Chapter XXVIII: An Important Discovery

The rowboat containing the Colby Hall cadets had just crossed the finishing line of the race when the wind and waves hit the Longley craft, turning it over.

“Hurrah! We win!” shouted Andy, in keen satisfaction.

“Look! Look!” exclaimed Jack. “The Longley fellows are in trouble. Their boat has turned over on them!”

“Gee! we’d better row to the rescue,” came from Fred, with a gasp. The strenuous rowing had all but winded him.

In spite of the wind and whitecaps, the six boys managed to turn the rowboat around and sent it in the direction of the other craft. They could see one of the boys clinging to the upturned boat while the other five were floundering around in the lake.

The catastrophe was witnessed only by those in the rowboat and the judges and others aboard the motor-boat, for the downfall of rain was now so heavy it cut out completely the view from the shore.

The motor-boat started to the rescue also, and arrived at the scene of the disaster several seconds ahead of the Colby boys. The motor-boat people managed to pick up three of the lads in the lake.

“Save me! Save me!” yelled one of the boys, and those in the rowboat saw it was Billy Sands. He was throwing up his arms frantically. Evidently the race had all but exhausted him.

As the rowboat came closer Jack reached over and caught Sands by the arm, and then he and Gif pulled the dripping cadet over the gunwale. They then rowed up beside Bob Mason and assisted him aboard.

“My gracious! did you ever see such a storm?” spluttered Mason. “I never saw so much lightning in my life. I wish I was ashore.”

“Help! Help! I don’t want to be struck by lightning!” came in a bellow from the overturned rowboat, and now the Colby Hall boys saw that the fellow clutching the craft was Tommy Flanders.

Another flash of lightning now lit up the scene and the thunder rolled along from one end of the lake to the other. In the midst of this those on the motor-boat hauled in Flanders and then came beside the craft occupied by the Colby Hall cadets and those they had rescued.

“Shall we pull you in?” questioned the man who had the motor-boat in charge.

“Perhaps it would be as well,” answered Gif. “We’re pretty well tired out from the race, and that wind is fierce.”

“All right. We’ll take you over to your dock. Here’s a rope. Tie it fast.”

“What of our boat?” questioned Ted Maxwell.

“We can either pick that up coming back or let it drift. I don’t think you’ll lose it.”

Some floating oars were picked up and then the craft belonging to Mr. Garrison was hauled over to its dock.

“Well, you fellows win the race,” said the judge of the contest, with a smile. “Some finish, I’ll say.”

“Won’t all of you come into the bungalow?” asked Gif politely. “No use of starting out in this terrible downpour. It will probably let up in a little while.”

“I think we might as well,” said one of the men present, and everybody marched into the bungalow. Here fire was started, both in the living room and in the kitchen, so that those who wished to do so might dry themselves. Then several pots of hot coffee were made and passed around.

“That touches the spot!” said Ted Maxwell gratefully. “I was quite chilled by that sudden bath after being all overheated from the race.”

“I don’t want any coffee,” grumbled Tommy Flanders. “I want to get back to our camp.” He had determined to make himself as disagreeable as possible.

“We’ll take you over there as soon as the storm lets up a little,” said the man who had the motor-boat in charge.

“It was a mighty nice thing for you fellows to do――to go to our rescue,” remarked Bob Mason to Gif and Jack. “I’ll not forget it. I’m sorry now that we came over here the other day and mussed things up.”

“Well, I guess you got paid back for that,” put in Andy.

“We sure did,” replied Mason, with a grin. And then he added in a whisper: “Several of our fellows wanted to destroy your stuff, but Maxwell and I wouldn’t stand for that.”

The sudden summer storm stopped as quickly as it had begun, and before long the motor-boat departed, carrying the Longley boys to their own side of the lake. On the way the overturned rowboat was picked up and also another one of the floating oars.

