"We'll be here after a little while." "We'll wait for you when we land," laughed Hartwell.

"Mumble bumble!" Another secret signal, surely, for again the "Pathfinder" began to increase the distance from the Gridley rival.
"We'd better stop, and pretend we're only fishing," muttered Tom Reade, but Dick kept grimly silent.

He was watching every move of the Preston paddlers.
"Why, they're leading us four lengths," muttered Darrin, in an undertone.

But Prescott appeared unworried.
"We'll try to brace our speed, by and by," Dick answered.
"And so will the other fellows," Tom surmised.

"They're not going at anything like their pace as yet." For a quarter of a mile the canoes held the same relative position.
"Now, liven up," Dick called softly.