"Not yet! Not yet!" she said to herself, resisting the impulse to dash madly ahead, outdistancing her rival. "We'll win, but I've got to use my head. If I can hold Jo down, we'll be all right. If she loses the stroke, we're lost!"
Neck and neck now! Carol's boat was nosing out ahead! Only fifty feet from the line represented by Miss Talley's boat! To those on shore it looked as if only one finish were possible. Kate and her cronies were openly triumphant; Nan and her friends still fiercely defiant, but losing hope.
"Come on, Sadie. Come on, Jo!" begged Nan wildly. "You can do it yet! You can beat 'em!"
"Let's see them do it!" cried Lottie Sparks, above the uproar.
"Here they come! Here they come!" Jessie gripped Nan's arm and whirled her around, pointing toward the water. "Sadie! Jo! Hooray!"
The sound of frantic cheering rose and swelled to a roar as Sadie and Jo, in a beautiful burst of speed, overtook their rivals, oars flashing in the sun, outdistanced them, flashed past Miss Talley's boat!
The roar of the little cannon again, reverberating over the still water, echoing from shore to shore.
Victory was theirs! Jo and Sadie had won!
As the second boat flashed across the line the school chant reached the ears of the victors.
"Laurel Hall! Laurel Hall!