CHAPTER I

GETTING A MOTOR BOAT

"If you are going with the boys on the river, Jack, you will have to get a motor-boat. Won't you let me buy you one?"

"No, not a bit of it, Dick."

"But you want one?"

"Certainly, and I am going to have one."

"But motor-boats cost money, Jack. Why, mine cost me——-"

"Never mind what it cost, Dick. You spend a lot more money than I can afford to spend, and you have a gilt-edged affair, of course. I want a boat to use as well as to look at."

"But you want a serviceable boat, Jack?"

"I am going to have it, and it will not cost me anything like what your boat cost. Just let me look around a bit, Dick."

"All right, I'll let you do all the looking you want, but I'd like to buy you a boat just the same."

"No doubt you would, and so would Jesse W. and Harry and Arthur and a dozen other boys, but I am going to get one myself, and it will not cost me much either, and will give me all the service I want. We don't go into camp under a week, and that will give me all the time I want to build—-"

"You are not going to build you a motor-boat, are you, Jack Sheldon?" asked Dick Percival in the greatest surprise.

"Well, not altogether build it, Dick. Put it together, I may say. I did not mean to let the cat out of the bag, but now that she is out you need not scare her all over the neighborhood so that everybody will know that she is out. Let Pussy stay hidden for a time yet."

"Yes, but Jack, how are you going to——-"

"No, no, Dick," laughed Jack, "you have seen the cat's whiskers, but you haven't seen her tail yet, and you won't until I get ready. I have told you more now than I meant to, and you must be satisfied with that. I'll have the boat, don't you be afraid."

The two boys were two of what were called the Hilltop boys, being students at an Academy situated in the highlands of the Hudson on top of a hill about five miles back from the river, as the crow flies, but considerably more than that by the road.

Jack Sheldon was a universal favorite in the school, and although he had been obliged to work to pay for his schooling at the start he was not thought any the less of on that account.

Two or three strokes of fortune had given him sufficient money to more than pay for his education, and to provide his widowed mother with many extra comforts in addition, so that now he could give his time to study and not be distracted by work.

He had long known the value of money, having learned it by experience, and he was now averse to spending more than was necessary on things that gave pleasure rather more than profit.

He would not let Dick Percival, who was the son of rich parents, and had more money to spend than was really good for him, buy him a motor-boat, nor would he spend too much money on one himself when he would use it only for the smallest part of the year.

The school term was over, but Dr. Theopilus Wise, the principal of the Academy, had arranged to continue it for a portion of the summer, not in the Academy, but in a camp on the river where the boys would have plenty of open air, exercise, relaxation, and all the fun they wanted, besides doing a certain amount of school work to keep them from getting rusty as they expressed it.

The summer school was to begin its session in a short time, and, meanwhile, Jack remained at the Academy instead of going home, some distance away in another county, giving his attention to certain matters in which he was interested.

He had done work for the editor of a weekly paper of a town on the river, the nearest large town to the Academy and was well known in the place besides, having many acquaintances there among business people.

Being fond of the water, and knowing that many of the boys would have boats of one kind or another, but mostly motors, Jack had already looked about him, and had already not only formed his plans, but had put some of them in operation.

Leaving Percival, who was his principal chum among the Hilltop boys, Jack went on his wheel to Riverton, the town nearest to the Academy, and called in at the office of the News where he found the editor, Mr. Brooke, pecking away at a typewriter in his sanctum, using two fat fingers only in doing his writing rather than all of them as an expert would do.

Brooke had learned to use the machine in that way, however, and would adopt no other, although he had been shown by Jack, who was a rapid writer on a machine, and could compose on it, that he could do much faster work by the other method.

"How do you do, Sheldon?" said Brooke, looking up. "Got any news?"

"What are you going to do with that little gasolene engine that you used to run your little presses with?" asked Jack.

"I don't know, sell it, I guess. It isn't good for much except junk."

"How much do you want for it?"

"Oh, you can have it if you think you can do anything with it," said the editor carelessly.

"No, I don't want it for nothing. I'll pay you for it."

"What are you going to do with it? It's too little to run any but the small presses. Ain't going to start a paper, are you?"

"No. I can fix it up so as to make it do good work. I want to put it in a motor-boat."

