Riddell kept a good course, and the whole crew worked steadily.

The scoffers on the bank were perplexed, and their jeers died away feebly.

This was not a crew of muffs assuredly.

Those first twenty or thirty yards were rowed in a style not very far short of the Parrett's standard, and Parson himself, the best cox of Parrett's house, could hardly have taken the boat down that reach in a better course.
There was something ominous in this.

But, to the great relief of the unfriendly critics, this showy lead was not maintained.