"My dears," she said to her mates later on, "I don't mind telling you
I was all of a twitter, first-along, wondering what card that man Oke
was holding back--he looked so sly and so sure of hisself. But if
he've no better card to play than Seth Ede, we can sleep easy."
"Seth Ede's a powerful strong oar," Bess Rablin objected.
"_Was_, you mean. He've a-drunk too much beer these four years past
to last over a five-mile course; let be that never was his distance.
And here's another thing: they've picked Tremenjous Hosken for one
th'art."
"And he's as strong as a bullock."
"I dessay: but Seth Ede pulls thirty-eight or thirty-nine to the
minute all the time he's racing--never a stroke under. I've watched
him a score o' times. If you envy Hosken his inside after two miles
o' _that_, you must be like Pomery's pig--in love with pain.
They've hired or borrowed the Preventive boat, I'm told; and it's the
best they could do. She's new, and she looks pretty. She'll drag
aft if they put their light weights in the bows: still, she's a good
boat. I'm not afeared of her, though. From all I can hear, the
_Woman_ was known for speed in her time, all through the fleet.
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