41
VII. Ice Cold Waters 49
VIII. A Surprise 56
IX. A Lucky Win 63
X. Fred's Home Coming 71
XI. News From Over Sea 79
XII. Bristles Has an Idea 87
XIII. A Call for Help 96
XIV. The Missing Opals Again 104
XV. Fred's Brave Stand 113
XVI. The Trial Spin 121
XVII. Snagged and Wrecked 130
XVIII. Lying in Wait 138
XIX. Nipped in the Bud 147
XX. In the Hollow Oak 156
XXI. A Plan to Catch the Thief 165
XXII. Telling the Good News 173
XXIII. The Start of the Race 181
XXIV. A Great Victory 189
XXV. Bright Skies 198

FRED FENTON ON THE CREW

CHAPTER I

THE FINGER OF SUSPICION

"Hello! there, Bristles!"

"Hello! yourself, Fred Fenton!"

"Why, what ails you this fine summer morning, Bristles? You don't look
as jolly as you might."

"Well, I was only waiting to see if you cared to speak to me, Fred."

"Why in the wide world shouldn't I, when you're one of my chums,
Bristles Carpenter?"

Andy Carpenter was known far and wide around the town of Riverport as
"Bristles," on account of the way in which his mop of hair stood
upright most of the time, much after the manner of the quills on a
fretful porcupine.

Usually he was a very good-natured sort of a chap, one of the
"give-and-take" kind, so universally liked among schoolboys. But, on
this particular early summer morning, with the peaceful Mohunk river
running close by, and all Nature smiling, Bristles look glum and
distressed, just as his friend Fred Fenton had declared.

"You haven't heard the latest news then?" remarked the boy with the
thick head of stiff, wiry hair; and he made a grimace as he spoke.

"If you mean anything about _you_, then I haven't, for a fact," Fred
replied, his wonder deepening into astonishment; for he now saw that
Bristles was not playing any kind of a joke, as he had at first
suspected.

"Huh! didn