“No,” answered Dick. And then, acting on a sudden impulse, an overpowering desire for a confidant, he told Trevor everything; of Taylor’s desertion and Waters’s; of his fears for crew success; and finally of Taylor’s demands, ending with: “And I’ve decided to do it; I’m going to resign the captaincy and give him what he wants; I’m tired to death of the whole silly business!”
“Oh, don’t talk so sick!” cried Trevor in angry disgust. “You’ll resign nothing! I—I’d see Taylor at the bottom of the river before I’d come to terms with him! Give him the captaincy, indeed! Now, you get that notion out of your head, Dick, or I’ll—I’ll——”
“It’s all well enough for you to talk that way,” grumbled Dick, letting his discouragement have full sway and gaining not a little comfort thereby, “but I tell you things have come to a pass where something’s got to be done! We haven’t any crew; they’re just a boatful of chumps; they don’t care a fig whether they ever learn to row! And look at the rest of the fellows! They don’t care, either; they’d just as lief see Hillton beaten as not!”
“Rot!” ejaculated Trevor. “Of course they care. I’ll own they’re blooming chilly about it, but it’s because they don’t know what’s going on. And, look here, Dick, you’ve got no earthly right to resign from the captaincy for such a reason as that; if the fellows had wanted Roy Taylor for captain they’d have elected him. But they didn’t; they wanted you; so they elected you; and, by ginger, you’ve got to carry the thing through!”
“Much the fellows care!”
“And, look here, now, Dick, honestly, what kind of a fool captain would Taylor make?”
“As good as I, I dare say. He knows how to row——”
“That’s nothing; that doesn’t always fit a man to boss a lot of other men; a good captain’s got to know more than just how to row. He’s got to have grit, and patience, and generalship, and he’s got to be a fellow that the other fellows will look up to and believe in and obey; and that’s not Roy Taylor, not by a jugful, my angel child!”
“Well,” began Dick less dolefully.
“Well, don’t you go to doing anything foolish. Cheer up; take a rest; let the crew go hang for a few days.”