But Noble did not know what a stormy time Tom had with Loren and Ralph before he could induce them to forego all the sports and pleasures of the meet. Loren was particularly obstinate. He was satisfied now that he was a pretty good hand with a double paddle, and confident that if any of the three recognized champions beat him when the afternoon race came off, they would have to make their canoes get through the water faster than they ever did before. Then there was the upset race, which Ralph was almost sure he could win, and the greasy pole walk, with Miss Arden’s silk flag to go to the best man—must they give up all these things just because Tom had been ruled out?
“What’s the reason I am ruled out?” exclaimed Tom, who was as mad as a boy ever gets to be. “Isn’t it because I tried my best to help Loren win the paddle race? I tell you that you don’t stand the least show of winning any thing; but stay if you want to.”
Ralph and Loren were well enough acquainted with Tom to know that there was a volume of meaning in his last words. If they braved his anger they would be sure to suffer for it in the end, and if Tom turned against them, where could they look for friends and associates? Prime and his followers would not have any thing more to do with them; Joe Wayring, unless he was as blind as a bat, had seen quite enough to make him suspicious of them; and when they came to look at it, they found that they were in a very unenviable situation.
“I’d give almost any thing if I could live the last half hour over again,” declared Loren, after he had taken a few minutes in which to consider the matter. “We’ve made Noble and his crowd so mad that they’ll never look at us again, Tom is just as good as expelled from the club, and we may as well give up all hope of being admitted to the Toxophilites. We’re at outs with every body, and the only thing we can do is to stand by one another.”
Ralph thought so, too. Without wasting any more time in argument they put on their long coats to cover up the uniforms they would probably never wear again, shoved off their canoes, and set out for home; and no one except Frank Noble saw them go. The other members of the club were too much interested in their own affairs to pay any attention to the movements of a boy who had gone deliberately to work to mar their day’s enjoyment.