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