left somewhere near Iffley to
walk up by himself.

I have a feeling that if I had to sit in a boat and hear the seconds
counted out before the starting-gun is fired that my first stroke would
be a most terrific crab. Even standing on the bank is nervous enough
work, and what it must be like for those who have got to row I cannot
imagine. I kept moving about so much before the start that Ward told
me I should be tired before I began to run, but I am unable to keep
still when things are going to happen, and just before the last gun
went I had an inspiration and moved up to the place from which Christ
Church started. By this means I kept up for quite a long way, but it
would be untrue to say I enjoyed myself. We began to gain on Christ
Church at once, and were very soon within half-a-length of them, but I
had no breath to use for shouting, and not having a rattle I could make
no row at all; moreover I am an erratic runner, so whenever I looked at
the boats I kicked or ran into somebody, and I could not retort when
they said things to me. I pounded along as far as the Long Bridges,
which was really quite a long way, and when I stopped I was sure that
we should catch Christ Church. I stood away from the path and tried to
persuade myself that I was not feeling very unwell, but I waited until
the crowds with the other boats had passed by, and then I walked as
fast as I could up the towing-path. I even ran once, for a short way,
because I wanted to get back before all the excitement had stopped on
our barge. I felt certain that we were going head of the river, and
that comfortable sensation seemed to improve my wind, but it took me
some time to get up the towing-path. The first disconcerting thing I
saw were a lot of people cheering frantically on what I thought was the
Trinity barge, but I did not know all the barges properly, and I came
to the conclusion that whoever had told me that this one belonged to
Trinity could not have spoken the truth. So I forced my way up the
path until I got opposite to our barge, and there I found Jack Ward
looking very purple in the face.

"Did we catch them?" I asked, and I thought that all our men who were
waiting to be punted across to the barge might have made a little more
noise.

"Catch what?" he said.

"Why, the House of course," I answered, for it was not very likely we
should catch any one else.

"Trinity caught us," he replied, and as the punt came over at that
moment