“H’m!  I believe you could get speed out of a canal-boat,” said Dick, as they sped along.  “There’s a nasty looking cloud coming down from Thunder Mountain, Jack.  Are you afraid of it?”

“No, not much, although I wouldn’t like to see some of those boys too far out if it cuts up rough on the river.  There’s young Smith out in his boat, by the way.  I think we had better warn him.”

At that moment Herring and Merritt came along in their boat, and Herring said in a tone of disdain: 

“That boat of yours is pretty enough to look at, Percival, but she’s of no more use than a society girl in the kitchen.  Want a tow?”

Jack passed the other boat with ease, although they were doing their best, and called out to young Smith: 

“Come in, Jesse W., there will be trouble on the river in a few minutes, and you will be better off on shore.”

“Oh, he will depend on the name of his boat, which is bigger than the boat,” said Billy Manners, one of the chief funmakers of the Hilltop boys, who was coming along with another boy in a motor-boat.  “Young J.W. is full of pluck.”

The smaller boy was taking Jack’s advice by this time, and there was need of it, for there was a squall coming and all the boys were making for the shore.

“Huh! you fellows are all afraid!” shouted Herring.  “What’s a little blow to fellows like us?  Go on shore, you weaklings.”

“There is danger, isn’t there, Jack?” asked Percival, as Jack was running for shore, having seen that young Smith was safe.

“Yes, there is,” shortly, “and those fellows will find it out before long.  They should be told of it.”

“Yes, and get abuse for our trouble,” snapped Dick.  “I won’t do it for one.”

“Better come in!” shouted Jack, all except the two bullies being now close to shore, and getting ready to make a landing.

“Mind your business!” shouted Herring.  “We know how to look out for ourselves if you don’t!”

“I don’t like to say ‘I told you so,’ Jack, but I did,” said Percival.  “If anything happens, the fault will be all theirs.”

At that moment Colonel Bull, on the bank, blew a tremendous blast on a bugle to call the boats in, and Herring obeyed, knowing that he would be cut short of many of his privileges if he did not.

As it was the two boys narrowly escaped an upset, and Merritt was deathly pale and shaking like a man with the ague when at last they got ashore, none too soon.

The river was white with foam, and it was no place for a small boat with the wind blowing sharply down from the mountains.

“You should have come in with the others,” said the colonel sharply when the two bullies landed.  “If you take another such risk you will be prohibited from going on the river at all.  As it is, you will not go out again to-day.”

Herring knew that there was no appeal from this decision, as the colonel was the physical instructor as well as drillmaster, and the doctor never disputed his word in cases which were so palpably just as in this instance.