red Sawyer. "I'll show you something that is funny
some time, and don't you forget it!"

Still growling, he swam away toward the nearer ladder, while Steve, with
Roy and Harry and others helping, lifted Tom out of the tank and then
followed himself. Tom was very, very sick there for a minute and the
younger fellows were properly sympathetic and indignant. Presently they
half carried Tom back to the locker room and helped him into his
clothes, and then, Roy and Harry in attendance, Steve conveyed him back
to Billings and laid him on his bed, a very weak but now quite cheerful
Tom.

"He nearly drowned me, didn't he?" he asked with a grin. "But I choked
him good, you bet! Bet you his old neck will be sore for a week,
fellows!"

"You want to keep away from him for awhile," said Harry with a direful
shake of his head. "He's a mean chap when he's mad."

"Huh!" grunted Tom. "So'm I!"

CHAPTER XIV

A LESSON IN TACKLING

One direct result of that affair in the tank was that Steve found
himself something of a school celebrity because of his swimming prowess.
Within a few days he had good-naturedly agreed to give instruction to
some half-dozen acquaintances and might have taken on a half-dozen more
had he had the time for it. But there was only an odd hour or two during
the day for swimming and he soon found that, although he got a good deal
of fun out of instructing the others, it was taking too much of his
time. It was Roy's suggestion--Roy being one of the most enthusiastic
pupils--that those who wanted instruction should be on hand at a given
hour each day. The suggestion was adopted, and Edwards's Swimming Class
soon became a recognised institution. Five o'clock was the hour set, at
which time the tank was not much used, and Steve, having returned from
football practice, donned swimming trunks and repaired to the pool where
he usually found from four to a dozen boys awaiting him, since, by
attending to them all at once, he could look after a dozen as easily as
a few. Most of the pupils were boys of from thirteen to seventeen,
although there were two older fellows in the class, Jay Fowler and
Hatherton Williams. Both were Sixth Formers and both were football men.
Mr. Conklin, the physical director, gave enthusiastic endorsement and
encouragement. Brimfield had never supplied instruction in swimming,
something which the director had long regretted, and Mr. Conklin, could
he have had his way, would have made att