The Eight-Oared Victors/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III
THE MISSING TROPHIES
"Boys, you really must go!"
"Oh, can't we stay just a bit longer?"
"No, not another minute. Miss Phliock has sent up twice to say that you've stayed long enough."
"I think her clock is wrong."
"We haven't been here ten minutes."
"Oh, Sid Henderson! Why, it's over half an hour!" exclaimed Mabel Harrison.
"And he's the fellow who didn't use to like the girls!" said Tom, with conviction. "Oh, Rome, how art thou fallen!"
"Cut it out!" growled Sid, under his breath. The four chums had called on their friends and Phil's sister at Fairview Institute, and the result can easily be imagined by the foregoing conversation. There had been jolly talk, a telling of the new chance that had unexpectedly come to Randall, and then the appeal of the girls that the boys must go—not because the girls wanted them to—but because Miss Philock, the head of the co-educational institution, deemed it necessary.
"But we can come again; can't we?" asked Frank, as they paused at the door. Somewhere down the corridor a thin lady, with thin lips, was narrowly watching the group of young people.
"Sure we can come again!" declared Phil. "They can't stop me from seeing my sister."
"Or someone else's" put in Tom, mischievously.
"Tom! Stop it!" cried Madge Tyler. "She'll hear you."
"But we will come!" declared Frank.
"I don't see how we poor girls can prevent you," said Helen Newton, with a mischievous glance of her eyes.
"Young ladies!" came a warning voice from down the corridor.
"Oh, you really must go!" exclaimed Ruth Clinton.
"All right," agreed Tom. "We'll be back soon. When is the next dance?"
"We'll send you cards," replied Madge Tyler. "Good-bye!"
And the boys moved off, with many backward glances, while the girls lingered in the doorway of the reception hall until Miss Philock advanced to garner them into her charge.
"Young ladies!" she began severely, "if your friends overstay their time again I shall not permit them to see you—even if they are brothers!" and she looked at Ruth.
"Horrid thing!" murmured Madge. "I'll be glad when vacation comes."
"Are your folks going to camp on Crest Island again?" asked Ruth, naming the resort in Tonoka Lake.
"I think so. Papa sent a man up to look over the cottage this week, to see if it needed any repairs. And, girls. If we do go, I want you all to spend several weeks with me!" cried Madge Tyler. "We will have a scrumtious time!"
When the boys got back to Randall they found some mild excitement there. Further word had come from the committee of old graduates that they had perfected their arrangements in the matter of supplying Randall with all that was necessary to enter into aquatic sports, and there was a request that the students at once hold a meeting, and decide whether or not they would accept the offer.
Of course it is not necessary to say that the boys did accept. A meeting was called for that same evening, and it was enthusiastically voted to accept the generous offer, with thanks. It was voted to have an eight-oared crew, as well as a four, while as many singles as could be arranged, with possibly a double. A committee was appointed to secure some second-hand shells for practice, pending the arrival of the new ones in the Fall.
Another committee was named to negotiate with Boxer Hall and Fairview Institute, looking to planning for the races in the Fall.
"If they won't meet us then, we'll have to wait until next Spring," said Frank Simpson.
"Oh, I guess they're sports enough to give us a race this Fall," declared Tom. "We'll try, anyhow."
It was now June and the weather, after the long rain, was perfect. Within a few days Boxer Hall and Falrvlew would meet in their annual water carnival, swimming as well as boat races, and, as some of the Randall boys had entered in the swimming contests, it was planned to send a big delegation from that college to the meet.
"We can get a line on their rowing that way," said Sid, and the others agreed with him.
Meanwhile the flooded river was subsiding, and a few days after their visit to the girls, our four friends went out for a row again. In the meanwhile they had secured some books on the subject of sculling, and, as they went down stream, they endeavored to correct their faults.
But, as is always the case when you try to do something opposite to the way you have learned it, whether that way be good or bad, there was trouble.
"I can't row for a cent the way the book says it ought to be done," declared Tom.
"Me either," came from Sid.
"And yet that's the right way," said Frank. "I guess we'll get on to it after a bit. But let's row our old way now, and go down to Crest Island. That will make a good distance, and test our wind. Later we can row right. Anyhow, if we have a coach he'll show us the ropes. Give way now, everybody!"
They made good speed, and, a little later, were nearing the island, the largest one of three or four that dotted the lake. Crest Island was the home of several cottagers in Summer.
"Look! What's that! cried Tom, as they neared the upper point of the bit of water-surrounded land.
"Looks like a boat wrecked there!" said Phil.
"It is," declared Sid. "It's smashed on the rocks."
"Let's take a look," suggested Frank. "Maybe it's worth saving."
"It's a motor-boat," said Tom, as they came nearer. "But I guess there isn't much left of it."
"And there's part of the boathouse it was evidently in," came from Phil. "Probably it was carried away by the flood—boat, boathouse and all, and smashed on these rocks."
By this time they had brought their boat to the 
"DID YOU BOYS TAKE ANYTHING FROM MY BOAT?" ASKED THE MAN.
island shore, and, getting out, they examined the wreck. Truly it had been a bad smash. The hull Itself could never be used again, and it was a question whether the engine could, as one of the cylinders was badly cracked. The seat lockers had been broken open, and nothing seemed to remain in them.
"Say, this is the same boat that fellow locked in the boathouse, the time we were out rowing when we met the Boxer Hall shell!" cried Tom, as he saw the name on the bow.
"That's right!" agreed Frank. "The very same. Wallops said some boathouses had been carried away. This must have been one of them."
"I wonder who owns this boat?" ventured Sid, but no one answered him.
They looked at the wreck for some little time longer, and then started back up the river. They had not gone far from the island before they met a man rowing down in a small boat. He had an anxious look on his face as he hailed them.
"I say, boys," he called, "have you seen anything of a wrecked motor-boat about here?"
"There's one down on the point of that island," said Tom. "The Sylph."
"That's mine!" exclaimed the man. "Is there anything left of her?"
"Not much," replied Frank. "Wait, we'll show you where she is. We were just looking at her."
"You were?" exclaimed the man, and there was something in the sharp way he said it, and in his tone, that caused the boys to glance at him curiously.
"Yes, saw it by accident," went on Phil.
"Did you—er—find—that is—Oh, never mind, I can soon tell when I look at her," the man said, rather confusedly, as he rowed on. The four lads turned their craft and accompanied him.
"There she Is!" cried Frank, pointing out the wrecked craft amid some rocks and bushes. "You can see for yourself there's not much left of her."
Without a word the man sprang ashore from his boat, while the college lads kept their craft off the rocks. Rapidly rummaging through the broken-open lockers, the man, muttering to himself, suddenly stood up. As he did so, Tom said in a low voice:
"That's the same chap who locked the boat up. I wonder what is missing?"
"Did you—excuse me for asking—but did you boys take anything from my boat?" asked the man, in rather hard tones.
"Take anything? What do you mean?" demanded Sid, sharply.
"Something is missing from one of the lockers,"
"We certainly took nothing from your boat," said Tom, stiffly. "What is missing? "
"Many things," was the answer. "Among others, a number of trophy cups belonging to Boxer Hall College. I had them to repair, polish and engrave, and now they are gone from my boat. Someone must have taken them!" and he looked at the boys. The four chums felt their anger rising.