CHAPTER XXIII
SPEAKING THEIR MINDS
"Well done, boys! Well done!" cried Coach Wallace, as he grasped Frank's hand.
"Yes, too well done to suit us," murmured Captain Roth ruefully. "My, but you fellows can row!" he complimented. "We were all in, but you finished strong. Will you shake?" and he gazed at the rival captain admiringly, holding out his hand.
"Sure," came Frank's quick answer. "I'm sorry we beat you, but it had to be."
"And with an old patched-up shell at that," went on the loser. "You ought to have a decent boat."
"Maybe we will have now that we've shown what we can do," said Andy with a smile. The members of the defeated crew shook hands with their successful rivals.
"Three cheers for Riverview!" called someone, and the resulting cries were like music to the ears of Frank and his comrades.
"Three cheers for Waterside!" proposed Frank, and they were given with hearty good will.
"Oh, I just knew you could do it!" exclaimed a gentle voice at Frank's side, and turning, he saw Gertrude Morton. A ruddy glow was spread over her face as she held out her hand to Frank, and if he held her fingers longer than was really necessary no one was inclined to blame him. "It was perfectly splendid!" she went on. "You're the champions of the river now!"
"How do you make that out?" inquired the young captain, forgetting for the moment in the excitement of victory.
"Why if Waterside won from Milton, and you beat Waterside then you have beaten them both. Q. E. D. you know; like a problem in geometry."
"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Frank with a laugh.
He was shouldering his way through a press of people, many of whom wanted to shake hands with him, but he managed to keep his place beside Gertrude. Andy had in some manner fallen in step with Grace Knox, and they were talking gaily. On all sides could be heard expressions of wonder that a comparatively unknown and new crew could have administered such a beating to Waterside.
"We haven't any excuses," said Captain Roth manfully. "We were beaten fairly and squarely."
Frank and Andy would have preferred remaining at Waterside for a while, in the company of their girl friends, but as they were rather lightly clad and began to feel the cool air since they were not in motion, and as Ward and Jack wanted to get back, our heroes said good-bye, promising to call soon.
They went back in the motor boat, their shell towing behind, and on the trip up the river they were frequently saluted by various craft, the captains of which had in some manner learned of the victory.
"I wonder what Dr. Doolittle will say when he hears about it?" asked Jack.
"That's so. I've got to go on the carpet when I get back," exclaimed Frank. "I forgot all about it for a while. Well, I don't care what happens, now that we won."
"And we came mighty near losing when I caught that crab at the stake boat," put in Ward.
"It might have looked so for a time," said Frank, "but I really think it helped us to win. Waterside thought they had a big advantage and they hit up their stroke right away. They were rowed out before they knew it and we still had some wind left."
"Glad you look at it that way," replied Ward.
Practically all of the Riverview school lads had gone to see the race, so there was no crowd on hand to welcome the crew as they pulled their shell from the water at the boathouse. But there was one grim figure on hand and that was Professor Callum. His eyes sought out Frank.
"Dr. Doolittle is waiting for you," said the crabbed instructor. "You are to go up at once. I will be there!" he added significantly.
"Can't I change my clothes?" asked Frank, for he was in his racing togs.
"I suppose so," was the grudging answer, "but don't be long."
"It's like going to the dentist's; isn't it?" asked Andy of his brother, as the two were dressing in their room.
"Yes, and the sooner it's over with the better. There, I guess I'm fit to go."
Andy followed his brother out of the room.
"Where are you going?" asked Frank in some surprise.
"With you, of course."
"But you're not involved. You weren't fighting."
"I know it, but I'm going to see Dr. Doolittle just the same," was the dogged answer. "If you're expelled I resign, that's all."
"Oh, but that's foolish."
"All right, then I'm silly, but I'm going just the same."
Frank looked at his brother a moment and something glistened in his eyes. Then, placing his arm in that of Andy's, the two went together to the office of the head of the school.
"Ha! Hum! I believe there is some matter that requires my attention," said Dr. Doolittle slowly, looking over his spectacles as the Racer boys entered. Professor Callum had preceded them inside the room. "Some matter of school discipline I believe you said, Professor?"
"Yes. To be brief, as I was returning from having delivered a lecture on early Assyrian manners before the Philosophical Research Society last night I saw a light in the boathouse. I approached and found Frank Racer attacking Gerald Welter. He had knocked him down, and——"
"It was in a fair fight!" interrupted Frank.
"Ah, then you admit that you were fighting?" asked Mr. Callum quickly.
"Of course," replied our hero. "And I told you why we were fighting. He tried to ruin our racing shell. If you'll call Welter here I think he'll be man enough to admit it, too!" finished Frank.
"Ah, unfortunately we can not have Welter here," said Professor Callum. "He has—er—withdrawn from the school."
This was news to Frank and Andy.
