CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
FOUL PLAY.
Willoughby reassembled after the eventful boat-race in a state of fever.
The great event which was to settle everything had settled nothing, and the suspense and excitement which was to have been set at rest remained still as unsatisfied as ever, and intensified by a feeling of rage and disappointment.
As boys dropped in in groups from the course, and clustered round the school gate, one might have supposed by their troubled faces that instead of a rudder-line having broken both crews had been capsized and drowned.
The Parrett's partisans particularly were loud in their clamour for a new race, and many of them freely insinuated foul play as the cause of the accident.
The schoolhouse, on the other hand, indignantly repelled the charge, and dared their opponents defiantly to meet them again.

And amidst all this wrangling and bickering, the Welchers dispensed their taunts and invectives with even-handed impartiality, and filled in just what was wanted to make the scene one of utter confusion and Babel.
"I tell you we'd have beaten them hollow," shouted Wibberly to the company in general.
"No you wouldn't!" retorted Wyndham; "we were ahead and our men were as fresh as yours, every bit!" "Ya--boo--cheats! Told you there'd be no fair play with such a pack," shouted the Welchers.
"Look here, who are you calling a cheat ?" said Wyndham, very red in the face, edging up to the speaker.
"You, if you like," shouted Pilbury and Cusack.
"I'll knock your heads together when I catch you," said Wyndham, with lofty disgust, not intending to put himself out for two juniors.
A loud laugh greeted the threat.
Meanwhile, fellows were running up every moment.

Some who had been waiting for the boats at the winning-post had only just heard the news, and came in red-hot with excitement to learn particulars.
"It's all a vile dodge," howled Wibberly, "to get their boat to the head of the river." "I'll bet anything the precious captain's at the bottom of it," shouted another.

"He'd stick at nothing, I know." "Yes, and you'll see, now they'll funk another race!" "Who'll funk another race ?" roared the hot-headed Wyndham.

"I'll row you myself, you asses, the lot of you." Another derisive laugh followed at the speaker's expense.
"It's not our fault if your line broke," cried a schoolhouse boy.