“Herring cannot have paid them anything for what they did,” remarked Percival as they walked back toward the middle of the camp.  “That is like him, to promise them something for a service and then forget all about it.  I don’t believe he ever intended to pay them.”

“That’s nothing new for Pete,” said Billy.  “The man or boy who relies on that fellow keeping his word is going to get left.”

The work was resumed the next morning and progressed rapidly, many of the boys from the camp who were not of the surveying party coming to see how things were getting on.

Then, greatly to the disgust of the Hilltoppers, Peter Herring and some of his cronies came along and stopped to watch the surveyors.

“I thought we would see him before long, Dick,” said Jack in a low tone to Percival.  “He could not stay away.”

“Huh! surveying, are you?” sneered Herring.  “Much you know about such things!  Fine old railroad you fellows could build.”

“I wouldn’t want to ride on it, would you, Pete?” asked Merritt.  “The only time it would go smooth would be when the cars was off the track.”

“I thought you were at Saratoga,” said Percival.

“So I was, but it was too slow there.”

“So you thought you’d come here and make trouble for us?”

“Huh!  I only got here just now.  Me and a friend was motoring and heard that there were some surveyors around, and we came to watch them.”

“Then you were not talking to Jenkins and Calthorpe and the other squatters and telling them that we wanted to ruin their farms?”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about!” blustered Herring, but Jack saw him turn color and knew that he had been taken by surprise.  “Who are Jenkins and Calthorpe?”

“And you have not been anywhere near this place till just now?” asked Jack quietly.

“No, of course I haven’t!  I told you I just came.”

“Then how about this?” and the boy suddenly thrust the print Billy had taken right under the bully’s nose.  “What were you saying to Jenkins when Billy snapped this?  Jenkins said a boy who answered to your description told them that we would ruin their farms.”

Herring flushed deeply and seemed utterly taken aback, it being clear that he had not suspected the existence of this picture, which was the clearest kind of evidence against him.

He tried to snatch it out of Jack’s hand, but the boy was too quick for him and drew it back, saying: 

“What were you saying to Jenkins at the time that picture was snapped, Herring?”

“I was telling him that there was no use to bother you about the surveying,” growled Herring.  “Why would I want to get ’em to trouble you for?  It was nothing to me what you did.”

“But just now you said that you had not seen Jenkins and did not know him.  This shows that you must have done so, and in fact Jenkins himself said that one of our boys, a big fellow-----”