“Yes; no mistake about it!” said Gilks, whose anxiety was certainly not less than that of his friend.
“How long before we see them?”
“Three minutes; they ought to get into the School Reach by then.”
Neither spoke for a minute. Then Silk said, “What a row the fellows are making!”
“Yes,” said Gilks; “there’s a bigger crowd than I ever saw down this year.”
Another silence. And then presently in the far distance, at the end of the School Reach, they could see first the smoke of Mr Parrett’s launch, then a black moving crowd on the bank, and finally two white specks on the water.
“There they are!” said Gilks.
“Can you tell which is which?” asked Silk.
“No, not yet.”
An anxious minute followed. The doctor and his party on the point opposite left their tent and came down to the water’s edge; spectators who had been getting tired of waiting now freshened up and made final and desperate attempts to improve their position, while those who meant to fall in with the runners buttoned their jackets and turned up their trouser ends.