proud; and honest now, I believe you could take a little faster stroke.
We must be doing our prettiest when we spurt past Mechanicsburg."

Brad had just finished saying this when he received one of the
surprises of his life. His eyes were the only ones that could see down
the river, and as he happened to glance over toward the left bank,
where there was something of a neck of land shutting a large bay out of
sight, judge of his amazement when he discovered the pointed prow of a
racing boat thrusting out, and headed toward the middle of the river.

And as Brad sat there, almost petrified, as he afterwards declared, the
boat shot into view, containing a crew of eight, and a coxswain, in the
latter of whom he recognized Buck Lemington.

CHAPTER IX

A LUCKY WIN

"Listen, boys!"

When the coxswain said this, every fellow as the oars strained his
hearing, under the belief that Brad had something mighty interesting to
communicate. Possibly some of them, having their eyes constantly on the
coxswain, had seen by his manner that Brad must have discovered
something down-stream. But no one dared try and twist his head around,
in order to see for himself.

"Don't anybody try to look," Brad went on; "but we're going to have a
little brush right now. Buck and his bunch have got that boat from
Grafton, and, finding out that we are expected to pass down the river
this afternoon, they've been lying in wait for us!"

Every fellow gave utterance to an exclamation, or a whistle, to
indicate both his astonishment, and pleasure as well.

"Now, keep on working regularly as you are, and brace yourselves, every
fellow, for a furious spurt, if we have to make one. Might as well
learn what our boat can do, first as last. Take care how you dip in,
because a crab would upset us all. They've struck the middle of the
river now, and are letting us catch up on them. I can see Whitey, Clem
Shooks, Jones, Jimmerson and Ben Gushing, anyway. And they're grinning
as if they meant to make monkeys of the Riverport Boat Club boys. Shall
we stand for it, fellows?"

Evidently Brad knew just how to key his crew up to doing their best;
for his question was instantly answered with a thunderous:

"Not much we won't!"

"Get ready, then, because we're bearing down on 'em fast now," the wary
coxswain continued, in a husky voice, caused by the excitement, no
doubt. "There, they've increased their stroke so that we will come up
slower, and not take