That was not enough, however, and he raised an alarm and brought out Bucephalus and a number of the servants, and said: 

“Somebody’s been trying to monkey with Jack Sheldon’s boat.  There ought to be a watch kept.  Other camps have sentinels, and this should have one.  Stay on watch to-night, boys, and I’ll give you a dollar apiece.”

“A’right, sah,” said Bucephalus with a broad grin.  “So dey tried to hu’t Mistah Jack’s boat, did dey?  Wha’ yo’ doin’ in it you’se’f, sah?  Was yo’ goin’ to sleep in it?”

“Me?” exclaimed the little fellow indignantly.  “No indeed.  I was looking over the engine to get the hang of it.  Jack told me I might.  Go to sleep nothing!  If I had been asleep I would not have caught these rascals at their dirty work.”

“But yo’ didn’ cotch dem, sah, dey done runned away.”

By this time Jack, Percival, Harry and Arthur, and a number of the boys, aroused by the noise, had come down to see what was the matter.

Young Smith turned his light on the bottom of the boat, it having been drawn up on the beach, and saw the mark of the auger quite plainly.

It had not gone in deep enough to do any harm, and what, hole there was could be caulked with very little trouble.

The rascals had dropped their tools in their hurry, and Jack picked these up and examined them carefully.

“I can’t tell where these were bought,” he said to Dick, “and many of the boys have tools just like them.  I will keep them for further use.”

“Wait till some one wants to borrow something like this,” said Percival, “and then we may find out something.  It was a dirty trick, whoever did it, and I wish that Jesse W. had seen them plainer.”

“They were big fellows,” said young Smith quietly to Jack and Percival, “but there are a good many big fellows among the boys, and that does not tell us much.  I only wish I could have seen their faces.”

“Well, I am glad you drove them away,” said Jack.  “They might have done considerable damage.  Still, it is likely that I would have seen the hole when I went to put the boat in the water unless they plugged it up with sand, which they might have done.”

“If any of our boys are doing things like this, which I would be very sorry to know,” added Percival, “we are in a pretty bad way.  If it was done by strangers we shall have to set a guard at night.”

“H’m! standing guard duty is not very pleasant,” said Billy Manners dolefully.  “I am too fond of sleeping to do that.”

“Nobody will like it,” rejoined Dick, “but we shall have to do it if this sort of thing continues.  I hate to think that any of our fellows are mean enough to do it.”

There were many of the boys who thought that there were some of their number who were just mean enough, but no one was accused, the matter being too serious an affair for one to make charges unless they could be proved conclusively.