"Withdrawn from the school!" exclaimed the doctor. "That is unfortunate." It seemed that he regretted more the loss of tuition fees than anything else.
"You have heard what Frank Racer admits," went on the crabbed instructor. "I now demand that he be expelled for fighting."
"Um! Yes! Fighting," murmured Dr. Doolittle in a dreamy sort of voice. "Fighting is very bad. It is expressly forbidden, and those who indulge in it are liable to expulsion. I am sorry——"
"Doctor, let me speak!" suddenly exclaimed Frank. "Ididfight, but there was a good cause for it. I'm going to tell you some things that maybe you don't know. After that I'm willing to be expelled."
"Same here!" murmured Andy.
"Such impudence!" exclaimed Mr. Callum. "You ought not to listen to them, Dr. Doolittle."
"It won't take long," spoke Frank significantly. "When we were sent here, Dr. Doolittle, my brother and I thought we were coming to an up-to-date school. Instead we found that it was a back number, and it's getting to be worse every day!"
Mr. Callum looked shocked and horrified. Dr. Doolittle acted as though he was awakening from some dream.
"This school is no good to a live chap who likes sport," went on Frank. "It's a dead one."
"Punk!" interjected Andy.
"That's the reason it's going to rack and ruin!" continued the elder lad, who grew enthusiastic as he thought of his wrongs. "No fellows that care for fun, or who have money to spend on it, will come here.
"Look at the baseball diamond! It's like some cow pasture, and the football gridiron is even worse. There isn't a grandstand worth the name. The fences are falling down, and the boathouse too. If my brother, and I and a few of our friends, hadn't fixed the boathouse, propped it up and covered the hole in the roof, it would have been in ruins long ago."
He paused for breath, for he had been talking rapidly.
"Is it possible? Is it possible?" murmured the doctor.
"And look at your school buildings!" Frank continued. "Why, some of them are dangerous, and the rooms we fellows have are worse than some tenements. It's a wonder you have any pupils at all. I'm not saying it's your fault, Dr. Doolittle. We all like you—there isn't a fellow here who doesn't think you're the finest scholar there is—but that doesn't make a school. You've got to have a sporting and a school spirit. I know, for I've been to other schools.
"And now about this fight. I'll tell you how it happened. When my brother and I came here we wanted to get up a rowing crew. It was hard work, for there wasn't anything to start with, but we did manage to find an old four-oared shell, and we patched it up. Then we practiced hard, my brother, Jack Sanderson, Ward Platt and myself.
"I won't deny but what there was bad feeling between Gerald Welter and myself. I claim it was his fault, but we needn't discuss that now." Frank was talking broadly and with an ease at which he wondered afterward. But; as he said, he felt that it was his last chance and he determined that Dr. Doolittle should know the truth.
"We had hard work using the old shell," Frank went on, "and we had harder work getting Waterside to accept our challenge. But they finally did, and the race was arranged. Then last night—the night before it was to take place—I saw Welter trying to damage our shell, because of his grudge against me. I stopped him after he had made one knife jab in it, and then—well we did fight and I whipped him. We fixed the shell, and what's more we won the race with Waterside. To-day Riverview school is champion of the river in the four-oared class!"
Frank bowed as he finished. He was about to leave the room, for he had no other thought but that he would be expelled. But he had had the satisfaction of speaking his mind.
"That's all I have to say," he concluded. "We tried to do our best to make your dead school into a live one."
"But it's awful dead yet," added Andy, as he prepared to follow his brother.
"Stop a moment!" exclaimed Dr. Doolittle. He was rubbing his eyes. He sat up straight in his chair. The look of dreamy wonder had gone from his face. His eyes sparkled. "Did I understand you to say that you won the race—that Riverview is—er—once more champion—as she once was?"
"She is," said Frank briefly.
"Then, boys, I want to congratulate you!" cried the doctor enthusiastically. "I thank you from the bottom of my heart!"
With a gratified look on his face he advanced toward the boys, holding out his hands.
"I realize," he said, "that our school is not what it ought to be. We have fallen upon evil days, and lack of money is the chief cause. But it is remarkable—you won the race! You are champions! It is almost incredible! I never thought to hear such news again! You deserve the thanks of the whole school!"
He shook hands with them, smiling the while. Professor Callum looked on with ill-concealed anger. He was getting impatient for the last act.
"I suppose there is nothing further to say," he began, in his rasping voice. "Racer has confessed to fighting, and he will doubtless be expelled, Dr. Doolittle?"
"He will—not!" exclaimed the doctor in hearty tones.
"Wha—what?" gasped Professor Callum.
"He will remain in this school," went on the doctor, "and I hope he and his brother will do their best to establish a sporting spirit. It is just what we need. Riverview wants some good red blood! I—er—I don't approve of fighting as a rule, but in this case—why—er—um—I wish I had had your chance to see this one, Professor Callum! You may go, boys. Champions of the river! Well! Well!"