Motor Boat Boys on the St. Lawrence

“Or it may be he just wants to wring the hand of our friend Buster, and tell him, with tears in his eyes, how delighted he was to have him save the day for our team,” and Jack, as he said this, winked at George; for it was a notorious fact that Josh and the fat boy were forever playing pranks on each other, and often saying disagreeable things; that, however, ended in nothing harder than a little froth and bubble, since it was only surface and make-believe animosity after all.

“Don’t you believe it,” declared the hero of the late game, shaking his head in an aggressive way. “Josh was the next batter up, and I just know he thinks I swatted that ball to cheat him out of the glory. For he had his mind made up to send the horsehide over the fence for a home run.”

“Well,” laughed Jack, “never wait to see what the next batter is going to do. When the chance comes you just poke that ball out into deep center, and then roll down to first as fast as you can. Then perhaps he’ll bring you home with his big hit. But Josh is getting here, and we’ll soon know now what ails him.”

“Don’t you go to borrowing trouble too soon?” warned Herb. “I know Josh pretty well, and how he likes to joke. He’s a false alarm, that’s what.”

“But he looks serious enough right now,” said George, with whom the runner was to keep company on this new cruise they had planned; and who, therefore, felt an especial interest in Josh.

The newcomer was a rather slender fellow, taller than any of the others, and the best runner on the team. In times past Josh had been troubled with indigestion; but the month and more spent during their memorable Mississippi cruise had about cured him of this, so that he was looking better than ever before in all his life. That was one reason why his parents were only too glad to allow him the chance of getting in the open again during the coming vacation; for they believed it would be the making of the lad.

Josh stopped running when close to the others, as though husbanding his wind so that he could communicate the news he bore.

“It’s all up, fellows!” he cried, as he finally reached the corner, where the other five gathered around him.

“What do you mean?” asked Jack, anxiously.

“Yes, explain, Josh. What’s up?” demanded George.

“They know where our boats have gone!” gasped Josh, excitedly. “Somebody must have leaked, that’s what. And they’re going to have their new motor boat shipped to the Thousand Islands, too. Now, see what a peck of trouble we’re going to have this summer!”

CHAPTER II – CHUMS, TRIED AND TRUE

“Josh, hold up your hand, and look me in the eye!” said Jack, sternly.

“Oh! you don’t believe me, do you? But I never was more serious in my life!” exclaimed the newcomer, meeting Jack’s look squarely.

“Then I’m sorry, that’s all,” declared the other. “If Clarence Macklin has found out where we expect to cruise this summer, he’ll lie awake nights trying to lay plans how to give us all the trouble he can.”

“How d’ye know all this, Josh?” demanded Nick, rather tremulously.

“I just happened to be near where Clarence and Joe were having their heads together, and the idea came to me to listen. I only thought they were explaining how the game was lost, and I wanted to hear Clarence say how somebody sent a ray of sunlight into his eyes with a pocket mirror, just when he was handing out that ball Buster knocked out in deep center. You know his way, fellows, and how he squirms out of every hole so smoothly?”

“Yes, yes, of course we do, Josh; but go on;” cried Herb.

“Don’t you see you’ve got us keyed up to the breaking pitch? Let loose, and tell what you heard!” exclaimed George, always nervous and anxious to make speed.

“Well, it wasn’t much, but it counted for a heap,” replied the narrator. “About as near as I can remember, and repeat, this was what Clarence said: ‘Never mind, Joe, we’re going to get even soon. Wait till our dandy boat gets to Clayton. Say, mebbe there won’t be a lot of surprised fellows then, as we cut circles around ’em, and make ’em wish they hadn’t blackballed us. You wait and see, that’s all.’”

Various exclamations broke out from the other boys.

“Oh, yes, they must know, all right!” said Herb, bitterly.

“All I can say is it’s mighty queer, after we’ve taken such pains to keep everything a dead secret, so even our folks don’t know yet where we’re going,” Josh continued to say, meaningly.

Somehow or other, as if by mutual arrangement, every eye seemed to be gradually focussed on poor Nick, who turned as red as a turkey cock.

“Oh! yes, look at me, won’t you?” he exclaimed, spluttering more or less as was his habit when unduly excited. “You think I’m the one who leaked, just because I stopped to talk with Clarence the other day on the street, and George saw me. He never even said a single word about boats, but asked me something else. Look all you want too, but I tell you, once for all, that if there was a leak, it didn’t come through me! I never told a single soul!”

