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[Illustration: "WE WIN! WE WIN! RIVERPORT TAKES THE RACE!"
_Fred Fenton on the Crew_ _Page_ 196]
FRED FENTON ON THE CREW
Or
The Young Oarsmen of Riverport School
By
ALLEN CHAPMAN
OF "FRED FENTON THE PITCHER," "FRED FENTON IN LINE,"
"TOM FAIRFIELD SERIES," "THE CHUMS SERIES,"
"BOYS OF PLUCK SERIES," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
BOOKS FOR BOYS
BY ALLEN CHAPMAN
FRED FENTON ATHLETIC SERIES
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
FRED FENTON THE PITCHER
FRED FENTON IN THE LINE
FRED FENTON ON THE CREW
FRED FENTON ON THE TRACK
TOM FAIRFIELD SERIES
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
TOM FAIRFIELD'S SCHOOLDAYS
TOM FAIRFIELD AT SEA
TOM FAIRFIELD IN CAMP
TOM FAIRFIELD'S PLUCK AND LUCK
THE DAREWELL CHUMS SERIES
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
THE DAREWELL CHUMS
THE DAREWELL CHUMS IN THE CITY
THE DAREWELL CHUMS IN THE WOODS
THE DAREWELL CHUMS ON A CRUISE
THE DAREWELL CHUMS IN A WINTER CAMP
BOYS OF PLUCK SERIES
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
THE YOUNG EXPRESS AGENT
TWO BOY PUBLISHERS
MAIL ORDER FRANK
A BUSINESS BOY'S PLUCK
THE YOUNG LAND AGENT
CUPPLES & LEON CO. PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
Copyrighted 1913, by
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
FRED FENTON ON THE CREW
Printed in U. S. A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. The Finger of Suspicion 1
II. The Tricky Canoe 9
III. A Boat Club Meeting 17
IV. In Camp on the Mohunk 26
V. Hoofs and Horns 33
VI. A Sudden Awakening 41
VII. Ice Cold Waters 49
VIII. A Surprise 56
IX. A Lucky Win 63
X. Fred's Home Coming 71
XI. News From Over Sea 79
XII. Bristles Has an Idea 87
XIII. A Call for Help 96
XIV. The Missing Opals Again 104
XV. Fred's Brave Stand 113
XVI. The Trial Spin 121
XVII. Snagged and Wrecked 130
XVIII. Lying in Wait 138
XIX. Nipped in the Bud 147
XX. In the Hollow Oak 156
XXI. A Plan to Catch the Thief 165
XXII. Telling the Good News 173
XXIII. The Start of the Race 181
XXIV. A Great Victory 189
XXV. Bright Skies 198
FRED FENTON ON THE CREW
CHAPTER I
THE FINGER OF SUSPICION
"Hello! there, Bristles!"
"Hello! yourself, Fred Fenton!"
"Why, what ails you this fine summer morning, Bristles? You don't look
as jolly as you might."
"Well, I was only waiting to see if you cared to speak to me, Fred."
"Why in the wide world shouldn't I, when you're one of my chums,
Bristles Carpenter?"
Andy Carpenter was known far and wide around the town of Riverport as
"Bristles," on account of the way in which his mop of hair stood
upright most of the time, much after the manner of the quills on a
fretful porcupine.
Usually he was a very good-natured sort of a chap, one of the
"give-and-take" kind, so universally liked among schoolboys. But, on
this particular early summer morning, with the peaceful Mohunk river
running close by, and all Nature smiling, Bristles look glum and
distressed, just as his friend Fred Fenton had declared.
"You haven't heard the latest news then?" remarked the boy with the
thick head of stiff, wiry hair; and he made a grimace as he spoke.
"If you mean anything about _you_, then I haven't, for a fact," Fred
replied, his wonder deepening into astonishment; for he now saw that
Bristles was not playing any kind of a joke, as he had at first
suspected.
"Huh! didn't know you had an awful _thief_ for a chum, did you, Fred?"
the other went on, laying emphasis on that one suggestive word, and
frowning.
"Rats! what sort of stuff are you giving me now, anyway, Bristles?"
"Well, some people think that way, Fred; you ask Miss Alicia Muster,
f'rinstance," grumbled the other, shaking his head dolefully.
"But she's your rich old aunt, Bristles!" cried Fred, more surprised
than ever.
"That doesn't make any difference," complained the boy who was in
trouble; "she believes I took 'em, all the same; 'cause, you see, I
just _happened_ to drop in to see her twice inside the last week, worse
luck for me; and, Fred, each time one of 'em disappeared the funniest
way ever."
"Go on and tell me what you mean; I can only guess that your aunt has
met with some sort of loss. But why should she try to lay it on you,
Bristles?"
"Huh! you don't know how good that makes me feel, Fred, just to think
that one feller isn't goin' to believe me a thief," the other boy went
on, drawing a long breath. "Why, even over at our house I seem to
notice 'em all lookin' kinder suspicious-like at me; just as if they
couldn't quite make up their minds whether I might 'a been tempted to
take 'em or not."
"Take what?" demanded Fred, determined to learn the cause of his chum's
trouble.
"Why," Bristles went on, "don't you remember that time I took you over
to see my queer old maiden aunt, who's got the rheumatics so bad, and
lives in the big house all alone with a colored woman, and all her
silly pets,--cats, squawkin' crows she cares for like they might be
humans; and with that big bulldog chained under her window?"
"Sure, I remember all that; keep going, now you've got started?" Fred
broke in.
"And don't you remember her showin' us that collection of pretty stones
she said were opals from a Mexican mine she had an interest in long
ago?" the other asked, almost breathlessly.
