h his bodily eyes he could not, but he knew nevertheless that
Grey had been upset and nearly rolled down the bank into the
water in the first hundred yards, that Jack was bounding and
scrambling and barking along by the very edge of the stream;
above all, he was just as well aware as if he had been looking at
it, of a stalwart form in cap and gown, bounding along,
brandishing the long boat-hook, and always keeping just opposite
the boat; and amid all the Babel of voices, and the dash and
pulse of the stroke, and the laboring of his own breathing, he
heard Hardy's voice coming to him again and again, and clear as
if there had been no other sound in the air, "Steady, two!
steady! well pulled! steady, steady!" The voice seemed to give
him strength and keep him to his work. And what work it was! he
had had many a hard pull in the last six weeks, but "never aught
like this."

But it can't last for ever; men's muscles are not steel, or their
lungs bull's hide, and hearts can't go on pumping a hundred miles
an hour without bursting. The St. Ambrose's boat is well away
from the boat behind, there is a great gap between the
accompanying crowds; and now, as they near the Gut, she hangs for
a moment or two in hand, though the roar from the bank grows
louder and louder, and Tom is already aware that the St. Ambrose
crowd is melting into the one ahead of them.

"We must be close to Exeter!" The thought flashes into him, and
it would seem into the rest of the crew at the same moment. For,
all at once, the strain seems taken off their arms again; there
is no more drag; she springs to the stroke as she did at the
start; and Miller's face which had darkened for a few seconds,
lightens up again.

Miller's face and attitude are a study. Coiled up into the
smallest possible space, his chin almost resting on his knees,
his hands close to his sides, firmly but lightly feeling the
rudder, as a good horseman handles the mouth of a free-going
hunter,--if a coxswain could make a bump by his own exertions,
surely he will do it. No sudden jerks of the St. Ambrose rudder
will you see, watch as you will from the bank; the boat never
hangs through fault of his, but easily and gracefully rounds
every point. "You're gaining! you're gaining!" he now and then
mutters to the Captain, who responds with a wink, keeping his
breath for other matters. Isn't he grand, the Captain, as he
comes forward like lightening, stroke after stroke, his back
flat, h