yourself, Bristles?"

"Sure I did," replied the other; "and that was just what I was goin' to
tell you about. He came swaggering up to me, just like he always does,
you know, and wanted to know what business I had in _his_ canoe--that
he heard you'n me was seen fastening up alongside his boathouse t'other
day."

"And what did you say?" demanded Fred, smiling at the aggressive manner
of the boy who had the mop of hair.

"Me? Oh! I pretended that we'd found the little boat driftin' down the
river, and waded in to get her," Bristles went on.

"Of course he didn't believe you?" Fred questioned.

"Not much. But I didn't get riled up worth a cent, Fred, just grinned
in his face, and kept on saying it _was_ so, and we _did_ find the boat
adrift. Then, what d'ye think, he says that Bob Armstrong told him the
paddle was all the while in the woodshed, so if the canoe did break
loose, however in the world could it have been with the boat, 'less we
took it?"

"We know, all right; don't we, Bristles? Oh! never mind winking, and
looking at Sid here, because I told him all about it, and he'll never
peach; will you, Sid?"

"Not much," replied the other, promptly; "all the same, I think you're
doing the wrong thing to keep so close-mouthed about it. I'd just glory
in telling Buck how his little brother Billy would have been drowned if
you hadn't happened to be nearby when he was pitched out of the canoe."

"Well, we made up our minds to keep quiet about it," Fred continued,
quietly; "and what Buck believes cuts mighty little figure in it. But
there's the railroad yard, and what a mob of boys and girls I've seen
since school closed. Whew! I should think every fellow in town had got
wind of it by this time; and I'm the last to know."

There was indeed great excitement around the spot where lay the long
shell, cased in its stout crate, having been lifted off the car upon
which it had come from the boat-building establishment.

Temporary quarters had been arranged for, until some later date, when
possibly a new boathouse might be erected, provided the town people
contributed the amount necessary.

That night, in the schoolhouse, there was called a meeting of the
members of the Riverport Boat Club in order to transact business of
great importance. Buck Lemington was more friendly than he had ever
before been known. But those boys who knew him so well understood what
his sudden conversion meant. He aspired to fill the important p