"That's right, Bristles; and you said they just about caught your eye
the worst kind," Fred observed. "Fact is, the old lady seemed to be
tickled because you showed such a fancy for those milky stones that
looked like 'moonlight,' as she called it."
"Gee! you remember too much, Fred," complained the other, with a
grimace. "Because you see, it was that silly remark of mine that's gone
and got me into a peck of trouble. I really didn't care so much for the
things as I let on; but you know, my aunt is as rich as all get out;
and it's kind of the fashion over to our house to make her feel good
when we can. That was why, I reckon, I made out to admire her
collection of opals like I did, though they were pretty enough. Wish
now I'd kept my tongue between my teeth; or that it'd been you who took
that notion to make out you was interested in 'em."
"And you mean she's lost some of the opals; is that it?" asked Fred.
"Two of 'em gone, she told me yesterday afternoon, when mother sent me
over to take her a cake she'd made," Bristles continued.
"And did she really have the nerve to accuse you of stealing them,
Bristles?"
"Well, hardly that," replied the other boy, gritting his teeth; "if she
had, I reckon I'd a flamed right out, and told her what I thought of
old maids that had vinegar natures--I've heard my mom say that, though
she told me never to repeat it to Aunt Alicia for anything. You see she
acted like she suspected me."
"Oh! and you felt bad on that account, eh?" questioned Fred.
"She told me she'd just been saying to Sallie Kemper, when she was in,
that it was the _queerest thing ever_ that twice her lovely little
opals disappeared when I visited her on my own account. And Fred, you
know as well as I do what Sallie is."
"Sure I do," returned the other, promptly; "I hadn't been in Riverport
a great many moons when I learned that she was considered the biggest
gossip in the place."
"That's right," Bristles went on. "Sallie went around right away, and
told how the rich Miss Muster suspected her own nephew of actually
taking some of her beautiful and valuable jewels. It kept gettin'
bigger as it was told from one to another, and I just guess my sister
Kate brought it home. Mom asked me if I'd done anything wrong, and I
said point blank that I'd sooner cut my hand off than steal Aunt
Alicia's opals, or touch anything she owned."
"Well, didn't that end it?" asked Fred, who had troubles of his own,
and could feel for his chum.
"Oh! nothin' more was said; but I saw mom and pop talkin' together
after supper; and when I went out I just know they rooted all around in
my room, 'cause things was upset. But Fred, it's just _awful_ to feel
everybody lookin' at you with a question in their eyes. I'll never be
happy again till I find out what did become of those silly jewels of my
aunt's."
"Oh! I wouldn't worry so much as that," counselled Fred. "Perhaps by
now she's found where she put the things. Cheer up, Bristles, and think
of the great times ahead of us boys of the Riverport school, with that
jolly shell coming to us, and the river in fine shape for rowing this
summer."
As they walked along the bank of the Mohunk, with Fred trying to cheer
his companion up, a few words concerning the young fellows might be in
place.
Fred Fenton had come to Riverport within the year. He lived with his
father and mother, together with three smaller sisters, in a cottage
not far removed from the bank of the river.
Mr. Fenton was employed by a concern in the town. He had at first been
connected with a large manufacturing firm in Mechanicsburg, which was
located some three miles up the river; but lost his position through
the influence of Squire Lemington, who had a reason for wishing him to
feel the biting pangs of poverty.
An uncle of Fred's had left some valuable property up in Alaska, which
would make the Fentons comfortable if they could only get hold of it.
Unfortunately a big syndicate, with which Sparks Lemington was
connected, pretended to have a claim on this mining property, and was
doing everything possible to keep Mr. Fenton out of it.
An important witness, whose evidence would have undoubtedly proved the
Fentons to be the genuine owners, had been mysteriously carried off.
His name was Hiram Masterson, and he was really a nephew of Sparks
Lemington. Mr. Fenton had gone to the city late in the preceding Fall,
under the belief that the missing witness was found; but arrived too
late, since Hiram had been "shanghaied" aboard a sailing vessel
belonging to the big syndicate, and carried away to unknown seas,
perhaps never to return.
So hope had gradually dwindled down to a very faint spark in the
breasts of the Fentons, though they still refused to utterly give up
dreaming that some day all would be made right.
Fred had soon made many friends among the boys of Riverport, and some
enemies as well. How he became the leading pitcher of the school team,
and played his part in the great games against Paulding and
Mechanicsburg, has been described in the first volume of this series,
entitled "Fred Fenton, the Pitcher; Or, The Rivals of Riverport
School."
The chief enemy of Fred was Buck Lemington, son of the Squire, who had
planned to ruin the Fentons' hopes for fortune. And just how the bully
of the town, taking pattern from his father's usual methods of
procedure, tried to get Fred disgraced, so that he could not play on
the football team that Fall, you will find described in the second
volume called: "Fred Fenton in the Line; Or, The Football Boys of
Riverport School."
During the Winter and early Spring Fred had continued to hold the good
opinions of most of his schoolmates; and with the summer now at hand he
was ready to join with a boy's enthusiasm in the new sports that the
season brought in its train.
Talking earnestly, the two lads were still walking along the edge of
the river some little distance above the town, when, just as they
turned a bend in the stream, they heard a sharp scream, accompanied by
much splashing in the water.
"Listen to that racket, would you, Fred?" cried Bristles, turning
toward his comrade, his face filled with alarm; "as sure as you live,
somebody's fallen into the river, and it sounds like a child, too."
"Come on!" was all Fred said in reply; indeed, even while throwing
these two words over his shoulder he was leaping down the bank of the
Mohunk.