Produced by Jim Ludwig
by Cyril Burleigh
CHAPTERS
I. Getting a Motor-Boat
II. Trying Out the New Boat
III. Evil Intentions Thwarted
IV. The Boat Affair Unsettled
V. An Alarm in the Night
VI. The Mystery of the Gold Watch
VII. More Mystery about the Watch
VIII. What Jack and Dick Overheard
IX. Another Claimant for the Watch
X. Disappointments
XI. The Cat Out of the Bag
XII. The Owner of the Watch Found
XIII. The Prize Poem
XIV. Billy's Nocturnal Adventure
XV. Fun on the River
XVI. The Prizes Awarding
XVII. A Puzzling Matter Settled
XVIII. The Departure of the Bullies
XIX. The Troubles of the Surveying Party
XX. Getting at the Bottom of Things
XXI. What Appearing on Billy's Plates
XXII. Everything is Settled
"If you are going with the boys on the river, Jack, you will haveto 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 whatyour 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 tobuy you a boat just the same."
"No doubt you would, and so would Jesse W. and Harry and Arthur and adozen other boys, but I am going to get one myself, and it will notcost me much either, and will give me all the service I want. Wedon't go into camp under a week, and that will give me all the timeI 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 outyou need not scare her all over the neighborhood so that everybodywill 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 satisfiedwith that. I'll have the boat, don't you be afraid."
The two boys were two of what were called the Hilltop boys, beingstudents at an Academy situated in the highlands of the Hudson on topof a hill about five miles back from the river, as the crow flies, butconsiderably more than that by the road.
Jack Sheldon was a universal favorite in the school, and although hehad been obliged to work to pay for his schooling at the start he wasnot thought any the less of on that account.
Two or three strokes of fortune had given him sufficient money tomore than pay for his education, and to provide his widowed motherwith many extra comforts in addition, so that now he could give h