"You're afraid, I tell you," sneered Hi, while Bill Rodgers grinned.
"No; we're ready to arrange the match when your school sends a regular committee."
"Come on over here and talk it over, if you're not afraid," urged
Hi Martin.
"We can't talk it over with you, as you've admitted that you don't represent your school."
"Well, then, we do represent it," claimed Hi.
"That statement comes too late. Hi, we'll meet you at this same place at half past four to-morrow afternoon. If you fail to show up it will be all off. And your committee will have to bring a note, signed by your principal, naming the members of your committee and stating that it has been regularly appointed. We'll bring the same from our principal.
"I guess the swimming match between the two schools is all off, then," yawned Martin. "You fellows don't want to go into it, for you know you'd be beaten stiff. That's why you try to hedge behind a committee."
"It's all off if you fellows don't go at it in a regular way," Dick contended firmly. "We're not going to enter a match and then find that you and Bill Rodgers represent no one but yourselves."
"What's all the noise about?" good-naturedly asked Reporter Len Spencer, who, turning the corner, had halted behind Prescott and his friends.
Dick explained the situation.