“You could have consulted me, at any rate,” said the doctor.  “I think I am best competent to judge of the characters of the boys put in my charge.  Good morning, sir.  Boys, the bugle has sounded.”

The detective went away in a hurry, looking a good deal crestfallen, the boys getting into line with the rest, this operation preventing Percival from giving the man the send off that he had meant to give him.

“I’d like to know where that fellow got his information about you, Jack,” he said to his friend when they were seated at table.

“I don’t care to know, Dick, so long as the doctor speaks well of me,” Jack returned.

“Well, I’d like to know just the same.  There are some boys here who would say all they could against you, and the man may have seen them before he saw the doctor, and heard what they had to say.  You could see that he was prejudiced from the start.”

“Yes, he presupposed my guilt before giving me a chance to speak for myself, Dick.  However, it is fortunate that I have a good reputation.”

“Which is what some of the Hilltop boys have not.  I am not mentioning any names,” and Percival began eating his soup with a good appetite.

An hour or two after dinner Jack asked Percival to go up the river in his boat, having one or two errands in town to do, and wanting company.

Dick was glad to go in Jack’s boat, as the boy managed it so well, and he would have very little to do himself.

Finishing his errands in town Jack was proceeding down the river when, with a sudden impulse, which he could not explain, he said to Dick: 

“Suppose we go up the creek a bit.  The tide is that way now, and we shall have water enough, and it will not be against us.”

“You don’t want to go to the Academy, do you, Jack?” asked Percival.  “You can run in as far as the ravine.  You came down that way once.”

There was quite a deep ravine on the bill where the Academy was located, from which a turbulent creek or kill ran to the river, and Jack had once had a tumble into this, and had made his way to the little station at the foot of the hill along its banks, and, incidentally, had discovered a considerable sum of money stolen from a bank in Riverton and hidden there.

“No, I don’t want to go all the way, Dick,” answered Jack with a smile, “but we might go a short way up.”

They put into the little kill, and went beyond the business part of the town, finally getting into the woods and finding banks of some height on either side.

The kill was full, and the current set their way, so that they had no trouble and kept on for a mile beyond the town, finding themselves in a most wild and picturesque spot, most of the time in deep shadow, and hearing no sounds except those of the woods, now and then seeing a drowsy bird on a bough or hearing the low hum of insects as they flew past.

“You’ll get to the station before long, Jack,” said Percival at length.  “I think the tide is beginning to turn.  We get considerable of it even here.  Do you think-----”