The fresh black paint with which the vessels had been smeared from end
to end on the outside was stoned smoothly down until it glistened like
varnish. Inside there was not a superfluity to be seen of the weight of
a feather.

The contestants knew every point of advantage, and, not less clearly,
they were there to win or be beaten doing their best. They were cool and
quiet; much more so, indeed, than the respective clansmen and clanswomen.

From these near objects of interest, the Princess directed a glance over
the spreading field of dimpled water to a galley moored under a wooded
point across on the Asiatic shore. The point is now crowned with the
graceful but neglected Kiosk of the Viceroy of Egypt. That galley was
the thither terminus of the race course, and the winners turning it, and
coming back to the place of starting, must row in all about three miles.

A little to the right of the Princess' stand stood a pole of height to
be seen by the multitude as well as the rival oarsmen, and a rope for
hoisting a white flag to the top connected it with the chair on the
dais. At the appearance of the flag the boats were to start; while it
was flying, the race was on.

And now the competitors are in position by lot from right to left. On
bay and shore the shouting is sunk to a murmur. A moment more--but in
that critical period an interruption occurred.

A yell from a number of voices in sharpest unison drew attention to the
point of land jutting into the water on the north side not inaptly
called the toe of Therapia, and a boat, turning the point, bore down