He knew that he was a coward, and that the other boys had found it out, and he almost groaned as he lay there in the silence and darkness, meditating revenge.
A little after midnight he got up silently and crept along the river bank to the clump of bushes where Sam lay soundly sleeping.

His first impulse was to jump upon the sleeper and fight him with an unfair advantage, but he was not yet free from the restraining influence of Sam's eye and voice so recently brought to bear upon him.
No, he dared not attack Sam even with so great an advantage.

He must injure him secretly as he had determined to do.
Creeping along upon all-fours, he felt about for Sam's boots, and finding them at last, was just about to move away with them when Sam turned over.
Jake sank down into the sand and listened, his heart beating and the sweat standing in great drops on his forehead.

Sam did not move again, however, but seemed still to sleep.

After waiting a long time Jake crept away noiselessly, as he had come.
Slipping down over the low sand bank he stood by the river's edge with the boots in his hand.
"Now," he muttered to himself, "I guess I'll be even with 'Captain Sam.' By the time he marches a day or two barefoot with that game foot o' his'n, I guess he'll begin to wish he hadn't been quite so sassy." Filling the boots with sand he swung them back and forth, meaning to toss them as far out into the river as he could.