“Oh! nobody has accused you, Buster,” said Jack, soothingly, for he was fond of the good-natured fat boy.

“That’s all right, but I guess I’ve got feelings, and I can tell what every one of you is thinking,” the other went on, in an aggrieved tone.

“Just forget it, Buster,” Jack continued, for he knew only too well how the fat boy liked to harp on anything that worried him, and in this way make life miserable for the others of the club. “The mischief is done. Like as not we may never know how it happened. And there’s no need of our bothering our heads now about spilt milk. The question is, shall we change our plans, and go somewhere else this summer?”

“I say no!” exclaimed Herb, immediately and with firmness.

“That’s my case, too,” Josh echoed. “After we’ve made all our fine arrangements, it would be cowardly to back down just because those two mean skunks choose to tag after us and try to give us trouble.”

“Niver give up the ship! Thim’s my sintiments!” observed Jimmie, aggressively. “And I say the same,” remarked Nick. “Sooner or later you’ll find out how they learned our plans, and then you’ll all be sorry for putting it on me, that’s what.”

“Then it seems settled that we make no change,” said Jack, with a stern look on his face; “for I’m of the same opinion as the rest. We’ll go to the St. Lawrence, and if Tricky Clarence and Bully Joe try to upset our plans, they’ll find themselves barking up the wrong tree, that’s all.”

“And so he thinks he’s got a wizard boat that will cut circles all around my Wireless, does he?” said George, with the light of anticipated rivalry in his black eyes. “All right. Perhaps Clarence has got another guess coming. He’ll find me on the job all right, and ready to give him a warm run for his money.”

“When did we start talking seriously for the first time about choosing the Thousand Islands, and the St. Lawrence for our summer outing?” asked Herb, who seemed almost as anxious as Nick to find out the truth concerning the leak.

“I can tell you that,” replied the fat boy, quickly. “It was that afternoon when Jack asked us to stay after school, and meet him in the clubroom for a little talk. Don’t you remember, he read that letter he had from Clayton, the first one; and we soon voted to make the St. Lawrence our cruising ground this summer.”

“Buster is right about that, for I remember it distinctly,” remarked Jack.

“That was the little room in school that Mr. Sparks allows the various clubs and organizations to use when they ask permission – the one on the second floor? Am I right, fellows?” Herb went on.

“Sure ye arre,” declared Jimmie. “Doan’t I just remember that we wint till the door ivery two minutes to say if the inemy would be sphyin’ around in the hall.”

“But there was no sign of them, you also remember that?” observed Jack, quickly.

“Niver a wan,” Jimmie hastened to reply.

“Then it would stand to reason that they didn’t overhear us talking. I know you couldn’t in the next room, for I’ve been in there during recitation, and the wall is dead. I only mention this, because that same day, after I left the rest of you down-town, I found that I’d forgotten a book I needed to study, and hurried back to the school. And I met Clarence coming along the street. He said he had been kept in by Miss Stryker to do a task. But it looks as though the leak could not have been at that time.”

“Somebody must have talked in their sleep,” suggested Josh, humorously.

“Perhaps some one in the post office got on to Jack receiving a letter from Clayton, and writing there,” Herb put in.

“Well, now,” remarked Jack, “there may be something in that idea; though just now I can’t think of anybody in the post office who would be that mean. I know all the clerks, and none of them have ever been thick with either Clarence or Joe.”

“Suppose we give the matter a rest,” said Herb, with an uneasy look toward Nick; for the fat boy was to be his partner during the coming cruise, and he feared lest Buster would get to brooding on the unjust suspicions that had been directed toward him, with the result that he must be forever speaking about it, and suggesting the most astonishing explanations of the riddle.

“Agreed,” Jack replied, readily, falling in with the idea. “After all, the coming of these fellows may add some spice to our trip, who knows.”

It certainly did, as will be made manifest shortly; but just then none of the motor boat boys suspected what a strange series of exciting adventures was to be their portion, all through the decision of their rivals to choose the same cruising grounds for their summer outing, and to be as malicious and troublesome as possible.

Nick seemed to have thrown aside the temporary gloom that had fallen upon him, because of the unjust suspicions of his mates. He was naturally so cheery that trouble and he could never hitch up together for any great length of time.

“If those two cronies do chase after us,” he said, “perhaps the long standing trouble between Joe and myself may be settled. You know we’ve been growling at each other for going on a year now. And some day there’ll be a surprise due him.”

When Nick talked in that vein the others knew he was himself again, and ready to joke. So Jack, pretending to be surprised, went on to remark: