CHAPTER III
EVIL INTENTIONS THWARTED
The Hilltop boys marched down to their camp the next day, and after they were settled Jack went with Percival to get his boat, Dick's having been sent down to the camp in the morning.
The camp was on the river away from the railroad in a pleasant bit of woods a mile or so below the town so that they had all the charms of country life about them with the town near enough at hand in case they wanted to get anything.
There were tents to sleep in, a dining tent and one for the kitchen, and a big pavilion where the boys could do what little work they were expected to do during their stay on the river.
A very black, very jolly looking negro, who rejoiced in the name of Bucephalus, and who was the coachman and head waiter at the Academy, now had the position of head cook and general handy man, and the boys knew that they would be well looked after, Bucephalus being a general favorite.
Besides the professors there was the military instructor and drillmaster, Colonel Bull, a fat little man with a great deal of self-importance, who looked after the physical side of the boys' instruction, while the professors attended to the mental side.
There were a number of motor-boats, several of the boys going partners in these, and there were also rowboats and canoes, a considerable number of the Hilltop boys being accustomed to the water, and spending a good deal of their time on it.
Harry Dickson and Arthur Warren, chums of Jack and Dick, had a boat together, as did Herring and Merritt, and there were several boys who had boats alone, like Percival and Jack, one of these being a little fellow, the smallest boy in the Academy, who had his full name, Jesse W. Smith, painted on the stern of his boat, which he managed alone with considerable dexterity.
Percival's boat was a costly affair, and was fitted with cushions and an awning, had silver trimmings and was lined inside with mahogany and other costly woods, being a very handsome affair, but no better as a boat, as its owner himself remarked, than Jack's made-over craft.
"That's the way I do things, Jack," he said when the boys were out on the river in his boat after bringing Jack's down to the camp. "I can't begin to make the speed with this boat that you can with yours, but I have a regular floating palace, as you might say. Why, the Hudson River boats are not any better fitted up than this, size considered, but I can't get any speed out of it. Maybe you can."
"I'll try, at any rate," returned Jack, as he did, making better time than Percival had done, and handling the boat with greater dexterity.
"H'm! I believe you could get speed out of a canal-boat," said Dick, as they sped along. "There's a nasty looking cloud coming down from Thunder Mountain, Jack. Are you afraid of it?"
"No, not much, although I wouldn't like to see some of those boys too far out if it cuts up rough on the river. There's young Smith out in his boat, by the way. I think we had better warn him."
At that moment Herring and Merritt came along in their boat, and
Herring said in a tone of disdain:
"That boat of yours is pretty enough to look at, Percival, but she's of no more use than a society girl in the kitchen. Want a tow?"
Jack passed the other boat with ease, although they were doing their best, and called out to young Smith:
"Come in, Jesse W., there will be trouble on the river in a few minutes, and you will be better off on shore."
"Oh, he will depend on the name of his boat, which is bigger than the boat," said Billy Manners, one of the chief funmakers of the Hilltop boys, who was coming along with another boy in a motor-boat. "Young J.W. is full of pluck."
The smaller boy was taking Jack's advice by this time, and there was need of it, for there was a squall coming and all the boys were making for the shore.
"Huh! you fellows are all afraid!" shouted Herring. "What's a little blow to fellows like us? Go on shore, you weaklings."
"There is danger, isn't there, Jack?" asked Percival, as Jack was running for shore, having seen that young Smith was safe.
"Yes, there is," shortly, "and those fellows will find it out before long. They should be told of it."
"Yes, and get abuse for our trouble," snapped Dick. "I won't do it for one."
"Better come in!" shouted Jack, all except the two bullies being now close to shore, and getting ready to make a landing.
"Mind your business!" shouted Herring. "We know how to look out for ourselves if you don't!"
"I don't like to say 'I told you so,' Jack, but I did," said Percival.
"If anything happens, the fault will be all theirs."
At that moment Colonel Bull, on the bank, blew a tremendous blast on a bugle to call the boats in, and Herring obeyed, knowing that he would be cut short of many of his privileges if he did not.
As it was the two boys narrowly escaped an upset, and Merritt was deathly pale and shaking like a man with the ague when at last they got ashore, none too soon.
The river was white with foam, and it was no place for a small boat with the wind blowing sharply down from the mountains.
