CHAPTER XXV
BEATING THE “STREAK O’ LIGHT”
The race Dan referred to was the actual trial of the big craft, andthose rigged with motors. The course was to Karnac Lake and return. Ifthe wind held light and fair it was anybody’s race; if it fell calm,undoubtedly the motor iceboats would have an advantage. If the windincreased to a gale there was no knowing who would be the successfulone.
Since the big snow nobody knew the course well. The river’s surface waslike a rolling plain—a prairie. There was known to be no open water; butotherwise the course was uncertain.
There were five starters. Monroe Stevens would not race his _Redbird_,nor did the _Curlew_ start. The Speedwells’, Barry Spink’s, Mr.Darringford’s _Betty B._, an entry from Meadville, and one fromBarrington, made up the “card.”
It was a long course, and it called for very good handling to gostraight up the river, turn, and make the downward course in any sort oftime. The five boats drifted out of the cove under sail and got in somesort of a line so that the referee could start them.
At once Spink’s mechanic started his engine; but the motors on the_Betty B._ and on the Speedwell craft remained silent. The signal wasgiven and they all got off in some sort of time.
The Speedwells paid strict attention to their own work, and did notwatch their rivals. If one is going to race, the way to do so is toattend strictly to one’s own business.
Dan and Billy knew that there was one bad obstacle—the Long Bridge.Although the masts all cleared the under-timbers of the high structure,the canvas was almost sure to lose the wind while going under.
Spink had gone at it just as he went at everything—with marvelousconfidence. With motor sputtering and his big sail, bellied full, heshot ahead of the other four boats in the race and was quickly at theLong Bridge.
Here he had to drop the sail, for it interfered with the _Streak o’Light_ getting through. His motor coughed and the iceboat went aheadjerkily enough.
Dan and Billy had taken a rather long shoot to windward; now the _FollowMe_ came up to the bridge on the other tack, and Dan started the motorjust before his sail began to shake.
The momentum they had gathered carried the boat under the structure. Atonce the sail filled on the upper side, and the _Follow Me_ proved hername to be good. She led the five iceboats, and the crowd of spectatorsthat crowded the bridge cheered the Speedwell boys as their craft dartedup the river.
It was not until then that she began to really move.
The boys had sailed pretty fast in her before. But now the whole stretchof the river lay before her. There was nothing in the way, and the windwas fair. Under the pressure of both wind and claw-wheel under the mainbeam, she hit only the high places, as Billy declared.
Dan tried to steer clear of the higher drifts; but sometimes she wouldrun up the long slope of a hummock and shoot right out into the air.Those on shore could see the daylight between the runners of the _FollowMe_ and the crust of ice.
At such times Dan was glad he had rigged his sprocket wheel so that hecould raise her. The motor raced, but the moment the runners connectedwith the ice again, Dan drove the wheel down and the added impetus ofthe whirling claws aided in the speed of the boat.
Billy hung to the end of the crossbeam and laughed back at the otherboats. He could afford to. Even Barry Spink’s wonderful craft was beingleft behind. Before they passed the end of Island Number One, the_Follow Me_ was a mile and more in the lead.
And the boys kept this lead for the entire distance to Karnac Lake. Whenthey turned the stake and started to beat back, the pace was moremoderate. But here was where Dan’s invention “made good.”
The wind was against them. To tack from side to side of the river as thesailboats did was to lose precious time. They furled the sail, unsteppedthe mast, and speeded up the engines of the _Follow Me_.
The machinery worked splendidly. Sometimes, when there was a catspaw ofgood wind, one or another of the other contestants would get somewherenear Dan and Billy; but the moment the wind shifted, or died down, themotor iceboat scurried ahead.
They never saw Spink’s boat after passing her at Karnac Lake. Mr.Darringford’s _Betty B._ clung to the _Follow Me_ for a long while; butfinally she fell back. The boys were far, far ahead when they came downto the Long Bridge again.
In spite of the extreme cold, there was a goodly crowd to greet them.The Academy boys and girls “rooted” loudly for the brothers and theircraft. The _Follow Me_ slid under the bridge and so down to the startingpoint amid the plaudits of half of Riverdale and, as Billy said, “a goodsprinkling of the rest of the county.”
Mr. Darringford, when he came in, a poor second, wanted to make athorough examination of Dan’s invention, and the boys were glad to havehim do so. He at once advised Dan to cover his ingenious work with apatent, and helped the boy do this at once.
“For people are bound to see and steal your idea,” said the gentleman,convinced that young Speedwell was quite a genius in mechanics.
“Huh! they’ve done that already—but it didn’t help ’em much,” scoffedBilly.
“You mean that Spink and his foreigner?” asked Mr. Darringford, with aqueer little smile.
“Yes. He stole those plans from Dan.”
Mr. Darringford looked at the older Speedwell and smiled again. “I guessyou saw what he did?” he said. “_I_ can see that he tried to steal youridea; but he seems to have got it hind-end foremost—eh?”
“That’s what I noticed,” laughed Dan. “So I wasn’t much afraid of hisbeating us out.”
The story of what Barry Spink had done, and how he had overreachedhimself, leaked out, and the boys and girls of Riverdale fairly laughedthe fellow out of town. Barry never entered the Riverdale Academy; butBert Biggin did.
And Bert proved himself to be a pretty smart fellow, despite thenickname of “Dummy” that had clung to him for so many years.
That winter on the Colasha may never be repeated; but while the icelasted, Dan and Billy, with their friends, managed to enjoy every hourthey could get upon the frozen surface of the stream.
And none of those who bore a part in the incident will forget how theywere lost in the great blizzard.
THE END
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