The Hilltop Boys on the River | Page 4

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