"It might do for that, and if you can fix it up you're welcome to it. You have a mechanical bent, I know, and I guess if any one can fix it up, you can. Well, say ten dollars."

"All right. It will cost me another ten to put it in shape, but after that it will do all right. Will you deliver it to a man that I send after it? I'll take it down to the Riverton shops and work on it. They let me tinker things there whenever I want to."

"Certainly. Send an order, and I'll let the man have it."

"Very good. That's all for the present," and Jack went out.

His next call was at the machine shop he had spoken of, and going on their wharf he looked around, saw an old rowboat lying on the ground, took a good look at it, and then went to the foreman and said:

"What do you want for that rowboat lying on the wharf? I'd like to buy it. It will just suit me."

"It is not worth much, Mr. Sheldon," said the foreman. "You can have it if you want it."

"No, I want to buy it."

"Oh, well, say a dollar, but you'll be a dollar out if you buy it."

"I don't think so," said Jack, who knew what the boat was worth, and that a little money expended on it would not be wasted. "May I have a bench for a few days?"

"Yes, for as long as you like."

Jack hired a man to take the boat to the shop, bought some paint and brushes and some narrow boards used for flooring, and then sent for the engine, which he placed near the boat.

He was of a mechanical turn of mind, as Brooke had said, and knew a good deal about engines, and by the purchase of a few necessary articles, and by working himself he managed in the course of a day or so to put his engine into a condition that thoroughly satisfied him.

Then he bought a propeller, lamps and other necessaries, had the engine fitted into his boat, and then proceeded to deck it over forward, having already remedied any defects that it had, and making it perfectly watertight, and like a new boat with a fresh coat of paint and varnish.

He was a week on the work, but at last his boat was ready and was put in the water with the aid of two or three men from the shop.

He took a run of a mile or so up the river, and then back to the shop, greatly satisfied with the result, having fitted up a boat for less than half what a craft of the cheapest kind would have cost him had he bought it at retail.

He tied his boat up, covered it over and told the foreman that he intended to leave it there for a day or so, and would then call for it.

"Looks to me as if you had a pretty good boat, Mr. Sheldon," said the foreman. "I saw you going up the river. You made a good ten-mile gait, I shouldn't wonder."

"Yes, and I can do better yet," said Jack, smiling. "I was just warming her up a bit. She'll do better when she gets seasoned."

All this time Jack had said nothing to Percival about his boat, which certainly did not look like a made-over affair now that she was painted and decked over, had her lights and all her appurtenances, an engine in her hold and a flagstaff at her bow, meaning to give his friend a surprise.

The day before they were to leave the Academy and go into camp on the river Percival asked Jack if he had secured his boat yet, and added:

"I have mine, and she is a beauty, cost me three hundred dollars, but it's worth all that."

"Mine did not cost me a hundred," said Jack, "and she is sixteen feet long, and makes good speed. I'll have her down to-morrow when we go to camp. She is in a machine shop in Riverton, and it will be easy enough to take her down to our quarters."

"So you have one, eh?" exclaimed Dick. "Where did you buy it? You've been very quiet about it. Did you send to the city for it?"

"No, I got everything around here, as I said I would, fixed it up myself from one thing or another, but I don't think you'd know it, for she is like a new boat."

"And you did all the work on her yourself?"

"Certainly," laughed Jack. "It is nothing new for me to wear overalls and a jumper, and get my hands greasy. I can wash them."

"The first time I saw you it was in overalls. Dress doesn't make a boy. I believe you'd look all right in anything. But I'd like to see the boat now, Jack, and not wait till to-morrow."

"Well, I don't mind showing her to you, Dick, so if you will get out your runabout we'll go down and I'll give you a trip on the river."

"To be sure I will," replied Percival eagerly. "Come along."

CHAPTER II

TRYING OUT THE NEW BOAT

In half an hour the two boys were at the wharf of the machine shop, and Jack was showing his new acquisition to Percival, whose delight could hardly be expressed in words.

"Why, I say, Jack, she looks as if she had just been turned out of the shops. Why, she's a beauty and no mistake. And you did all the work on her yourself?"

"I did not build the boat, Dick, but I fixed her up, caulked, painted, and decked her over forward, put the rail around the standing room, and put in the seats, installed the engine, set the propeller, and got her in the shape you see her now. She's all right?"

