ber their favourite, Montgomery. So great
was the crowd that the crew had almost to push its way through the
press, at close quarters with a medley of cheers and groans that did not
do the nerves of some of them much good.

The outing was a short one. Mr. Benson, who had coached the crew himself
so far as his time permitted, did not put in an appearance, and Durend
had the field to himself. All he did was to set an easy stroke, and to
leave Dale, as cox, to keep a sharp watch upon the time and swing of
Three and Seven. The change naturally upset the rhythm of the crew a
little, but not so much as was generally expected. In fact, on the
return to the boat-house, cheers predominated, as though others besides
themselves had been agreeably surprised.

The Eights week at Hawkesley always stood out prominently from the rest
of the year as a kind of landmark. It marked the highest point of the
constant struggle between the several Houses into which the school was
divided, and all energies were therefore concentrated upon it for weeks
in advance. As may have been surmised, the Eights races were not direct
contests, with heats, semi-finals, and finals, but bumping races, for
the little River Suir would hardly permit of anything else. For a short
stretch or two, perhaps, a couple of boats might have raced abreast, but
it would not have been possible to have found a reasonably full course
for a race to be decided in that way. Consequently the boats were
anchored to the shore four boat-lengths behind one another, and by the
rules of the game they were required to give chase to one another, and
to touch or bump the boat in front to score a win.

A win meant that the victors and vanquished changed places, and the
whole essence of the contest was that the stronger crews gradually
fought their way forward into the van of the line of boats. There were
six Houses to the school, and the same number of crews competed, for the
honour of their respective Houses. Six days were allotted to the task,
and it was no wonder that the crews had to see to it that they were in
first-rate condition, for racing for six days out of seven was bound to
try them hard.

The legacy left the Benson crew by their comrades of the year before was
the position No. 3 in the line. The position the year before that had
been No. 5, so it was not surprising that the Bensonites had great hopes
that this year would see them higher still. Cradock's was just in front
o