"
"Do you remember a night or so ago when Billy Manners had the black
eye?" asked the young fellow suddenly. "He said he must have got
it tripping over a tent rope, and Harry said he got into their
tent by mistake. I asked him what he was doing outside, and at
first he would not tell me, but afterward he said there was some
funny business going on the night before, and he thought that
Herring and Merritt were in it, but he could not tell what it was."
"Well?" asked Percival.
"Then he told me that he had gone to the doctor's cottage, and that
some one got out the window, fell over him and gave him a black eye.
Herring, as he thinks, said that he would fix somebody and keep him
from getting the prize. He told me not to say anything, but-----"
"That's all right, J.W., it's as well you did, for now I think we
will get at the bottom of this affair," said Percival in decided tones.
CHAPTER XVII
A PUZZLING MATTER SETTLED
At the same time that Jack Sheldon, Dick Percival and young Smith
were on the river together, Billy Manners, Arthur Warren and Harry
Dickson were going up the road leading to the Van der Donk house,
although they had no idea of going there.
When they were well away from the camp and there were no other boys
in sight, Billy stopped short suddenly, and said:
"Funny thing about Herring's recognizing that girl's poem in Jack's
verses, wasn't it?"
"Why, I saw those verses two weeks ago, and knew they were Jack's,"
replied Harry.
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