looks at me now as if he'd like to
eat me," he mumbled, no doubt falling to the joke, but nevertheless
with a vein of seriousness in his voice.

On the following day the six boys haunted the boathouse most of the
time. If anything was forgotten it could not have been for lack of
consultations, since they were constantly putting their heads together,
advising, making little changes in the packing and stowing of things,
and running errands back to their homes and the stores.

When they left at eventime they knew of nothing that could be done to
better conditions. Each boat was in prime condition for the southern
dash of many hundreds of miles, possibly over stormy waters, where
perils of various kinds awaited them.

And doubtless never in the history of those several families were such
restless boys known as during the Sunday that followed. The minutes
seemed to drag as if weighted down with stones.

But the longest day has its end, and finally night came.

Alarm clocks had been set for dawn, but in few cases were they needed,
since the boys were up and doing before the gray had actually crept
into the eastern heavens.

At seven o'clock a crowd began to assemble in the vicinity of the
boathouse from which the start was to be made; for the race was the
event of the season. Every boy in town was on the spot, and the
constables had to keep the crowd from actually swarming over and
swamping the busy contestants and their families.

The three motor boats were ready in the water, with burgees flying and
looking as spic and span as human energy could make them. The silver
trophy was in the possession of Jack's father, and had been admired by
hundreds.

As the time set for the start approached, the six boys manifested
considerable nervousness. But this might be expected even of old
campaigners, not to speak of young lads who, up to now, had possibly
never been more than one or two hundred miles away from home.

Jack was really in command, since he had been elected commodore of the
club by unanimous vote. He seemed capable of keeping his head in a
time of excitement, and that meant a great deal.

Everything had been attended to so far as he knew, and they were now
only waiting for the town clock to boom out the hour of eight, when the
starting toot of his conch shell horn would announce that the race was
on.

It was a foregone conclusion that the speed boat would easily take the
lead, for almost everything had