“This afternoon’s work has opened my eyes to a thing or two,” said Ralph, after they had changed their clothes and sponged out their canoes.
“So it has mine,” exclaimed Tom. “Let me talk first, and see how far my conclusions agree with yours. In the first place, you ought to win the upset race.”
“That’s my opinion,” said Loren. “He shall win it, too, if strategy is of any use.”
“You are no sooner out of your canoe than you are back into it again,” continued Tom. “I am sure that neither Wayring, Hastings nor Sheldon can do better than that. I only wish you had a little more muscle.”
“But I haven’t got it and can’t get it between this time and the race, and so you fellows will have to help me.”
“Trust us for that,” answered Tom. “Then we’ll turn to and foul the best contestant in the hurry-scurry race, so that Loren can win that; and if you will lend me your Rob Roy, I’ll take my chances on carrying off the honors in the portage race.”
“That is just the way I had planned it,” exclaimed Ralph. “We’ll show these fellows who think themselves so smart, that there are others in the world who are quite as smart as they are.”
It was a very pretty programme, no doubt, but it never occurred to Tom and his cousins that possibly the boys to whom Prime was to introduce them the next day, might not think favorably of it. There were those among them who had never been first in any race, although they were very expert canoeists; and it was not at all likely that they would consent to see these new-comers carry off the prizes for which they had contended ever since the club was organized.
Tom and his cousins were tired enough to rest now, and they found it lounging in their hammocks under the trees, and watching the boats that passed up and down the lake. They took another short run in their canoes by moonlight, spent the next forenoon sailing about in Loren’s sloop, and at one o’clock bent their steps toward the store where they were to meet George Prime and his friends. When they arrived at the place where Matt Coyle’s shanty stood the day before, they were surprised as well as delighted to find that it wasn’t there.
“He’s gone, as sure as the world,” cried Ralph. “Now we shall very soon know whether or not he has the pluck to do any thing to the men who would not give him a chance to earn an honest living.”