“Cheered me!” whispered Trevor. “Cheered me, Dick? Do you mean—do you mean that they—that you all forgive me?”
“Forgive you? What for? Because you were the pluckiest of any of us and did the brainiest sort of thing when you jumped overboard?”
“Because—oh, Dick, don’t you see? If I hadn’t been so bull-headed it wouldn’t have happened; if I’d owned up that I wasn’t feeling well you could have put another fellow in. But I heard Mr. Kirk telling about some fellow who had the fever and how it left him at noon; and I thought mine would, too; and so I went ahead, and—and it didn’t go away, but got worse every minute; I was all silly in my head. And—don’t you see, Dick, if I’d done right we wouldn’t have been beaten?”
There was a moment’s silence. Then—
“He doesn’t know!” said Kirk softly.
“By Jove!” whispered Dick. “Of course he doesn’t; how could he? Thunder, how stupid of me!” He laughed softly, happily. “Trevor, old chap, we weren’t beaten! Don’t you understand? We won!”
There was a second brief silence. Then—
“Won!” breathed Trevor, incredulously.
“Yes, by a length and a third. I told you, don’t you remember? But you didn’t understand.”