"
"Can it possibly be anyone from Preston?" asked Hartwell anxiously.
"If it is, I beg you, Dalzell, to let me have the name---privately,
if need be. I'd spend the summer running down this thing."
"I know whom Dalzell has in mind, Hartwell," Dick rejoined. "It's
no one from within a good many miles of Preston, either. But
we have no right to make accusation without an iota of proof."
"Then you decline to allow the name to be furnished?" blurted
the referee.
"I refuse, sir, for the same reason that you would," Dick answered
coolly. "Only a coward, a knave or a fool will accuse another
person without some reasonable proof to offer. No great harm
has been done, anyway. The drag was found in time."
"Get your canoe out, Hartwell," ordered Mr. Tyndall. "This time,
when we launch them, we'll make sure that both craft are in good
order."
When the "Pathfinder" was hauled up on the float she was found
to be free from any evidences of trickery.
"Now, launch, and we'll watch each canoe until it puts off," announced
Mr. Tyndall. "Captain Prescott, will ten minutes be enough for
you before the sounding of the first gun?"
"Yes, sir."
"I'd rather you gave Gridley plenty of time, sir," urged Bob Hartwell.
"If we can't win from Gridley High School fairly, we don't want
to win at all."
"First gun, then, at three-twenty-eight," called Mr. Tyndall.
"Second gun at three-thirty.
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