for that is a fact," laughed Frank; "when we were run down so maliciously the other night, Lanky declared he would never rest until he had learned who held the wheel at the time, and whose boat did the trick. The coming of the race kept him back in his hunt, but I think he took it up this morning, for he gave me to understand as much."
"But how could he learn, if the other fellow refused to tell?" asked Helen.