“I guess Ralph and I know just what he said to you first and last,” remarked Loren, “for Sheldon talked to us in about the same way. We are going to enter for the upset race.”
“I thought you would,” answered Tom, “and so I made up my mind to go in too. We’ll make it our business to see that neither Sheldon nor Wayring wins that or any other race. If we find that we can’t beat them by fair means, and I have an idea that I can paddle a boat about as fast as the next boy, although I never got into one until last week, we’ll foul them, and sink their boats so deep that they will never come up again.”
“Loren and I talked that matter over, and resolved upon the same thing,” said Ralph. “Did Hastings tell you any thing about a George Prime who is down on them because they would not take his name before the Toxophilites? Sheldon told us to give him a wide berth, but Loren and I thought we would do as we pleased about that.”
“That’s just what I thought,” answered Tom. “I think it would be a good plan to hunt him up the very first thing we do. If he has reason to dislike Wayring and his friends, we might induce him to strike hands with us.”
“That was our idea,” said Ralph. “It can’t be possible that Prime is the only boy in this village who does not like Wayring and the rest, and if we find them to be the right sort, and can raise enough of them, what’s the reason we can’t get up a club of our own?”
“That’s another idea,” said Tom, who was delighted with it. “I wish I had thought to ask Hastings where Prime lives.”
“I know where his father’s drug-store is, for I saw the sign over the door,” said Loren. “Let’s go down there and get a cigar, and trust to our wits to learn something about him.”
The others agreeing to this proposition, Loren led the way to the drug-store, and the three stopped in front of the show-case near the door in which the cigars were kept.
“That’s Prime, and I know it,” whispered Tom, as a dashing young fellow, who was seated at the further end of the store reading a paper, came up to attend to their wants. “He looks to me like a chap who isn’t in the habit of allowing himself to be imposed upon, and that’s the sort we want to run with.”
“See-gahs? Yes, sir,” said the clerk. “Being from the city, you want the best, of course. There you are, sir. Genuine imported.”