look around."

"True; well, Val, I will accept your kind offer. Is Conrad practicing?"

"Yes; he is out every afternoon."

"I can't go till after supper."

"Then begin this evening. You know where I keep my boat. I will be at
the boathouse at half-past six, and you can meet me there."

"All right. You are a good friend, Val."

"I try to be, but it isn't all friendship."

"What else, then?"

"I want Conrad defeated. He is insufferable now, and if he wins the
prize he will be worse than ever."

Prospect Pond was a little distance out of the village. It was a
beautiful sheet of water, and a favorite resort for picnic parties.
Conrad Carter, Valentine Burns, and two or three other boys and young
men had boats there, and a man named Serwin kept boats to hire.

But the best boats belonged to Valentine and Conrad. It was rather
annoying to Conrad that any one should have a boat as good as his own,
but this was something he could not help. He consoled himself, however,
by reflecting that he was a better oarsman than Valentine.