to walk right away from him. It's a pity you can't get him to bet
on it, but he won't bet on anything."

"No, but Percival might. He likes to spend money. I'll get him to
bet and win a lot from him."

The boys went to bed at the usual time, and before long all the tent
lights were out, only a few of the camp lights being seen, as the moon
was still up and there was light enough for all ordinary purposes.

There was a deep shadow on the bank of the river, however, on account
of the trees and the mountains behind them, and when all was still
Herring and Merritt stole from their tent and hurried toward the shore.

They wore soft shoes, so as not to betray themselves, and were
dressed in dark clothes so as not to be seen readily, having prepared
themselves for any possible emergency.

They had agreed between them that the safest thing to do was to bore
a hole in the bottom of the boat so as to cause it to leak, and they
had provided themselves with augers for the purpose.

Stealing down to the river noiselessly they easily found Jack's boat,
as they thought, and were preparing to bore the hole when suddenly
a voice piped up out of the darkness and from the boat itself:

"Hi! what are you going to do with this boat?"

The voice was that of young Smith who at the next moment stood up and
turned the light of a pocket flash upon them as they hastily beat a