"H'm! that's too bad!" sputtered Billy. "I don't know now whether it was a burglar, a nightmare, or what it was. I think I'd better go back to bed. Being out in the air may have done me a lot of good, but I guess I've had enough of it."

With this conclusion he set out upon his return, but when he reached the line of tents was not certain whether he was in the right one or not, and began studying the appearance of things as much as he could by the very uncertain light.

"I wonder if this is our street after all?" he asked himself. "Let me see, we are the sixth tent from the top. Or is it the seventh?

Six one way and seven the other, I guess. Wait till I see."

Then he went on, counting the tents one by one till he came to the sixth from the start.

The flap was thrown back, and Billy made up his mind that he was at the right one and went in.

When he found his cot, however, he found some one on it.

"H'm! that's young J.W., and I must not awaken him," he muttered.

As a natural consequence his own cot must be just opposite Jesse W.'s, and he turned and went in that direction.

To his surprise he found the other cot occupied also.

"Hello, who is that?" asked Harry Dickson.

"It's me," said Billy. "I guess I must have got in the wrong tent. Have I been walking in my sleep?"

"How should I know?" laughed Harry. "You are in the wrong tent, that's all I do know. Arthur and I have this tent. Aren't you in with young Jesse W. Smith?"

"I thought I was," said Billy dolefully, "but I seem to have got twisted up a bit to-night. I've had the stomach ache."

"That will twist any one," chuckled Harry, "but really it is no laughing matter, my boy."

"No, I should say not. Well, I think I had better cut my call short.

Would you kindly show me the way to my own tent?"

This was said in such a comical, and at the same time doleful tone, that Harry was forced to laugh.

"Why, certainly," he chuckled. "You've got on the wrong street, that is all. You can go through right here without having to go to the top or bottom and then down or up."

"Who is on the other side of the street?" asked Billy.

"Jones and Robinson."

"H'm! and they are right back of us. All right. I guess I can find the way now all right."

Then Billy started to go between two tents so as to reach his own on the next camp street.

"Look out for---"

"Ouch! what's that?"

Harry was about to warn him to look out for the tent ropes, but Billy tumbled over them before he could be warned.

"I am having all sorts of fun to-night!" he said in a tone of disgust, as he picked himself up and made his way through to the other street.

Then he found his own tent and went in, but to make sure, even after he had found his bed unoccupied, got out his pocket light and turned it on.

"That's all right," he muttered, "but the next time I go wandering about the camp of a night without a light I'll stay at home!"

Either the light flashing in young J.W. Smith's face or Billy's mutterings awoke that young gentleman, and he sat up in bed, asking in a very drowsy tone:

"Is it time to get up, Billy? What's the matter?"

"Oh, nothing, I've been a bit restless, that's all, but I feel better now, so go to sleep, J.W., and get a good night's rest."

At that moment a distant church clock struck twelve, and then a rooster crowed.

"H'm! guess it is time I got to sleep!" grunted Billy, as he tumbled into bed, put out his light and was soon fast asleep.

In the morning when he and young Smith arose, the latter said to him in some surprise:

"Why, Billy, what is the matter, what have you been doing? You have got the blackest eye I ever saw on a boy."

"Me?" cried Billy. "Are you sure? Isn't it dirt? Where should I have been to get a black eye?"

"I am sure I don't know, but that's what it is all right. Look at it yourself, Billy, and see if it is not."

There was a little looking glass in the tent, and Billy now surveyed himself in this, finding that young Smith was right, and that he did have one beautiful black eye, the other being only slightly discolored.

He knew where he had obtained it, but did not think it necessary to explain the matter to young Smith.

"I'll wait and see who has the most to say about it," he thought, "and then I will know who it was that I followed last night, who it was that gave me this lovely decoration."

When he met the boys, however, all of them had something to say, and Harry said with a laugh:

"You must have got that when you stumbled over the tent rope last night, Billy."

"Yes, I guess I did," said Billy, but to himself he remarked that now there was very little chance of learning the truth.

CHAPTER XV

FUN ON THE RIVER

That day a number of the boys from the camp down the river came up on the invitation of the Hilltop boys to pay them a visit, and to compete for various prizes offered by the doctor, and some of the people of the neighborhood who had gone to the other camp on the occasion of the regatta.

"Some of our boys took away prizes from you the other day," said Percival who received the visitors, "and it is only fair that we should give you a chance to capture something from us."

"We won't from you or Sheldon," replied one of the visitors, "but we will try to compete with the rest of your boys. There is no use trying to beat you, however."