consciousness of defeat, and dreaded, the hints he was sure to receive
whenever he should bully any of his companions, that he had a score
still unsettled with Sam Hardwicke. He knew that he was a coward, and
that the other boys had found it out, and he almost groaned as he lay
there in the silence and darkness, meditating revenge.

A little after midnight he got up silently and crept along the river
bank to the clump of bushes where Sam lay soundly sleeping. His first
impulse was to jump upon the sleeper and fight him with an unfair
advantage, but he was not yet free from the restraining influence of
Sam's eye and voice so recently brought to bear upon him.

No, he dared not attack Sam even with so great an advantage. He must
injure him secretly as he had determined to do.

Creeping along upon all-fours, he felt about for Sam's boots, and
finding them at last, was just about to move away with them when Sam
turned over.

Jake sank down into the sand and listened, his heart beating and the
sweat standing in great drops on his forehead. Sam did not move again,
however, but seemed still to sleep. After waiting a long time Jake
crept away noiselessly, as he had come.

Slipping down over the low sand bank he stood by the river's edge with
the boots in his hand.

"Now," he muttered to himself, "I guess I'll be even with 'Captain
Sam.' By the time he marches a day or two barefoot with that game foot
o' his'n, I guess he'll begin to wish he hadn't been quite so sassy."