Copyright, 1906
By L. C. Page & Company
(INCORPORATED)

All rights reserved

First Impression, August, 1906

COLONIAL PRESS
Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.
Boston. U. S. A.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Down the River 1

II. The Collision 15

III. A Rescue Unrewarded 28

IV. Squire Brackett Discomfited 39

V. Harvey Gets Bad News 56

VI. Out to the Fishing-grounds 73

VII. Near the Reefs 91

VIII. Little Tim a Strategist 108

IX. Harry Brackett Plays a Joke 126

X. Mr. Carleton Arrives 143

XI. Squire Brackett Is Puzzled 160

XII. The Surprise Sets Sail Again 180

XIII. Stormy Weather 192

XIV. The Man in the Cabin 206

XV. Mr. Carleton Goes Away 224

XVI. Searching the Viking 239

XVII. A Rainy Night 259

XVIII. Two Secrets Discovered 278

XIX. The Loss of the Viking 298

XX. Fleeing in the Night 318

XXI. A Timely Arrival 336

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

The Crew of the Viking Meet Skipper Martel (Frontispiece) 98

“The boom brought up with a smashing blow against the Viking’s starboard quarter” 25

“‘Nonsense,’ roared the infuriated Squire. ‘He can sail a boat as good as you can’” 54

“‘Here, that’s our boat,’ cried Joe. ‘You’ve got no right to touch it’” 112

“‘Just tell them that you heard me say I was going back to Boston’” 236

“‘Get out of here,’ exclaimed Mr. Carleton, sharply” 335

THE RIVAL CAMPERS
AFLOAT

CHAPTER I.
DOWN THE RIVER

It was a pleasant afternoon in the early part of the month of June. The Samoset River, winding down prettily through hills and sloping farm lands to the bay of the same name, gleamed in the sunlight, now with a polished surface like ebony in some sheltered inlet, or again sparkling with innumerable points of light where its surface was whipped up into tiny waves by a brisk moving wind.

There had been rain for a few days before, and the weather was now clearing, with a smart westerly breeze that had come up in the morning, but was swinging in slightly to the southward. The great white cloud-banks had mostly passed on, and these were succeeded at present by swiftly moving clumps of smaller and lighter clouds, that drifted easily across the sky, like the sails below them over the surface of the water.