"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:
"Why, Buster, do you mean to say you'd pick on that poor fellow, who has
never been able to whip more than three boys at a time in all his life?
I'm surprised to hear you talk so savagely."
"Oh! well, the thing is brooding, and bound to come off some day. Bully
Joe will go just a little too far, and get his. Why, there was one time,
not so long ago either, when I'd just about made up my mind to lick him
for keeps. And I give you my word, fellows, I'd have wiped up the ground
with him, only that I was grabbed from behind and held back!"
"Wow! listen to the war chief, would you?" exclaimed Josh, pretending to
shrink away from the belligerent fat boy, who was doubling up his pudgy
fists, and assuming a warrior's pose.
"He's sure got on his fighting togs today!" echoed Herb, soothingly.
"Say, Buster," remarked George, when Jack nudged him in the side, "tell
us who was so mean as to grab you that way, and hold you back!"
"Shucks! I just knew you'd never rest till you asked that!" cried the
other, as he pretended to show disgust. "Why, that was Joe, don't you
see!"
At that there was a howl; and Jimmie doubled up like a jack-knife in the
violence of his merriment.
"I can see Joe's finish, if he keeps on trying such tricks," whooped
George.
"Oh!" Buster went on, in a calm manner, "I'll try and be as easy with
him as any one could expect. Perhaps after he's had one good lesson, Joe
may reform. It's keeping bad company that's been his downfall. Clarence
Macklin has oodles of money; and his dad used to be a sporty sort of a
Wall street man they say, when he lived east; so he don't care much what
his hopeful does, so long as he keeps out of jail."
"Well, if he goes on much longer the way he has, I reckon he'll land
there after a bit," Herb remarked, soberly; for he had suffered on
several occasions at the hands of the vindictive Clarence, as was well
known to his chums.
"All right," Jack put in. "And now, if there's nothing further before
the house, I move we adjourn. For one I know I'm as hungry as a bear,
and ready to tackle a good dinner after all that hot work on the
diamond."
"Dinner!" exclaimed Buster, whose one weak point lay in his love of
eating. "Wow! don't you remember what bully good meals we had when we
all got together on that dandy Mississippi trip, and Josh here slung the
pots and pans? He's sure the best cook in seven counties. I hear he's
getting up a book on camp dinners. And right now I subscribe for the
first copy that's printed; if it don't cost over ten cents."
"Just you wait," returned Josh, with one of his wide grins. "It won't be
long now before you'll have to get up and hustle the tin pans and
things, whenever you have that longing for grub steal over you. No
sitting down to the table and cleaning up everything in sight for you
then. It's work before you can eat. Herb is going to keep you down to
brass tacks, ain't you Herb?"
"Oh! Buster and myself expect to get on first rate," the one addressed
hastened to say; for Herb was a lover of peace. "I'm ready to pitch in
and help him out on occasion. Everything is going to be lovely, and the
goose hang high, aboard the good, staunch old _Comfort_, when we sail
the stormy waters of the St. Lawrence, eh, Buster?"
"Well," remarked Josh, as he started away, "anyhow, I'm glad you've
decided to give our friend Buster the upper berth!"
A shout followed after him, and the last glimpse he had of the fat boy,
Buster was shaking both fists in his direction, and pretending to
display tremendous rage, though secretly chuckling with good-natured
laughter. Happy the boy who is so constituted that he can in the best of
humor take a joke that is leveled at himself; and that was Nick
Longfellow to a dot.
The rest of the bunch soon scattered, as their homes lay in various
directions; and this particular corner usually served as a gathering
point as well as the place where they separated.
Jack may have allowed the mystery of the suspected "leak" to crop up in
his active mind from time to time after that; but he knew just how
sensitive Buster really felt over it, and he always religiously
refrained from ever introducing the subject.
Some of the other boys of course must have discussed it as the days
slowly passed; but they too seemed desirous that their fat chum might
not have his feelings further injured, and nothing was said in his
presence. But all the same Buster did not forget, as Herb was fated to
learn to his sorrow.