Early in the afternoon, according to agreement, the boys betook themselves to the banks of the stream. Here Marmaduke was to be entrapped. Henry, with his[308] peculiar “disguises” still about him was securely hidden in a tree, from which he would be able to see and hear the whole performance.

Charles had spent the noon in making himself tolerably familiar with the letter, which he now had in a bottle in his pocket. The others were gathered round the tree which was Henry’s hiding-place. Stephen was not with them, he having gone to look for the victim and induce him to come to the river.

Just as the plotters were beginning to fear that Marmaduke would not come, after all, he and Stephen appeared, striding along towards them. They were then all excitement, knowing that if their plot succeeded it would be now or never. Charles quietly moved a few rods farther up the river, and concealed himself behind a convenient bush.

At this the enraptured reader is heard to mutter that along that extraordinary river all the bushes seem to grow just where they will be most convenient.

“Hello, Marmaduke! how are you?” Will asked, in friendly tones.

“Hello, then! Boys, I’m vexed; how is it that you shun me, and run away like shooting stars whenever you see me?”

“Well, old fellow, let us make up friends, and have no more hard feelings,” Stephen said cheerfully.

Marmaduke did not know why there should ever have been any “hard feelings;” but, not wishing to press the matter, he heaved a sigh of relief, heartily said “all right,” and sat down among them.

Then they were at a loss to know what to talk about. But finally Will hit upon the topic of mowing-machines, and then each one was called upon to give his views. Then the conversation flagged, and for full five minutes there was silence, during which Marmaduke tranquilly pared his nails, while the plotters looked at each other in growing uneasiness. Where could Charley be? Why didn’t he fling the bottled letter into the river?

“Boys, what are your plans for the holidays?” Marmaduke suddenly inquired.

[309]

At that instant a faint splash, the bottle striking the water, was heard by Jim.

“There it is!” he blurted out.

The plotters knew what he meant, though the dupe certainly did not. Nevertheless, it seemed to them that such blunders must be put down; and accordingly they bent their brows, and cast such annihilating glances at the offender that he quailed, and felt decidedly “chilly.”

Will arose and said, “Let us stroll up a little way.”

All cheerfully agreed to this proposal, though Marmaduke probably thought that by “stroll” Will meant a tramp of perhaps three or four miles. They had taken only a few steps when all except Marmaduke saw the bottle floating lazily along. The question was, how should they draw his attention to it without arousing suspicion?

Stephen was equal to the emergency. Stooping, he picked up a smooth stone, gave it a legerdemain fling, and it shot forward, performing all sorts of whimsical gyrations. As Stephen had foreseen, all the boys, Marmaduke included, observed every movement of the stone from the instant it left his hand. Then he repeated his trick with a second stone, and lo! the second stone fetched up very close to the bottle! In order to keep up appearances and carry out the deceit, he was about to cut a geometrical curve with still another stone, when Marmaduke exclaimed, “Boys, what is that floating down stream! It looks like a bottle.”

Crafty Stephen! His ruse was entirely successful.

“It is a bottle!” Jim cried, in intense excitement. “A bottle! A floating bottle! Isn’t that very strange, boys?”

“Yes, it’s rather curious, but it isn’t a natural phenomenon, so don’t make so much stir about it,” Will said, fearing that Jim might overdo the matter. “I’ll strip off my clothes and swim after it, boys, unless some of you would like to take a plunge into the water.”

“Let us go out on our raft; that would be the proper way to get it!” declared ceremonious Marmaduke, not knowing that the raft had been turned to better account.[310] “Come; the raft isn’t much farther up; let us get it out, and we can soon overtake the bottle.”

Ah, plotters! your troubles were beginning already!

“Pshaw!” cried Stephen, in seeming disgust. “It would be a loss of time to go up stream to sail after a wayfaring bottle like that. But we must get it, of course.——Now, hello, who is this fellow whistling and paddling on a home-made punt across over from the other shore down towards us? ’Pon my word, it’s Charley, without his clothes on! No; they’re strapped over his shoulders. Well, this is funnier than Jim’s wonderful bottle!”

Stephen’s astonishment was not feigned, for the boys had not planned how Charles was to rejoin them after setting the bottle afloat, and his sudden appearance in this guise was a great surprise to them all.

On Marmaduke’s arrival, Charles had paddled across the river on a stout plank, launching the bottled letter on his way, and drifted down by the opposite bank till abreast of the boys. Then, having turned his rude canoe, he struck out for them boldly; and the inference was that the boy, being on the right bank of the river and seeing his comrades on the left bank, had hit upon this semi-savage means to join them. Thus Marmaduke never suspected that there was any connection between Charley and the floating bottle.

But Jim felt insulted at Stephen’s last words, and he muttered sullenly: “’Taint my bottle! I never put it there!”

“You look like an alligator, Charley;” Marmaduke hallooed. “Where do you come from?”

“Oh, I’ve been prowling around,” Charles shouted back.

“There’s an old bottle about opposite us,” Stephen yelled; “heave ahead and bring it here; we want to see what it means.”

