answer. "I'll be greatly obliged to you, sir, if you'll tell me
what it is.

"What are you towing?" asked the referee bluntly.

"Towing?" repeated Dick in bewilderment.

"That's what I asked," repeated the referee. "When you came down
on this last spurt I'm sure that at one moment I saw a length
of line rise above the water astern of you. Then, further back,
I saw something else jerked to the surface."

"Why, we can't be towing anything," Dick insisted. "You saw our
canoe launched."

"Late start, if you don't line the canoes up at once, referee,"
warned the time-keeper.

But Mr. Tyndall had his own views.

"The starting time will be delayed," he announced sharply. "Captain
Prescott, take your canoe to the landing stage."

"All right, sir."

"Captain Hartwell you will follow."

"Very good, sir."

Going in to the landing stage Dick gave his crew an easy pace,