“What does he know about it?” cried Tom, fiercely. “I don’t care what he or anybody else says; I know—”
“One moment, please,” interrupted the referee. “You have had your say, and you don’t help your side of the case any by showing so much excitement over it.”
“Do you think Bigden unjointed his paddle purposely?” continued the judge, addressing himself to Joe.
“Yes, sir,” answered the latter, promptly.
“Do you think he could have kept clear of Noble if he had made use of ordinary skill and caution?”
“I am sure of it.”
“How could he have done it?”
“By working his paddle on the port side of his canoe. That would have thrown him around the stake-boat very neatly and given him a winning place in the race; but instead of that he used his paddle on the starboard side, and of course that threw the bow of his canoe plump into Noble’s side.”
Frank and the judge nodded as if to say that that was about the way the thing stood, and after a few minutes’ reflection the referee said—
“I am perfectly satisfied and will announce my decision where all the members of the club can hear it. As we are wasting time and delaying the other sports by staying here, we will go back to head-quarters.”