"All right? Well, I should say she was. I'd never believe that you hadn't just got her brand new from the shop. No wonder you get along, Jack. A fellow who shows a knack for doing things that you do and goes ahead in spite of all obstacles is bound to get on. Come on, let me see how she can go. My boat is a lot fancier than yours, but I doubt if she can make the same speed or last as long. Come ahead, get aboard!"

The boys got on board, and Jack took his seat, started his engine, took the tiller and glided out upon the river, and then down toward the railroad station, Percival noting the speed, the smoothness with which everything worked, and the apparent ease with which Jack managed it all, as though he had always been used to such things.

"You're doing fine, Jack," he chuckled. "I suppose you can go faster if you like. Will you let her out a bit?"

"Wait till I get away from the railroad station and the docks, Dick. I'll have a clear way before me in a little while, and then I can show off, but just now I'd rather take it easier."

"H'm! you take it easy enough as it is. Why, one would think that you had been used to motorboats all your life."

"Not quite as long as that, Dick," with a smile. As they were passing the railroad station they saw two big boys with not very prepossessing faces standing on the wharf near a motor-boat moored alongside, one of them, the biggest and most disagreeable looking, saying in a loud voice and with a sneer which seemed habitual with him, as in fact it was, his conversation being directed at the boys in the boat:

"Huh! Percival has hired Sheldon to run his boat for him. It's all he's good for, and Dick don't know any more about boats than a cat."

"Gets him to run his auto, too," said the other. "He'd drive Dick's carriage if he had one. Blacks his boots and brushes his clothes, too, I'll bet. He's nothing but a valet anyhow."

Percival flushed crimson at these insults to Jack, the boys being two of the most disliked in the Academy, and said hotly:

"I'll come and throw you two brutes in the river if you say any more. Because Jack Sheldon had to work you think he is no good, but he has you fellows skinned, in studies and in everything else. You never did any work in your lives, you're too——-"

"Don't answer them, Dick," said Jack quietly, heading for the middle of the river. "It won't do any good, and they'll talk all the more. I don't mind it, and neither should you."

"Come and chuck us in the river, why don't you?" jeered the first of the boys on shore, Peter Herring by name, and the chief bully of the school. "You daren't! You're afraid of wetting your pretty clothes. Yah! what an old tub! You'll never get back with that scow!"

"I'd like to thrash them!" sputtered Percival, who was of an impulsive disposition. "I'm sorry that they are going to be with us this summer, but I guess their fathers think they are better off with the doctor to keep them in check than they would be sporting away their money at fashionable summer resorts."

"We do not have to be with them any more than we can help, Dick," said Jack quietly, managing his boat in the deeper water and in a stronger current as well as he did nearer shore. "They like to stir you up, and you only please them the more when you answer them."

"If Pete Herring and Ernest Merritt think they can shut me up they are mistaken," growled Percival. "They are getting ready for a good thrashing and they'll get it. I am not the only Hilltop boy who is ready to give it to them. Here comes a steamer, Jack."

"Yes, I see her," said the other quietly. "I will look out for her."

One of the big river steamers was coming up, but Jack kept far enough away from her and managed his head so that her wash did not affect him, and the boat passed without causing him any trouble.

"That was well done, Jack," said Percival when the boat was well up the river, and Jack went in nearer shore. "I would not be afraid to trust myself in any boat with you. Run 'em before, have you?"

"Not this sort, Dick, but a boat is a boat whether you run her by gas or pull the oars or have sails. You must look out for yourself."

"And that's just what you do. I suppose that was their boat that they were looking at? Must have cost something."

"Yes, it looked like it," carelessly. "You don't have to spend a lot of money to get fun out of a boat, however. Some fellows' boats cost them about fifty cents a mile, but this won't."

"H'm! I must look out that mine does not," laughed Dick. "I am a great fellow for spending money. Guess if I had to earn it I'd be more careful of it. That's what the governor is always saying, but I get it just the same."

When the boys were on their way back to the wharf they met Herring and Merritt in the motorboat they had seen, Herring shouting out with his usual sneer and a contemptuous look:

"We'll race you for ten dollars, Percival, if you think you can trust your helper. Two to one we'll beat you hands down."

"This happens not to be my boat," said Percival, "and I would not race with you if it was."

