yet they were soon alongside the float.

"Now, take your canoe out of water, Gridley," commanded the referee,
stepping ashore from the launch. "I want a look at the craft."

Dick & Co. lifted the war canoe to the float bow first. Just
as the stern cleared the water a cry went up from scores of throats.

For the referee had grasped a line made fast to the bottom of
the canoe near the stern.

Hauling on that line he brought in several yards of it---then,
at the outer end of the line came a light blanket, dripping.
Through the middle of the blanket the end of the line had been
secured.

Dick Prescott gasped. His chums rubbed their eyes. Bob Hartwell,
who had landed, looked on in utter consternation.

"For the love of decency!" gasped Referee Tyndall. "Who rigged
on a drag like that."

The blanket, towing below the surface, was a drag that could be
depended upon, perhaps, to delay the canoe at least one length
in every dozen that her crew could put her through the water.

"None of our fellows did that trick," Dick declared hotly. "You
saw us launch our canoe, Mr. Referee, and she was clear when
we launched her."