Part 20 (1/2)

”So I see; curse the wind Back her, one stroke all Back her, I say!”

shouted Miller

It is no easy et a crew to back her an inch just now, particularly as there are in her two men who have never rowed a race before, except in the torpids, and one who has never rowed a race in his life

However, back she co-rope slackens in Miller's left hand, and the stroke, unshi+pping his oar, pushes the stern gently out again

There goes the second gun! one short minute more, and we are off Short minute, indeed! you wouldn't say so if you were in the boat, with your heart in yourall over like a man with the palsy

Those sixty seconds before the starting-gun in your first race--why, they are a little lifetiain,” said Miller, in horror The captain looked gri; it was too late now for hi boat-hook and fend her off”

Hardy, to who with one foot in the water, pressed the end of the boat-hook against the gunwale, at the full stretch of his arm, and so, by main force, kept the stern out There was just roo-rope was as taut as a harp-string; will Miller's left hand hold out?

It is an awful ed backwards off his seat, is equal to the occasion He holds his watch in his right hand with the tiller rope ”Eight seconds more only Look out for the flash Remember, all eyes in the boat”

There it co before the sound of the report can roll up the river, the whole pent-up life and energy which has been held in leash, as it were, for the last six minutes, is loose, and breaks aith a bound and a dash which he who has felt it will remeain? The starting-ropes drop froleam on the feather, the spray flies from them, and the boats leap forward

The crowds on the bank scatter and rush along, each keeping as near as -path, sohtly in advance, as if they could help to drag their boat forward; so better; but all at full speed, in wild excite at the top of their voices to those on whoe is laid

”Well pulled, all!” ”Pick her up there, Five!” ”You're gaining every stroke!” ”Time in the bows!” ”Bravo, St Ambrose!”

On they rushed by the side of the boats, jostling one another, stu

For a quarter of ahurly-burly extends, and rolls up the side of the streareat fear of lued to the back of the et his strength into the stroke But, as the crew settled down into the well-known long sweep, e may call consciousness returned; and, while every , and his chest heaved, and his heart leaped, every nerve see new life, and his senses to wake into unwonted acuteness He caught the scent of wild thyme in the air, and found rooot there, as he had never seen the plant near the river, or sh his eye never wandered fros at once The boat behind, which see;--it was all he could do to prevent hi on the stroke as he fancied that;--the eager face of Miller, with his compressed lips, and eyes fixed so earnestly ahead that Toht shoulder; the flying banks and the shouting crowd; see them with his bodily eyes he could not, but he knew, nevertheless, that Grey had been upset and nearly rolled down the bank into the water in the first hundred yards, that Jack was bounding and scrae of the stream; above all, he was just as well aware as if he had been looking at it, of a stalwart for boat-hook, and always keeping just opposite the boat; and amid all the Babel of voices, and the dash and pulse of the stroke, and the labouring of his own breathing, he heard Hardy's voice coain, and clear as if there had been no other sound in the air, ”Steady, Two!

steady! well pulled! steady, steady” The voice seeth and keep him to his work And ork it was! he had had ht like this

But it can't last forever; s bulls' hide, and hearts can't go on pu The St Areat gap between the accos for a rows louder and louder, and To into the one ahead of theht flashes into him, and, it would seem, into the rest of the crew at the same moment; for, all at once, the strain see; she springs to the stroke as she did at the start; and Miller's face, which had darkened for a few seconds, lightens up again

Miller's face and attitude are a study Coiled up into the s on his knees, his hands close to his sides, firood horse hunter; if a coxswain could make a bump by his own exertions, surely he will do it No sudden jerks of the St Ambrose rudder will you see, watch as you will froh fault of his, but easily and gracefully rounds every point ”You're gaining! you're gaining!” he now and thenhis breath for other rand, the captain, as he co, stroke after stroke, his back flat, his teeth set, his whole fraularity of a machine? As the space still narrows, the eyes of the fiery little coxswain flash with excitee to hurry the final effort before the victory is safe in his grasp

The two crowds are led now, and no mistake; and the shouts come all in a heap over the water ”Now, St A; pick her up” ”Mind the Gut, Exeter” ”Bravo, St A from the strokes of the boat ahead Tos of their rudder, and the voice of their coxswain In another moment both boats are in the Gut, and a perfect storm of shouts reaches them from the crowd, as it rushes e, amidst which ”Oh, well steered, well steered, St A cry Then Miller, ht hand and whirls the tassel round his head ”Give it her now, boys; six strokes and we're into thereat broad back and lashes his oar through the water with the iant, the crew catch hiht new boat answers to the spurt, and To sound, as Miller shouts, ”Unshi+p oars, Bow and Three!” and the nose of the St

Alides quietly up the side of the Exeter till it touches their stroke oar

”Take care where you're co to” It is the coxswain of the bumped boat who speaks

Tom finds himself within a foot or two of hi utterly unable to contain his joy, and yet unwilling to exhibit it before the eyes of a gallant rival, turns away towards the shore, and begins telegraphing to Hardy

”Now, then, what are you at there in the bows? Cast her off, quick

Come, look alive! Push across at once out of the way of the other boats”