"Somebody's been trying to monkey with Jack Sheldon's boat. Thereought to be a watch kept. 0ther camps have sentinels, and thisshould have one. Stay on watch to-night, kids, and I'll give you adollar apiece."

"A'right, sah," exclaimed Bucephalus with a broad grin. "So dey triedto hu't Mistah Jack's boat, did dey? Wha' yo' doin' in it you'se'f,sah? Was yo' goin' to sleep in it?"

"Me?" exclaimed the little fellow indignantly. "No indeed. Iwas looking over the engine to get the hang of it. Jack toldme I might. Go to sleep nothing! If I had been asleep I wouldnot have caught these rascals at their dirty work."

"But yo' didn' cotch dem, sah, dey done runned away."

By this time Jack, Percival, Harry and Arthur, and a number of theboys, aroused by the noise, had come down to see what was the matter.

Young Smith turned his light on the bottom of the boat, it havingbeen drawn up on the beach, and saw the mark of the auger veryplainly.

It had not gone in very deep enough to do any harm, and what, hole therewas could be caulked with fairly little trouble.