. It's that
way in football. I've heard boys say that when they have played against
certain teams, they've known right after the start that they were going
to win, because the other team's players would lose their tempers the
first time anything went wrong."

"We seem to be on even terms now," said Eleanor, and, cupping her hands,
she hailed Mary Turner. "All right? We might as well call this a start."

"All right," said Mary. "Shall I give the word!"

"Go ahead!" said Eleanor.

Instantly Dolly, with a quick look at her sails, which were hanging limp
again, since she had altered the course a trifle, became all attention.

"One--two--three--go!" called Miss Turner, clapping her hands at the
word "go."

And instantly Dolly shifted her helm once more, so that the wind filled
the sails, and the _Eleanor_ shot for the opening in the bar. Quick
as she had been, however, she was no quicker than Gladys, and the
_Defiance_ and the _Eleanor_ passed through the bar and out
into the open sea together. Here there was more motion, since the short,
choppy waves outside the bar were never wholly still, no matter how calm
the sea might seem to be. But Bessie, who had been rather nervous as to
the effect of this motion, which she had been warned to dread, found it
by no means unpleasant.

For a few moments Dolly's orders flew sharply. Although the wind was
very light, there was enough of it to give fair speed, and the sails had
to be trimmed to get the utmost possible out of it while it lasted. Both
boats tacked to starboard, sailing along a slanting line that seemed
likely to carry them far to one side of the lighthouse that was their
destination, and Bessie wondered at this.

"We're not sailing straight for the lighthouse," she said. "Isn't that
supposed to be where we turn? Don't we have to sail around it?"

"Yes, but we can't go straight there, because the wind isn't right,"
explained Dolly. "We'll keep on this way for a spell; then we'll come
about and tack to port, and then to starboard again. In that way we can
beat the wind, you see, and make it work for us, even if it doesn't want
to."

Half way to the lighthouse there was less than a hundred feet between
the boats. The _Defiance_ seemed to be a little ahead, but the
advantage, if she really had one at all, was not enough to have any real
effect on the race.

"Going out isn't going to give either of us much chance to gain, I
guess," said Dolly. "The real race will