ANOTHER CLAIMANT FOR THE WATCH
The boys made their way down to the mouth of the kill, and out upon
the river, no more being said concerning what they had heard until
they were on the river gliding down stream.
"That must have been the nurse you saw last night," said Dick.
"Yes, but I don't know the man. He must be a bad character."
"Decidedly. There is one thing I cannot make out, though. How
did that watch get in your pocket?"
"I don't know myself unless the girl slipped it in during the short
time I saw her. It was evidently not passed from hand to hand as
we thought. The girl had it, but I cannot see that any one else did.
I am as much in the dark as ever."
"And we still have to learn who it was who gave you a bad reputation
to the detective. He won't tell."
"He may not know," rejoined Jack musingly. "I don't care very much.
My reputation does not depend upon what he says nor upon what some
of the boys here may say. I have enough friends among the boys of
Hilltop, and the faculty, not to mind the rest."
"True enough, Jack. Hello! there are some of those fellows now
looking for a race if not trouble."
Herring and Merritt just now appeared in their boat off the railroad
dock, and waited till Jack and Percival came up when Herring shouted:
"Come on if you want to race. We'll meet you on the way back."
"Race 'em, Jack, just to show them you can beat 'em!" whispered
Dick hoarsely.
"No, Dick, I won't," said Jack with emphasis. "I'll race any one
else for the fun of it, but I will not race with those fellows."
Herring started off at a good pace, expecting that Jack would follow,
and when they had a good lead, Jack having turned and gone up the
river, Billy Manners and young Smith in the latter's boat set off
after them.
"We'll give you a race, Pete!" shouted Billy. "Whoop her up, J.W.,
and see how we'll leave 'em behind!"
Young Smith was managing the boat and doing it well, and now,
anxious to show off, he shot ahead, and soon began to gain on the
other boat.
"You can watch the fun even if you don't race, Jack," chuckled
Percival. "Turn around, old man, and follow."
"I don't mind that," said Jack, "and if anything should happen to
either Billy or to J.W., we will be on hand to help them."
Young Smith was putting his boat to its paces, and as Jack turned to
follow had nearly reached the leading boat.
"Go ahead if you are going!" shouted Billy Manners with a laugh,
greatly enjoying the excitement. "Chuck us a line and we'll tow you."
"Huh! you can't beat anything!" shouted Merritt.
"Let's see you beat us!" snarled Herring, forging ahead.
Young Smith put on a spurt and came on behind at a swift pace,
shortly being even with Herring.
"Watch 'em, Jack!" exclaimed Dick excitedly. "I'd give a dollar
to see young Jesse W. beat those fellows, yes, five. I hope he'll
keep it up."
The boy did keep it up, for in a few minutes he passed Herring
and Merritt, and gained a good lead on them, much to Billy's delight.
The joker laughed and shouted, and seemed greatly to enjoy the fun,
while the younger boy kept up his speed and increased the lead,
Jack following till a bend in the river hid the two boys in the
first boat from sight.
He would not pass Herring and Merritt, but went across the river
where he could get sight of young Smith, who was going on at a good
rate, Herring trying his best to reach him, but in vain.
"That's the best yet," laughed Percival uproariously. "Beaten
by little Jesse W. Smith, and those fellows claim to have the
fastest boat on the river. I think they will have less to say now."
"Probably Herring will say that there was something the matter with
his boat, and yet he was ready to race with us just a moment before.
He'll get out of it somehow, you'll see. It's just like him."
Herring did not overtake the other boys, and they were ashore some
little time ahead of him, Jack coming along leisurely and letting
Herring land first.
"Did you see that?" asked Billy in great glee when Jack came ashore.
"We won't hear any more boasting from that quarter I guess."
"We didn't have enough gasolene to go fast," growled Herring, who
came up at that moment. "We got out without knowing it. We'll
race you for ten dollars to-morrow."
"Oh, we are satisfied," chuckled Billy, while Percival looked
significantly at Jack, and said:
"What did I tell you, Jack? A poor excuse is better than none."
Jack said nothing, and he and Percival went off into the woods.
Within a short time of the supper hour when the boys returned they
were told by Bucephalus that the doctor wished to see them, and
they went at once to the cottage where they found a well-dressed
stranger talking with the principal.
"This is the young gentleman who found the watch," said Dr. Wise.
"Will you describe it to him?"
"It is a lady's watch," said the other slowly, and in well modulated
tones. "It was a present to my wife, and, of course, I am sorry to
lose it, and will give a good reward for its return. It was stolen
from the house where I live a few weeks ago, and I have been trying
to find it ever since. I did succeed in tracing the man whom I
suspected of stealing it, but when he was arrested the watch was not
in his possession. I saw an advertisement in the paper only this
afternoon, which made me think that perhaps this might be the watch
I am in search of."
Jack looked closely at the man who did not have the marks of a bad
character anywhere, being well dressed, well spoken, and evidently
a man of easy means and considerable culture.
There was something about him, nevertheless, that made Jack think
he was not what he seemed, and he tried to think what it was and to
place him in his mind.
"Will you describe the watch, please?"
"Certainly, with the greatest of pleasure," and the man proceeded
to give an accurate description of the watch, not omitting the
slightest detail, giving the name of the maker, the size, the
number of diamonds on the case, and, in fact, everything about it.
"Number, please?" said Jack, still looking fixedly at the man.
"You will know the number of the watch, of course? Persons who
own valuable watches always make a record of the number."
"The number?" said the other. "Oh, yes, to be sure. I have it
in my pocket-book. The rest of the description is accurate, is it?"
"Let me hear the number," said Jack quietly. "Two watches may
be exactly alike, but have different numbers. I have not said
that your description is correct. You have the number?"
"Why, of course!" said the other somewhat impatiently, and all
at once a light broke in upon Jack.
The man was the one he had heard, but had not seen, talking with
the foreign nurse maid on the bank of the kill earlier in the
afternoon.
He had tried to place the man's voice, but while he talked in low,
pleasant tones, with a good inflection, he was puzzled, knowing
and yet not knowing it.
The instant that the man spoke in impatient, angry tones, such
as he had used on the bank of the kill, Jack recognized him, and
he wondered that he had not done so before.
The man took a slip of paper from his pocketbook, and read out a
number written in pencil, the exact number of the watch which Jack
had found.
"Is that correct?" he asked Jack with a certain tone of triumph.
"Perfectly so," the boy answered.
"And the description is correct also?"
"Absolutely."
"Ah, I am glad of that. I mentioned a reward a few minutes ago, and
I am perfectly willing to pay it. Will a hundred dollars be
sufficient?"
"It would be more than ample in the event of my having the actual
owner of the watch to deal with," in a quiet tone.
The man flushed, glared angrily at the boy, and cried excitedly:
"What do you mean by that, you young scoundrel? Do you dare to
say that I am not---" and then he stopped short, laughed, and
said in his former pleasant tones: "but this is a joke, of course."
"No, it is not, it is the truth," said the boy. "Dr. Wise, don't
give it to him. He is not the real owner of the watch. Have
you forgotten your conversation with Gabrielle this afternoon?"
to the man himself. "Well, I have not, nor has my friend, and we
both heard it. It was on the banks of a little kill that runs into
the Hudson a few miles from here, and about a mile up from the river."
Before the boy had finished the man uttered an inarticulate mutter,
and flushed deeply, dashing out of the room as the sentence was
completed.