"You should have come in with the others," said the colonel sharply when the two bullies landed. "If you take another such risk you will be prohibited from going on the river at all. As it is, you will not go out again to-day."
Herring knew that there was no appeal from this decision, as the colonel was the physical instructor as well as drillmaster, and the doctor never disputed his word in cases which were so palpably just as in this instance.
"Pete wanted to show off," chuckled Billy Manners, "and got come up with. He can't bully the colonel if he can bully the small boys."
"He can't bully all of them either," said Harry, "for some of them won't take it from him even if they can't fight him."
As it happened to be pleasant in the afternoon, and many of the boys were out on the river in boats, Herring felt the effect of his foolish boasting, and was greatly chagrined that he was cut off from a very enjoyable sport.
Jack took Percival's boat out and made very good speed with it so that Dick said with a grin:
"Well, the boat is all right, I see, and I am the fellow that needs to take a lesson, not the boat. As I said before I believe you could get speed out of a canal-boat."
"You can get speed out of this one if you will study it a bit, and not think only of using up gasolene. Besides, there is fun to be had out of the boat, even if you do not go like the wind all the time."
"Yes, I suppose there is, but I like to go fast, and I guess every boy does. If one does not there is generally something the matter with him."
Herring was not only smarting under not being allowed to go out with the rest, but also from the knowledge that Jack was a better boatman than he was, and that the boat which he had made himself, for this was known to all the boys now, could make better time than the expensive one his father had bought him and he said to Merritt, who had no one to go out with him, and was not allowed to run Herring's boat:
"I'd like to fix that boat of Sheldon's so that he couldn't run it. He'll be crowing over me all the time, and that is something I won't stand. It'll be an easy thing to get at it at night."
"Of course," agreed Merritt. "Make a hole in his tank, do something to the engine or cut a hole in the bottom. Anything will do. Then we can say that the boat was no good in the first place, and every one will believe you. That's easy."
"I won't say anything about it. Wouldn't he suspect something if I was to speak about it? You don't show any sense!"
"I show as much as you do, staying out there on the river when there was a squall coming down from the mountain," sulked Merritt. "Don't you talk. That was the biggest fool thing I ever saw any one do."
"Shut up!" snarled Herring. "What we want to do is to fix the boat so that it won't run. Sheldon can't afford to buy another, and we will have all the fun, while he has to stay on shore."
All right. To-night will be a good time. How are you going to manage it? He may be watching."
"Why should he? He won't suspect anything. After all the boys have gone to sleep we can steal down to the shore and fix it all right. All we have to do is to see where he puts it."
It was a lovely night with a moon and stars, and a number of the boys were out on the river with their boats, skimming over the water like fireflies, and sending paths of colored light in every direction from their side lamps or with their pocket flashlights.
Herring was prohibited from going out as the day was not yet over, and he fretted at the prohibition, although it gave him a chance to watch Jack when he came in and see where he tied up.
"That's all right," he whispered to Merritt. "It's in a line with the tent where he and Percival sleep and right on the beach. We'll be able to find that all right."
"Yes, and when Sheldon goes out in his boat to-morrow we'll be able to walk right away from him. It's a pity you can't get him to bet on it, but he won't bet on anything."
"No, but Percival might. He likes to spend money. I'll get him to bet and win a lot from him."
The boys went to bed at the usual time, and before long all the tent lights were out, only a few of the camp lights being seen, as the moon was still up and there was light enough for all ordinary purposes.
There was a deep shadow on the bank of the river, however, on account of the trees and the mountains behind them, and when all was still Herring and Merritt stole from their tent and hurried toward the shore.
They wore soft shoes, so as not to betray themselves, and were dressed in dark clothes so as not to be seen readily, having prepared themselves for any possible emergency.
They had agreed between them that the safest thing to do was to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat so as to cause it to leak, and they had provided themselves with augers for the purpose.
Stealing down to the river noiselessly they easily found Jack's boat, as they thought, and were preparing to bore the hole when suddenly a voice piped up out of the darkness and from the boat itself:
"Hi! what are you going to do with this boat?"
The voice was that of young Smith who at the next moment stood up and turned the light of a pocket flash upon them as they hastily beat a retreat to the tents.