the most persistent rival the bully had ever encountered in his whole
career since coming to Bloomsbury.

Puss allowed a contemptuous expression to take possession of his face,
and even shrugged his broad shoulders, after a nasty fashion he had,
that often angered the one he was arguing with more than words could
have done.

"Aw! rats!" he said, in a disagreeable, rasping voice. "Everybody knows
that I'd won that same race only for trouble with my engine. Frank was
lucky, just like he generally is when he goes in for anything. Look at
him today, being called in to pitch in the tenth! We had 'em badly
rattled, and they were on the toboggan sure. Yet Frank, the great hero,
gets credit for winning that game. Didn't the Bloomsbury crowd cheer
him to the echo, though, and want to ride him on their shoulders? Wow!
it makes me sick, to see such toadyism!"

"What's all this big noise about, fellows? Didn't I hear my name
mentioned?" asked a tall lad with a frank face and clear brown eyes, as
he pushed forward.

It was Frank Bird himself, who had been talking with his cousin Andy,
and several other fellows, in the bow of the launch, and by accident
heard the voices that were raised in dispute.

Percy Carberry, known among his comrades simply as "Puss," did not
flinch when he found himself face to face with the boy he detested so
thoroughly. They had never as yet actually come to blows; but Puss
believed that his muscular powers were far superior to those of his more
slender rival, and just now he was in a particularly bitter frame of