ble.

"'Rah! 'rah! 'rah! Harvard! Harvard!" roared the crowd.

Frank Merriwell was working perfectly with the rest, and no one could
imagine from his appearance that every stroke seemed to drive a keen
knife from his wrist to his elbow. His face was very pale, but that was
all.

At the end of the first mile Harvard was two lengths in advance, and
seemed to be gaining. Still Yale worked steadily, showing no signs of
excitement or alarm.

The crowds on the yachts were waving hats and handkerchiefs and flags.
They cheered and yelled and hooted like human beings gone mad. It was a
scene of the wildest excitement.

It had become plain to all, despite the fact that Harvard had a lead,
that the race was to be a stern one. Yale was out to win, if such a
thing "lay in the wood."

When the second mile was passed Harvard was still another length in
advance. But Yale was beginning to work up steadily, forcing Harvard to
a more desperate struggle to hold her advantage.

When the two and a half mile flag was passed it was seen that Yale had
begun to creep up. Still she was not dangerous. Her friends were
encouraged, however, and the sound all Yale men love--the Yale
yell--could be heard above the roaring of the crowd.

That sound seemed to put fresh life and heart into the Yale crew. At the
beginning of the last mile Harvard was scarcely two lengths in advance.

It was a wonderful race. The excitement was at the highest pitch.

The Harvard crew, although it had started out so beautifully, had not
the stamina to endure the strain. No. 3 was pulling out of the boat,
while No. 5 showed signs of distress.

Yale begins to spurt. Her men are working like machinery. No one could
dream that one of them was suffering the tortures of a being on the
rack, and still such was the truth.

A hundred times it seemed to Frank Merriwell that he must give out; a
hundred times he set his teeth and vowed that he would die before he
would weaken. No one could know the almost superhuman courage and
fortitude which enabled him to keep up and continue his work in the
proper manner. Those who watched the crew closely fancied that he worked
with the utmost ease, for all of the long pull.

Collingwood had forgotten Merriwell's felon. He was reckoning on the
final spurt to bring "Old Eli" to the front. Harder and harder he worked
his men.

Now the uproar along the river was deafening. The prow of the Yale boat
was at Harvard's stern--and then Y