As the Colby Hall cadets came closer, Tommy Flanders and Paul Halliday looked around at them.
“Hello! what do you know about this?” cried Flanders.
“What brought you fellows up here?” put in Halliday.
“Haven’t we a right to be here if we want to?” questioned Jack coolly. He did not like the tone of voice in which the boys from Longley Academy had addressed them.
“Oh, I suppose you have a right to come to Big Bear Lake,” answered Tommy Flanders. “Just the same, I don’t give you any credit for following us.”
“As a matter of fact, we’re not following you,” retorted Gif. “We didn’t even know you were here. Have you come to stay?”
“Have we come to stay!” burst out Halliday. “That’s a good one! You know well enough we came to stay.”
“You can’t pull the wool over our eyes,” growled Flanders. “If you have come up to Big Bear Lake for a vacation, you simply came to follow us.”
By this time the others had come into the general store, adding to the surprise of the cadets from Longley, who glared at them darkly.
“If it isn’t Tommy Flanders and Paul Halliday!” burst out Randy. “What do you know about this!”
“They must be staying up here,” returned Spouter. “Otherwise it isn’t likely that they would be at the store.”
“Where are you fellows stopping?” questioned Halliday, as he approached Fred.
“We’re not stopping anywhere just yet. We just got off the train,” answered Fred.
“But you’re going to stay at the lake, aren’t you?”
“Yes, if you want to know.”
“On the east shore?”
“No; on the west shore.”
“Huh! you didn’t dare to come over to where we are located, did you?” sneered Halliday.
“Then you’re located over on the east shore, are you?” questioned Gif.
“Of course we are. At the old Willoughby camp. You know that as well as I do. Why, half the cadets at Colby Hall knew our bunch was coming up here.”
“Your bunch?” demanded Jack, with interest. “How many of you?”
“Ten so far; and three or four others are coming later.”
“Henry Stowell is coming to-morrow to join us,” remarked Halliday. “He’s quitting Colby, you know, and coming to Longley this fall.”
“Well, you’re welcome to Codfish,” announced Randy quickly.
“Oh, he’s all right if only you didn’t tease him too much,” answered the youth who had at one time been Randy’s fellow cadet.
In the midst of the talk two other boys arrived, Billy Sands and a youth named Ted Maxwell, who was a captain at Longley. Maxwell was a tall, quiet fellow and quite gentlemanly in contrast to his schoolmates.
“Yes, about a dozen or fifteen of us are to spend the summer at the lake,” said Maxwell to Jack, as he shook hands. “Ten of us came up three days ago, and the others are coming the beginning of next week. We have hired the old Willoughby place, which, as perhaps you know, has two little bungalows on it and a little boathouse. We hope to have a dandy time.”
“We won’t have such a good time if we know these fellows are going to be up here,” growled Halliday.
“Oh, I don’t know,” answered Ted Maxwell cheerfully. “We might get up some rowing and swimming contests and things like that.”
“I didn’t come up here to go into any contests,” broke in Tommy Flanders. “I came up to take it easy and have a good time.”
“That’s me, too,” put in Billy Sands. “I’m just going to take it easy every day.”
“Well, a little exercise won’t hurt anybody,” answered Maxwell. “I don’t want to go stale, and neither do you fellows, if any of you expect to make the football team this fall.”
Maxwell asked the Colby cadets where they were going to locate, and Gif and the others told him about the old fishing club bungalow and of their plans for a grand outing.
“That fishing club outfit is directly across the lake from our camp,” said Maxwell. “We were rowing over that way only yesterday.”
“I hope the camp is in good condition,” said Gif anxiously, wondering if Flanders and his cronies had visited the place and possibly done some harm.
“It seemed to be. We didn’t land.”
A few words more followed and then the crowd from Longley departed, after purchasing a few things from Mr. Mumbleton. They moved down past the railroad station to the lake and there set off in two rowboats for their camp.
“This is a fine state of affairs,” grumbled Gif. “I don’t know whether we’ll have a good time or not with those fellows around.”
“Oh, well, they’ll be on the other side of the lake,” answered Fred. “How much of a distance between the two places?”
“The lake is about half a mile wide where our camp is located, and midway between the two places there are a number of small islands which my father used to call the Cat and Kittens.”
