“We are carrying four passengers while they are only carrying three,” said Dale, when the race was on in earnest. “We should have made them take some extra ballast aboard.”
The course mapped out was about two miles in one direction and two miles in another. At the start of the race the _Alice_ had a little the better of it, but before half a mile had been covered the _Ajax_ came crawling up and then passed the Putnam Hall boat.
“Here is where we leave you behind!” sang out Fred Century.
“We’ll show you a clean pair of heels over the whole course,” added Will Carey.
“As soon as you are ready to give up the race, blow your fog-horn,” said Bat Sedley, the third member of the party aboard the _Ajax_.
“You’ll hear no fog-horn to-day,” answered Paul.
“Good-bye!” shouted Fred Century, and then his sloop took an extra spurt and went ahead a distance of a hundred yards or more.
“Oh, Jack, we’ve got to beat them!” murmured Pepper. “If we don’t——”
“They’ll never get done crowing,” finished Paul.
“We’ll do our best,” answered the youthful owner of the _Alice_. “This race has only started.” And then he moved the tiller a trifle, to bring his boat on a more direct course for Cat Point.
To those who have read the previous volumes in this “Putnam Hall Series” the boys aboard the _Alice_ need no special introduction. For the benefit of those who now meet them for the first time I would state that they were all pupils at Putnam Hall military academy, a fine institution of learning, located on the shore of Cayuga Lake, in New York State. Of the lads Jack Ruddy was a little the oldest. He was a well-built and handsome boy, and had been chosen as major of the school battalion.
Jack’s bosom companion was Pepper Ditmore, often called Imp, because he loved to play pranks. Pepper was such a wideawake, jolly youth you could not help but love him, and he had a host of friends.
Putnam Hall had been built by Captain Victor Putnam, a retired officer of the United States Army, who had seen strenuous service for Uncle Sam in the far West. The captain had had considerable money left to him, and with this he had purchased ten acres of land on the shore of the lake and erected his school, a handsome structure of brick and stone, containing many class-rooms, a large number of dormitories, and likewise a library, mess-room, or dining hall, an office, and other necessary apartments. There was a beautiful campus in front of the building and a parade ground to one side. Towards the rear were a gymnasium and several barns, and also a boathouse, fronting the lake. Beyond, around a curve of the shore, were fields cultivated for the benefit of the Hall, and further away were several patches of woods.