"All right, Dory: propel!" exclaimed Dave Winslow.
"Matt Randolph is the coxswain of the Gildrock, and he must go anyhow. For the other eight you must draw lots. Mr. Jepson will attend to the matter, and Matt and I will get the Goldwing ready," said Dory, beginning to be impatient at the delay.
All of them clapped their hands in token of their approval of the plan. The master machinist took out his pencil and wrote the numbers from one to sixteen on the back of a letter. Around eight of them, taken at random, he drew a square. Calling Miss Millweed from the schoolroom, he gave the paper to her.
"Now, Luke, select a number less than seventeen," continued Mr. Jepson.
"Forty-two," said Luke, laughing.
"I shall have to turn you over to Mr. Darlingby for further instruction in arithmetic," replied Mr. Jepson.
"Twelve," shouted Luke.
"Is that number enclosed in a square, Miss Millweed?" asked the machinist.
"It is not," replied the lady clerk.
"Then you are blackballed, Luke," added Mr. Jepson.