After the races the Rover boys and their chums settled down to enjoy themselves thoroughly. They felt that in the future the Longley boys would leave them alone so far as “rough-housing” the place was concerned.

The six lads were still anxious to get on the trail of the bear they had seen, and went out several times, but without success.

“We must have scared Mr. Bear out of his wits,” said Jack. “Otherwise we’d find some trace of him.”

“Oh, let’s try it again!” cried Fred. And eagerly they set out one Monday morning after a quiet Sunday in and around the bungalow.

They started in the rowboat, going again to the eastern shore of the lake in the vicinity of Flat Rock Creek, for Mose Mumbleton had again told them that the bear had surely been seen somewhere in that vicinity.

“Maybe it’s a different bear from the one we saw on our side of the lake,” remarked Spouter.

“Well, I don’t care if it is,” answered Fred. “One bear is as good as another as far as I am concerned if only we can bring him down.”

The boys tramped around the best part of the morning and then sat down to rest in the shade of some trees and bushes while partaking of the lunch they had brought along. They were close to a footpath running along the edge of the creek that flowed into Big Bear Lake, and while resting after eating saw two men coming along the path talking earnestly.

“I won’t take a cent less than five thousand dollars,” one of the men was saying. “Flanders has got to pay that much or he don’t get the formulas.”

“If I had my say, Carl, I’d charge him more than five thousand,” said the second man, a tall, thin individual with a heavy moustache.

“Well, five thousand is quite a sum, Tex,” answered the fellow called Carl, who spoke with something of a German accent. Then the two men left the vicinity of the creek and took to a trail leading through the woods.

The six boys had heard every word spoken, and they gazed at each other in surprise.

“They’re going to try to sell Flanders something for five thousand dollars!” observed Gif.

“Did you hear the names Carl and Tex?” ejaculated Jack. “Those fellows must be Carl Lemrech and Tex Norris, the fellows suspected of stealing that book of formulas!”

“Exactly!” cried Randy.

“I wonder if they’ve got the book of formulas with ’em,” came from Fred.

“Let’s follow them,” put in Andy, in excitement.

“We will, Andy,” answered Jack readily. “But listen! Perhaps it will be as well if we keep out of sight.”

With caution the six lads followed the two men through the woods until they reached an old cabin which had long since seen its best days. They found the men inside smoking and drinking from a flask one carried. They were talking earnestly.

“This is Monday,” said Lemrech. “I’ll fix it so we can see Flanders here by Wednesday noon. We’ll leave the book of formulas hidden right where it is and he sha’n’t have a sight of it until he shows us his money. I wouldn’t trust him to pay up if he had the book. He knows well enough we couldn’t sue him.”

“Oh, yes, you want to get your money first,” answered Tex Norris.

After this the men talked the matter over for a quarter of an hour longer. Then there came a hail from the distance.

“There’s that farmer who said he might give us board,” remarked Lemrech. “Come ahead.”

“We don’t want to fix up the deal with Flanders at a boarding house,” complained Norris.

“Oh, no. We’ll fix it up right here. And I’ll make the time Wednesday noon sharp.”

“What do you think we ought to do, Jack?” questioned Fred, when the two men had departed.

“Don’t you think we ought to search the cabin and see if that book of formulas is anywhere around?” questioned Andy.

“We might do that. But the chances are the men have hidden the book where we couldn’t very well find it. I think the best thing we can do is to hurry to Beldane and send Mr. Stevenson a telegram to come at once.”

The boys knew they could not telegraph from Rocky Run, as no regular office was located there. They hurried down to the lake and set off for Beldane without delay.

“I’ll bet Mr. Stevenson will be surprised when he gets our message,” said Jack, after the yellow slip had been passed in and paid for at the Beldane telegraph office.

“Going to wait for a reply?” questioned Gif.

“I think we might as well.”

The boys hung around for three hours. Then came a message from Mr. Stevenson. It was to the effect that he would start for Big Bear Lake on the first train in the morning.