“Have you two been regularly appointed as a committee?” asked Prescott.

“We don’t have to be,” Hi answered indifferently.  “We know what we’re talking about.”

“You’ll have to be regularly appointed by your school before we’ll talk with you,” Dick retorted.

“You’re afraid to meet us in a swimming match,” Hi jeered.

“So afraid,” Prescott answered, “that we’ve appointed a committee regularly; but you fellows, who have been doing all the talking, aren’t willing to get together and elect a regular committee to represent your school.”

“You’re afraid, I tell you,” sneered Hi, while Bill Rodgers grinned.

“No; we’re ready to arrange the match when your school sends a regular committee.”

“Come on over here and talk it over, if you’re not afraid,” urged Hi Martin.

“We can’t talk it over with you, as you’ve admitted that you don’t represent your school.”

“Well, then, we do represent it,” claimed Hi.

“That statement comes too late.  Hi, we’ll meet you at this same place at half past four to-morrow afternoon.  If you fail to show up it will be all off.  And your committee will have to bring a note, signed by your principal, naming the members of your committee and stating that it has been regularly appointed.  We’ll bring the same from our principal.

“I guess the swimming match between the two schools is all off, then,” yawned Martin.  “You fellows don’t want to go into it, for you know you’d be beaten stiff.  That’s why you try to hedge behind a committee.”

“It’s all off if you fellows don’t go at it in a regular way,” Dick contended firmly.  “We’re not going to enter a match and then find that you and Bill Rodgers represent no one but yourselves.”

“What’s all the noise about?” good-naturedly asked Reporter Len Spencer, who, turning the corner, had halted behind Prescott and his friends.

Dick explained the situation.

“Prescott is right,” decided Len.  “Martin, if the boys at your school are not enough in earnest to arrange the contest through an authorized committee, then folks will understand that the North Grammar didn’t really want a swimming contest.”

“But we do want one,” blustered Martin.

“Then go about it in a regular way, after consulting your principal, as the Central Grammar boys have done,” urged Len.  “And, instead of meeting here on a corner, you can meet at my desk at the ‘Blade’ office.”

Hi Martin was “stumped” at this point, and he knew it.  If he backed out now he would make himself and his school ridiculous.

“All right,” agreed the North Grammar boy reluctantly.

“Don’t forget to bring a note from your principal to the effect that the boys named are the regular school committee,” Dick called after him.

“We’ll do the thing in our own way,” Hi retorted.  “Come along, Bill.”

“I thought Martin might be up to some tricks,” muttered Dick Prescott.