s boss
here. Button up your lips, d'you hear, Clem Shooks?"

And poor Clem, who was doubtless as innocent as he claimed, dared not
speak further. By degrees the blame would be settled on his shoulders,
without his venturing to protest in the hearing of the bully.

Fred and his chums exchanged significant looks. It was as much as
saying: "Didn't I tell you Buck would fix it all right?" They knew the
ways of the bully to perfection. And if Buck noticed the nods and sly
grins, he thought it good policy to pay no attention to them just then.

"Well, since we're not wanted here any longer, let's be going, boys,"
remarked Sid, as usual thoroughly disgusted with the actions of the
bully.

"Good-bye then!" sneered Buck, and Bristles noticed with a sudden
thrill that he looked at the trim boat belonging to the regulars with a
malicious gleam in those black eyes of his.

They once more backed into the deeper water, and were soon alongside
the wreck.

"Shall we tow it ashore for them, boys?" Asked Dick.

"What say?" Brad remarked.

"Better leave it alone, if you know what's good for you," Sid spoke up.
"Once you touch it, and there's no telling what Buck will try to tell
people. Perhaps he'd even say we ran into him, and did the damage. But
I reckon some people ashore saw it all; for there's Judge Colon's auto,
standing up yonder; and they've got their field-glass leveled this way.
It's Flo Temple, too, who's doing the looking."

"Better leave it alone then, fellows," Brad went on to say, being
convinced by the logic of Sid that it was dangerous business meddling
with anything belonging to Buck Lemington, even in a spirit of sporting
fairness. "It's so smashed anyway, that it'll never again be worth
fixing up. Too bad, too, for it was a boat with a history."

"How d'you reckon it happened?" asked Colon; "for of course Clem Shocks
never caught that crab, or some of the other fellows would have jumped
on him? Didn't you all see how silly they looked when Buck was accusing
Clem? They knew, as well as he did, that it wasn't so, but not a single
fellow had the grit to declare the truth."

"Oh!" Brad went on to remark, "Buck may have heard us coming around the
bend, and forgot for a few seconds to keep as bright a lookout for
snags as he ought. So they ran on this one at full speed. Say, wasn't
that a fierce crash, though?"

Once more rounding the bend that shut out all sight of the wreck, and
the forlorn members of the o