"Ah, go on! You can't make us believe that Sheldon can earn money to buy a motor-boat by picking fruit!"

Jack did not say anything, and the others turned and came after them so as to force them into a race.

"You could beat them, couldn't you, Jack?" asked Percival in a low tone, so as not to be heard by the others.

"Yes, but I am not going to race with them."

"They will try to beat you. Don't let them do it."

"I shall pay no attention to them, Dick," quietly.

"Yes, but Jack, I should hate to have them pass us. They'd never grow tired of telling it all over the Academy."

"Let them," said Jack, keeping on at the same steady speed, and making for the wharf.

Herring, who evidently owned the boat, put her to her speed so as to pass Jack, and Merritt shouted derisively as they drew nearer:

"We'll give you a tow, you fellows!"

The ferry boat running from Riverton to the town on the other side of the river had just put out, and was coming on at a good gait, blowing her whistle to warn the smaller boats to keep out of the way.

Jack went on across her bow with plenty of room to spare, but Herring slowed up and caught her wash, his boat dancing and rocking in the liveliest fashion, taking in water and causing both him and Merritt to shout and go into a panic.

They turned and took in more water, and Merritt, jumping up excitedly, waving his arms and scolding both Herring and the steamer captain, suddenly lost his balance and fell into the river.

"He can swim, can't he?" asked Jack, seeing the accident.

"Yes, and there are other boats on the river. Let them pick the fellow up. Serves him right, anyhow. He ought to keep still in a boat."

Merritt speedily came up, swam to the boat and tried to clamber aboard, Herring shouting at him and warning him off.

"Get out, you'll upset me!" he shouted. "Why didn't you keep still? You're as clumsy as a cow in a boat, you are. Get out of here, or I'll hit you! Keep away, I tell you!"

"There is a rowboat coming," said Percival, turning his head. "He will be all right, but he'll have to go back to the Academy in wet clothes. No danger of catching cold now, but he'll be a sight all the same, and serves him just right."

Herring kept on, but made for the railroad wharf, while the rowboat that Dick had seen took in Merritt, and shortly landed him at one of the docks along the river.

By this time the boys had reached the dock of the machine shops and Jack tied up, covered his engine and walked up to the street with Percival, the latter saying:

"It will be like those fellows to say that we were the cause of Merritt's going overboard. They did not pass us at any rate."

"Let them talk," laughed Jack. "Talk costs nothing, and won't hurt us."

The boys went to the office of the News where Jack gave the editor a few little items, writing them out on the typewriter, Percival looking on in great admiration, although he had seen Jack write before.

"One would think you had been born at a typewriter, Jack," he said. "Now I could not do that. The very noise of the thing would bother me and then, having that bell ring every few seconds would get on my nerves."

"Don't listen to it, Dick. You don't mind the chug of an auto or of a motor-boat, do you? This is not nearly as bad."

"Well, no, I suppose not, but I don't see how you can think with that thing making such a clatter. It would drive all the thoughts out of my head in a minute. None too many there, to start with!"

Leaving the office at length they came upon Herring on the main street, his late companion not being with him.

"You fouled us!" growled the bully. "I'd have passed you in another second. You'll have to pay for Erne's clothes and his doctor's bills, too. He's taken an awful cold. It'll cost you something, let me tell you."

Just then Merritt himself, in a ready made suit of clothes came out of a hotel on the corner, the boys seeing him before he saw them or Herring got sight of him.

"He does not seem to have suffered any," said Percival in a whisper.

"No, he has bought another suit of clothes, and does not appear to suffer from colds or influenza or any of those things," laughed Jack.

"Hello, Pete, why didn't you wait?" Merritt called out, and then Herring saw him and he saw the boys.

"Huh! you made me fall into the river!" Merritt snorted, "and I had to buy a suit of clothes. You'll have to pay for them."

"And for the doctor's prescription?" said Percival pointedly, for the bully's breath smelled of something stronger than milk or lemonade. "Spirits may be good to prevent a chill, Merritt, but you want to be careful how you use them."

"Come on, Pete," snarled Merritt, turning red. "They aren't worth wasting time on," and the bullies went one way while Jack and Dick went another.

"There won't be any trouble, Dick," said Jack.

"No, I don't think there will"

CHAPTER III

EVIL INTENTIONS THWARTED