Yet still young Prescott gained.
Then Martin foolishly lost his head altogether.
"If I can't win I'll make it look like a fluke!" he gritted.
Just as Dick was nearing the stakeboat, Hi threw up one hand.
"I've got a cramp!" he shouted. "Help!"
To some on shore he appeared about to sink. Dick passed the stakeboat,
then turned like a flash and swam back toward Hi.
"Prescott wins!" called Len Spencer.
A few more strokes brought Dick up to where Hi pretended to flounder.
"Keep quiet, Hi, and let me get a hold on you," Dick offered.
"I'll have you at the pier in a jiffy."
"You get away from me," snarled Martin. "I don't want any of
your kind of help."
With that Hi appeared to forget his recent complaint of "cramp,"
for he made a lusty plunge toward the pier and pulled himself up.
Then, an instant later, he must have remembered, for he assumed
an expression of pain and limped.
"There's that mean cramp again," he muttered. "I'd have won by
a good many yards if it hadn't been for that."
Some of the Central Grammar boys nearby were impolite enough to
laugh incredulously.
"Oh, I've dropped my handbag into the river!" exclaimed one woman
to another suddenly, at the end of the pier.
The other woman turned, giving a quick, startled glance toward
the water.
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