Forester was careful too to give the order always between the middle and the end of a stroke, so that the obeying of the order came immediately after the issuing of it.
By this means Forester could stop them in a moment, when any thing went wrong.

He would order, "_Give way_," and then the boys would all begin to pull their oars.

As soon as any of them lost the stroke, or whenever any oars began to interfere, or any other difficulty or accident occurred, he would immediately give the order, "_Oars_." This would instantly arrest the rowing, before the difficulty became serious.

Then, after a moment's pause he would say, "_Give way_," again, when they would once more begin rowing all together.

All this time, he sat in the stern and steered the boat wherever they wanted to go.
[Illustration: GOOD ROWING.] Marco wished to have Forester teach the boys how to back water, and to trail oars, and to put the oars apeak, and to perform various other evolutions.