CHAPTER XXV
BEATING THE “STREAK O’ LIGHT”
The race Dan referred to was the actual trial of the big craft, and those rigged with motors. The course was to Karnac Lake and return. If the wind held light and fair it was anybody’s race; if it fell calm, undoubtedly the motor iceboats would have an advantage. If the wind increased to a gale there was no knowing who would be the successful one.
Since the big snow nobody knew the course well. The river’s surface was like a rolling plain—a prairie. There was known to be no open water; but otherwise the course was uncertain.
There were five starters. Monroe Stevens would not race his Redbird, nor did the Curlew start. The Speedwells’, Barry Spink’s, Mr. Darringford’s Betty B., an entry from Meadville, and one from Barrington, made up the “card.”
It was a long course, and it called for very good handling to go straight up the river, turn, and make the downward course in any sort of time. The five boats drifted out of the cove under sail and got in some sort of a line so that the referee could start them.
At once Spink’s mechanic started his engine; but the motors on the Betty B. and on the Speedwell craft remained silent. The signal was given and they all got off in some sort of time.
The Speedwells paid strict attention to their own work, and did not watch their rivals. If one is going to race, the way to do so is to attend strictly to one’s own business.
Dan and Billy knew that there was one bad obstacle—the Long Bridge. Although the masts all cleared the under-timbers of the high structure, the canvas was almost sure to lose the wind while going under.