"I mean now."
"Oh, smash us up so we couldn't row to-morrow," guessed Jack.
"But what for?" persisted Dick.
"Oh, just pure ugliness, I guess," replied Jack.
"Then, you know, Monkey has it in for Rand for the thrashing he once gave him for beating his dog."
"Does he carry malice like that?" asked Donald.
"He will carry it all his life," replied Jack, "and then some more. Then Monkey doesn't like any of us because he was always behind us in school. He says we got ahead by favor, for we aren't any smarter than he is."
"Let fall!" ordered Gerald. "Let's try it again."
The boys bent to their work, but they had lost their vim, and they did not strike their pace again.
"I don't understand about Monkey," began Jack, as they drew into the landing. "There is something back of all this, and I mean to find out what it is."