Project Gutenberg's The Hilltop Boys on the River, by Cyril Burleigh

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Title: The Hilltop Boys on the River

Author: Cyril Burleigh

Release Date: July 19, 2004 [EBook #12943]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HILLTOP BOYS ON THE RIVER ***

Produced by Jim Ludwig

THE HILLTOP BOYS ON THE RIVER

by Cyril Burleigh

CONTENTS

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

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