"We can't do anything while the wind is down," said Crosby.

"Let's get out and row," suggested Graves, who was one of the number.

"Can we tow the yacht?"

"We can try."

This was decided on, and all of the crowd leaped into Harry's boat. They brought the craft around to the yacht's bow, and then every one took an oar.

"See, they are hauling off the yacht!" cried Harry. "They mean to get away somehow."

"We'll race them," replied Jerry.

They bent to their oars and made the old hermit's boat fairly fly through the water. Slowly they crept nearer and nearer. It was an exciting chase.

"Take my place, Blumpo!" cried Jerry, at last, and the boy willingly obeyed.

Jerry leaped into the bow, and taking up his gun pointed it at Si Peters'

head.

"Si Peters!" he called-out, "do you see this gun? Unless you stop rowing I'll fire at you, no matter what the consequences are."

Si Peters turned deadly white, for he was in reality a big coward.

"Do you hear me?" went on Jerry. "One--two--th----"

"Stop! don't shoot!" yelled the Rockpoint bully, and he held up his oar.

"Now, Wash Crosby, you stop rowing, too!" went on Jerry.

"Think you are boss, eh?" sneered Crosby.

"I am. Up with the oar!"

Crosby hesitated, and then his oar went up beside Si's. The others became badly frightened and also stopped rowing. In a moment more the hermit's craft was beside the big row-boat.

The Rockpointers gazed at the white-haired man in astonishment. They wanted to know who he was, but just then had other matters to attend to.

"You think you own the earth when you have a gun!" howled Si Peters to Jerry.

"We're on top, that is certain," responded our hero. "Say, Harry, supposing we get on the yacht and make them row us back to the island?"

"Not much!" growled Wash Crosby.

"Just the thing!" cried Harry.

Still keeping the Peters' crowd under guard, Jerry and his friends boarded the yacht.

Then, much against their will, they made the others turn about and drag them back to where they had started from, towing the hermit's craft behind.

Peters and Crosby were in a perfect rage, but could do nothing, as Jerry pretended to be very savage and itching to shoot them.

The island reached, Jerry made the Peters' crowd beach the boat and clean her.

"Now take your yacht and begone!" he commanded, and the crowd hurried off in double-quick order. As the yacht drifted away the hermit laughed heartily.

"Cleverly done!" he said. "Jerry Upton, you are a smart lad."

The boys spent one more day on the island and then left for home. The hermit went along, and created some surprise when he appeared on the streets of Lakeview with Blumpo, his son.

All the boys were glad that the homeless youth had found a father, who would endeavor to make something out of the good-natured and honest lad.

There was also a surprise for our hero and Harry.

Si Peters and his gang had been arrested for burning down a barn belonging to Harry's father.

The Rockpoint lads tried to beg off, but the authorities took the matter in hand, and every one of them was sent to the reformatory.

This ended the rivalry for the time being between Lakeview and Rockpoint and, as a consequence, the autumn and winter which followed were comparatively quiet. But stirring events were on the way, as the chapters which follow will testify.

CHAPTER XVII.

HARRY'S NEW YACHT.

"Luff up a bit, Harry!"

"All right, Jerry. Do you think we will make that point?"

"If the wind holds out. We are behind the rocks now, and that cuts most of the breeze off."

"Blumpo, coil up some of that rope, will you?"

"To be suah," returned the youth addressed.

The scene was the deck of a handsome yacht named the Whistler. She was as clean cut as a craft could be, and carried a spread of snowy white sails which would have gladdened the heart of any sea-dog to behold.

Three boys and an old man were sailing this craft. The three boys were Jerry, Harry and Blumpo. The man was Jack Broxton, the boathouse keeper.

The yacht was a new one, recently purchased by Harry Parker's father for the use of his son and Jerry.

"Do you remember what a row we had up around this island last summer with Si Peters, Wash Crosby and the rest of the Rockpoint crowd?" mused Jerry, as the yacht swung around the north point of Hermit Island, that spot where Blumpo had so strangely found his father.

"Don't I, though!" cried Harry. "I wonder if they are out of the reformatory yet for setting fire to the barn?"

"I heard da was," put in Blumpo, who now attended school regularly. "Si Peters got out las' month, an' Wash Crosby got out six weeks ago."