g
Percival from giving the man the send off that he had meant to
give him.

"I'd like to know where that fellow got his information about you,
Jack," he said to his friend when they were seated at table.

"I don't care to know, Dick, so long as the doctor speaks well of
me," Jack returned.

"Well, I'd like to know just the same. There are some boys here who
would say all they could against you, and the man may have seen them
before he saw the doctor, and heard what they had to say. You could
see that he was prejudiced from the start."

"Yes, he presupposed my guilt before giving me a chance to speak for
myself, Dick. However, it is fortunate that I have a good reputation."

"Which is what some of the Hilltop boys have not. I am not mentioning
any names," and Percival began eating his soup with a good appetite.

An hour or two after dinner Jack asked Percival to go up the river in
his boat, having one or two errands in town to do, and wanting company.

Dick was glad to go in Jack's boat, as the boy managed it so well, and
he would have very little to do himself.

Finishing his errands in town Jack was proceeding down the river when,
with a sudden impulse, which he could not explain, he said to Dick:

"Suppose we go up the creek a bit. The tide is that way now, and we
shall have water enough, and it will not be against us."

"You don't want to go to the Academy, do you, Jack?" asked Percival.
"You can run in as far as the ravine. You came down that way once."

There was quite a deep ravine on the bill where the Academy was
located, from which a turbulent creek or kill ran to the river, and
Jack had once had a tumble into this, and had made his way to the
little station at the foot of the hill along its banks, and,
incidentally, had discovered a considerable sum of money stolen
from a bank in Riverton and hidden there.

"No, I don't want to go all the way, Dick," answered Jack with a
smile, "but we might go a short way up."

They put into the little kill, and went beyond the business part of
the town, finally getting into the woods and finding banks of some
height on either side.

The kill was full, and the current set their way, so that they had
no trouble and kept on for a mile beyond the town, finding themselves
in a most wild and picturesque spot, most of the time in deep
shadow, and hearing no sounds except those of the woods, now and
then seeing a drowsy bird on a bough or hearing the low hum o