“Come on, Pete,” snarled Merritt, turning red.  “They aren’t worth wasting time on,” and the bullies went one way while Jack and Dick went another.

“There won’t be any trouble, Dick,” said Jack.

“No, I don’t think there will”

CHAPTER III

EVIL INTENTIONS THWARTED

The Hilltop boys marched down to their camp the next day, and after they were settled Jack went with Percival to get his boat, Dick’s having been sent down to the camp in the morning.

The camp was on the river away from the railroad in a pleasant bit of woods a mile or so below the town so that they had all the charms of country life about them with the town near enough at hand in case they wanted to get anything.

There were tents to sleep in, a dining tent and one for the kitchen, and a big pavilion where the boys could do what little work they were expected to do during their stay on the river.

A very black, very jolly looking negro, who rejoiced in the name of Bucephalus, and who was the coachman and head waiter at the Academy, now had the position of head cook and general handy man, and the boys knew that they would be well looked after, Bucephalus being a general favorite.

Besides the professors there was the military instructor and drillmaster, Colonel Bull, a fat little man with a great deal of self-importance, who looked after the physical side of the boys’ instruction, while the professors attended to the mental side.

There were a number of motor-boats, several of the boys going partners in these, and there were also rowboats and canoes, a considerable number of the Hilltop boys being accustomed to the water, and spending a good deal of their time on it.

Harry Dickson and Arthur Warren, chums of Jack and Dick, had a boat together, as did Herring and Merritt, and there were several boys who had boats alone, like Percival and Jack, one of these being a little fellow, the smallest boy in the Academy, who had his full name, Jesse W. Smith, painted on the stern of his boat, which he managed alone with considerable dexterity.

Percival’s boat was a costly affair, and was fitted with cushions and an awning, had silver trimmings and was lined inside with mahogany and other costly woods, being a very handsome affair, but no better as a boat, as its owner himself remarked, than Jack’s made-over craft.

“That’s the way I do things, Jack,” he said when the boys were out on the river in his boat after bringing Jack’s down to the camp.  “I can’t begin to make the speed with this boat that you can with yours, but I have a regular floating palace, as you might say.  Why, the Hudson River boats are not any better fitted up than this, size considered, but I can’t get any speed out of it.  Maybe you can.”

“I’ll try, at any rate,” returned Jack, as he did, making better time than Percival had done, and handling the boat with greater dexterity.