"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 of insects as they flew past.

"You'll get to the station before long, Jack," said Percival at length. "I think the tide is beginning to turn. We get considerable of it even here. Do you think-----"

Jack raised his hand as a sign for his friend to be quiet, and at that moment somewhere on the bank above them they heard a querulous voice:

"Why do you give me it if it is worth so moche, and there is alarm about it?" they heard in a high-keyed, querulous voice, evidently that of a woman, and Jack started involuntarily.

He had heard that voice before, but at the moment he could not tell where, or when it was.

"What have you done with it?" asked a man in a low tone, which Jack caught, nevertheless, all being silent in the place.

"How I know where I have lose it?" answered the woman. "I have be in a many exciting time. If there was suspicion you should not give it. I do not know, and maybe I show it to some friend to make her jealous."

"Did you?" growled the man. "You should have more sense."

"But you do not tell me. Now it is lose. I do not know where. I am glad. You should not have give me it."

Jack now recognized the voice as that of the nurse who had taken the Van der Donk child from him the night before, but he was still at a loss to know what she was talking about.

"I gave it to you to keep safe for me until I could dispose of it,"

the man answered. "The detectives were after me. Luckily I got rid of it in good time, but now that they have nothing against me I can dispose of it to advantage. And you have lost it?"

"I have tell you that I have," the woman answered in her high voice, with a strong foreign accent, Jack now remembering that she had seemed to be French or Italian, although he had met her but a few moments. "I have lose it, and I am glad. Why shall I get into prison for you? You shall keep your gold and diamond watches for yourself, and not give them to me."

"Sh! not so loud!" cautioned the man. "Somebody may hear you."

It was the watch he had found in his pocket that the woman was talking about, and Jack had some trouble in restraining his surprise.

"But how did you lose it?" the man continued. "Did you carry it with you? You don't go to throwing such things about, do you?"

"I don't know. There is much excitement at the house, there is the big fire, there is the boy of the Academy coming to put it out, there is the man from Riverton, and there is the baby, which I forget, and the boy go up in all the smoke and bring him down. I shall lose my place if the baby is lose. How can I remember a watch, which I cannot carry, for fear some one say I steal? Ah! you should not give!"

"And now you have lost it!" growled the man. "Haven't you any idea?

Couldn't you have mislaid it? You are not lying to me, you have really lost it, Gabrielle?"

"Yes, I tell you I have lose it, and I am glad!" cried the woman in a higher key than before, and with great excitement.

The tide now began to take the boys back down the hill, and Jack quickly steered so that he would go down with it, being speedily out of sound of voices.

"What do you think of that, Jack?" whispered Percival.

"That the mystery of the watch seems to be as deep as ever."

CHAPTER IX

ANOTHER CLAIMANT FOR THE WATCH

The boys made their way down to the mouth of the kill, and out upon the river, no more being said concerning what they had heard until they were on the river gliding down stream.

"That must have been the nurse you saw last night," said Dick.

"Yes, but I don't know the man. He must be a bad character."

"Decidedly. There is one thing I cannot make out, though. How did that watch get in your pocket?"

"I don't know myself unless the girl slipped it in during the short time I saw her. It was evidently not passed from hand to hand as we thought. The girl had it, but I cannot see that any one else did.

I am as much in the dark as ever."

"And we still have to learn who it was who gave you a bad reputation to the detective. He won't tell."

"He may not know," rejoined Jack musingly. "I don't care very much.

My reputation does not depend upon what he says nor upon what some of the boys here may say. I have enough friends among the boys of Hilltop, and the faculty, not to mind the rest."

"True enough, Jack. Hello! there are some of those fellows now looking for a race if not trouble."

Herring and Merritt just now appeared in their boat off the railroad dock, and waited till Jack and Percival came up when Herring shouted:

"Come on if you want to race. We'll meet you on the way back."

"Race 'em, Jack, just to show them you can beat 'em!" whispered Dick hoarsely.

"No, Dick, I won't," said Jack with emphasis. "I'll race any one else for the fun of it, but I will not race with those fellows."

Herring started off at a good pace, expecting that Jack would follow, and when they had a good lead, Jack having turned and gone up the river, Billy Manners and young Smith in the latter's boat set off after them.

"We'll give you a race, Pete!" shouted Billy. "Whoop her up, J.W., and see how we'll leave 'em behind!"