"They're going to beat!" gasped Bobby, swinging with the rowers.
"Don't let them worry you," advised Laura, between her teeth. "The race isn't done until we cross the line."
But in turning the buoy the boys came to grief. Or, rather, Purt Sweet came to grief. He managed to catch a most famous crab, and went over on his back, hitting his head a resounding crack upon the handle of Lance's oar, and waving his long legs in the air.
"Now!" cried Laura, increasing her stroke, and the girls' boat went past their opponents' at a fast clip.
The boys got together again after half a minute; but those thirty seconds told the story of the race. The best the boys could do brought them across the line several lengths behind. And the whole crowd were shouting with laughter over Purt's mishap.
"I wish you'd kept your vest on, Purt," snarled Lance. "There'd been some satisfaction in your getting it wet. My goodness! what a lubber you are in a boat!"
"Weally, I couldn't help it, dear boy," sighed Pretty.
"Just the same, you crabbed the race," grunted Chet. "Now the girls have put it all over us."
And the girls certainly did not spare the boys, and joked at their expense all the way home. But the day was voted a very merry one and Eve and Otto went home in the evening strongly of the opinion that the boys and girls of Central High were a jolly company indeed. Eve promised Laura before she went home that, if she could pass the exams, for junior classes under Principal Sharp, she would surely attend Central High in the fall.
"We've got a splendid bit of athletic timber in Eve Sitz," Laura said, discussing the matter with Jess and the Lockwood twins.
"I hope she'll take up rowing. We can put her into Celia's place on the eight for next year, and then there will be no danger of Hester Grimes getting it," said Jess, who was very outspoken.
"She is better material for stroke than Hester," admitted Laura.
"And enough sight better tempered," Dora observed.
"You know what Hester is doing now?" demanded Jess, in anger.
"She is trying to make the other girls think that the Executive Committee only cares about the eight-oared boat race, and that we'll put up no fight for Central High's entries in the other events."