Dundalk."

So no protest was entered. I needn't tell you that, by this time,
news of the great race had spread to Plymouth, and north away to
Callington and all the country round. Crowds came out every evening
to watch the two boats at their practising; and sometimes, as they
passed one another, Seth Ede, who had the reputation for a wag, would
call out to Sal and offer her the odds by way of chaff. Sal never
answered. The woman was in deadly earnest, and moreover, I dare say,
a bit timmersome, now that the whole Borough had its eyes on her, and
defeat meant disgrace.

She never showed a sign of any doubt, though; and when the great day
came, she surpassed herself by the way she dressed. I dare say
you've noticed that when women take up a man's job they're inclined
to overdo it; and when Sal came down that day with a round
tarpaulin-hat stuck on the back of her head, and her hair plaited in
a queue like a Jack Tar's, her spiteful little husband fairly danced.

"'Tis onwomanly," said he. "Go upstairs and take it off!"

"Ch't," said she, "if you're so much upset by a tarpaulin-hat, you've
had a narra escape; for 'tis nothing to the costume I'd a mind to
wear--and I'd a mind to make you measure the whole crew for it."

And as it was, I'm told, half the sightseers that poured into Saltash
that day in their hundreds couldn't tell the women's crew from the
men's by their looks or their dress. And these be the names and
weights, more or less:

The _Indefatigable Woman_: Bow, Ann Pengelly, something under eleven
stone; No. 2, Thomasine Oliver, ditto; No. 3, Mary Kitty Climo,
eleven and a half; No. 4, Long Eliza, thirteen and over, a woman very
heavy in the bone; No. 5, Bess Rablin, twelve stone, most of it in
the ribs and shoulders; Stroke, Sarah Hancock, twelve stone four;
Coxswain, Ann Pengelly's fourth daughter Wilhelmina, weight about six
stone. The _Indefatigable Woman_ carried a small distaff in the
bows, and her crew wore blue jerseys and yellow handkerchiefs.

The _Nonpareil_: Bow, T. Jago, ten stone and a little over; No. 2,
Freckly-Faced Joe, twelve stone; No. 3, M. Guppy, twelve stone and a
half; No. 4, Tremenjous Hosken, eighteen stone ten; No. 5, Tippet
Harry, twelve stone eight; Stroke, Seth Ede, eleven six. And I don't
know who the boy was that steered. The _Nonpareil_ carried a red,
white, and blue flag, and her crew wore striped jerseys, white and
blue.

They were started by pistol; and Seth