“He may learn to his cost that it was bad policy for him to go at me in that fashion,” said Lester, to himself. “It will be a colder day than this when I next go into his house to get warm, or to eat his pies and pancakes. But I must do something at once. Cony’s cutting remarks will set all the fellows to thinking, and the first one who hits upon a plan that suits the rest and promises to be successful, will crowd me out of my position as leader.”
“Hallo, Brigham! What are you hanging back for?” shouted Enoch, who, with the rest of the party, was now a long distance in advance of Lester.
“He doesn’t like the way Cony rallied him on his inactivity, and I shouldn’t wonder if he had put his thinking-cap on,” observed Jones.
“That’s just it,” said Lester, frankly. “Now, that I think of the matter, we have showed ourselves to be a pretty set of fellows to let one or two boys get the weather-gauge of us so completely, without a single word or act of remonstrance on our part. I don’t intend that this state of affairs shall continue much longer.”
“Good for you, Brigham!” cried all the boys, in concert.
“I knew you could think of something, if you went about it in earnest,” added Enoch. “What do you propose?”
“Nothing yet. I haven’t got my wits fairly at work; but I will have an idea to present for your consideration when I meet you to-morrow morning.” And then he wondered what in the world he should do if he failed to keep his promise.
“Good for you!” shouted the boys, again. “Will it be another picnic on the bay?”
“Of course not,” Enoch hastened to reply. “We’ve had enough of picnics; we want something new this time, and the more excitement and danger there are in it, the better I, for one, shall like it. We want to perform an exploit that has never been attempted or even thought of since the Bridgeport academy had an existence. None of us ever dreamed of so daring a feat as running off with a private yacht, until Brigham suggested it to us, and I know that when he gets ready to report the result of his cogitations, he will astonish us. All we’ve got to do is to give him time.”
Enoch’s words were meant to be encouraging, but they were not. On the contrary, the effect they produced upon Lester was a disheartening one. In order to meet the approval of all his friends, the plan he proposed must be entirely original, and there must be danger and excitement in it. Lester began to be afraid that he had promised more than he could fulfill. He relapsed into silence again, and as soon as he had reported his return to the officer of the day, he made the best of his way to his dormitory. His room-mate was there, and the manner in which he was greeted by him astonished Lester not a little.