“The raft would be the best to get it,” Marmaduke murmured.

Ah! if he could have known that the plank bestridden by Charley was the foundation timber of their late raft!

“You see that our plot is working!” Stephen mumbled in the Sage’s ear. “He will believe it all!”

[311]

Charles directed his barge to the mysterious bottle, seized it, and then worked his way to his companions on the bank. While he unstrapped and huddled on his clothes the bottle was passed from one to another.

Marmaduke, who had hitherto taken only a languid interest in the matter, exclaimed feverishly, on seeing that the bottle held a paper, “Give it to me! It’s mine, because I saw it first!”

In a trice he had the paper out, and was endeavoring to make out its contents. As these have already been given, it would be only a wanton waste of time and foolscap for the reader to reperuse them with Marmaduke. It might afford a hard-hearted reader considerable amusement to hear his absurd interpretations, but it is both unwise and immoral to laugh at the mistakes and the ignorance of others. It is sufficient, therefore, to say that the great difference between Henry’s style and the style of teacher Meadows’ Method bewildered the young student.

Charles waited impatiently to read for him, while the rest moved down the river and took up their stand under the old tree in which Henry was ensconced.

Marmaduke and Charles soon followed, and presently the latter ventured to say, “Perhaps I could help you, Marmaduke.”

“No you couldn’t; it’s French, and I understand French just as well as you do,” was the ungracious answer.

“Oh, is it? Well, perhaps if we should put our heads together we might be able to decipher it; for,” he added, truthfully enough, “I’ve taken a great interest in French lately, and studied it tremendously. But, say, how did French get into that bottle?”

“Let me alone; I understand French;” Marmaduke growled, becoming more and more bewildered. But at last, after ten minutes’ unceasing study of the letter, he turned so dizzy that he was fain to give it up in despair. “Here, read it, if you can,” he said, handing it to Charles. “All I can make out is that it speaks of nobles, and steamboats, and castles, and anchors, and priests, and sailors, and an English king’s yacht, and[312] America, and pumpers, and—and—castles, and—and General Somebody—.”

Charles had made himself tolerably familiar with the letter, but he could not yet read it very readily. However, his memory served him well, and he managed to get the main points. But after all the time and learning Henry had squandered on the letter, it was too bad that it should be “murdered” thus. Marmaduke listened eagerly, too much absorbed to wonder how it was that Charles could read so much better than he. As for the other auditors, to all appearance they were at first more startled than even Marmaduke.

“Well, boys,” said he, as Charles folded the letter, and wriggled uneasily in his damp clothes, “well, boys, you jeered at me about the bones, but at last we have stumbled upon romance! Here is something mysterious!

“Boys, let us solve the mystery! If we were only gallant knights of old, what glorious deeds we should perform!”

The speaker strutted up and down as pompously as a schoolboy can, while the plotters exchanged villainous winks, and glanced eloquently at the boy in the tree.

“Read that again!” was the command, and Charles dutifully obeyed, the dupe listening as eagerly as at first. The others made no remarks, but endeavoured to look grave and horror-stricken, while the master-plotter overhead was highly entertained.

“Oh, the monstrous villain! How durst he steal away a French noble’s daughter?” Marmaduke exclaimed vehemently. “And she, the heroine, how bravely she endures her lot! What a heroine!”

“Well, what shall we do about it?” Will asked, anxious that Marmaduke himself should propose going to the rescue. Foolish plotters! they supposed he would strike in with their views without any demur!

“Why, we must send it to our Government; it is a fit subject for our new President to deal with. There will be negotiations about it between France and America; we shall become known all over the world as the finders of the letter; and finally the illustrious prisoner will be[313] delivered with great pomp. Yes, boys, we must write to Washington immediately.”

The plotters were appalled. Marmaduke was rather too romantic. He viewed the matter too solemnly.

There was silence for a few moments, and then Charles said quietly, as though it made little difference to him what steps Marmaduke might take, “I hardly think that would be the best way, Marmaduke, because, as you say, there would be negotiations between the two countries, and the imprisoned lady might remain a hopeless captive a long time before the business could be settled and herself set free. We are too chivalrous to let her pine away in solitude; and besides, by rescuing her ourselves our renown would be increased millions!”

These words, (especially the last dozen of them), so sonorous, so eloquent, so logical, had a telling effect on Marmaduke.

“You are right!” he exclaimed. “Yes, my brave companions, we will to the rescue! We may revive the days of chivalry! Now, who will dare to go with me?”

Then those wicked plotters laboured to suppress a burst of laughter, and declared that they would all “dare” to accompany him on his hazardous expedition.

Henry in the tree looked on in wonder. “What sort of a boy was this! He talks like a sixty-year-older!” he muttered; “well, I didn’t expect him to bring on the heroics till he met me as ‘Sauterelle,’ O dear! this limb isn’t so comfortable as it used to be.”

“Oh, what a glorious day this will be for us!” the enraptured one continued. “The emperor will dub us all knights! I must have that letter, Charley; but read it again first.”

Charley did so, but the letter was growing decidedly monotonous to him.

“Boys,&rd............