Mose Mumbleton had listened with interest to what all the boys had had to say. Now he shook hands cordially with Gif, who speedily introduced the others. In the meantime Jeff had calmly proceeded to make himself at home on the piazza of the general store, nodding peacefully as he sat with his back against one of the posts.
“I thought you might know that Flanders boy,” said the old storekeeper. “He goes to a military academy, too.”
“Yes, we know the whole bunch; but we didn’t know they were coming up here.”
“The folks around here don’t like Mr. Flanders any too well,” continued the storekeeper. “You see, Flanders bought the old Micwic factory on Flat Rock Creek, and they say he is going to put it in operation again. The bungalow colony is up in arms against such a move. They don’t want any factory around here, nor do they want any factory hands locating along the lake.”
“Where is that factory located?” questioned Fred.
“It’s just below where those boys have their camp—about halfway between the camp and this place,” answered the storekeeper.
“See here,” said Gif, motioning Jack and Spouter to one side. “Now that we know that crowd is across the lake from our bungalow, don’t you think it would be better if we went up to the camp without further delay? I want to be certain that they haven’t visited the place and upset things. I wouldn’t put it past them to do it. We can come down here to-morrow and get our supplies. Of course, we could take up a few things now, just enough for breakfast and maybe lunch.”
“That suits me,” answered Jack.
“Yes, let’s get to the camp, by all means. I want to see what kind of place it is,” answered Spouter.
As a consequence of this, Gif asked the old storekeeper about their boats.
“I got ’em all ready for you just as soon as I received your letter,” said Mr. Mumbleton. “They’re locked up in my boathouse, and I can get ’em out in a few minutes.”
“Then let us have a few groceries and things like that and we’ll be off,” returned Gif. “We’ll come back to-morrow for our regular supplies. We have a list all made out, and I’ll leave it with you.”
“Suits me.”
Thereupon the boys obtained some bread, coffee, sugar, condensed milk, eggs, bacon and a few other things which were placed in a couple of empty boxes. Then all went back to the railroad station for their baggage.
“Here’s a sample of what we can expect from those other fellows,” growled Andy, as he pointed to the railroad platform. On their baggage had been piled some dirty brushwood and leaves.
“Well, let’s be thankful they didn’t do anything worse,” was Randy’s comment. “They might have hidden the stuff from us, or something like that.”
“I guess they didn’t dare!” burst out Jack. “They knew we’d be after them in a jiffy if they did anything like that.”
Brushing off the baggage, the boys, followed by Jeff, made their way to Mose Mumbleton’s boathouse. The old storekeeper was already on hand and had brought forth three rowboats with six pairs of oars.
“I went over each one of the boats carefully,” said the storekeeper. “You’ll find ’em in apple-pie condition.”
“All right. And don’t forget that we’ll be back to-morrow for our regular supplies,” answered Gif. “Come on, fellows. It’s getting late and it’ll be dark before we reach camp.”
Gif was right about the darkness, because the sun was already sinking behind the forest to the westward, casting long shadows across the bosom of Big Bear Lake.
“Wonder if we’ll see any bears on our way up,” came from Andy, as he took his seat in one of the boats.
“Sure! we’ll see a dozen of them,” returned his twin, with a grin. “They’ll all be lined up on the shore bidding us welcome.”
“Don’t forget, Jeff, you’re to row one of the boats,” cried Gif gayly.
“Does you want me to row that boat all alone?” questioned the colored man doubtfully.
“Why, of course! You’re to row the boat and you are to pull the other two boats, too.”
“What! Me pull the boat all alone and tow the two other boats too?” questioned Jeff, in consternation. “I can’t do it, nohow! No man could!”
“Oh, Gif is only fooling, Jeff,” put in Spouter. “We can do the rowing just as well as not. We’ll let you cook supper for us when we land.”
There had been little wind during the day, but now it seemed to spring up, sighing drearily through the trees lining the shore. Then the sun suddenly sank behind a heavy bank of clouds.
“Doesn’t look as if we’d have any moonlight to-night,” remarked Andy.
“Seems to me we’re going to have quite a blow,” answered Fred, as he glanced through the tree-tops at the clouds.
“Come on, fellows! Everybody on the job!” cried Gif.
He and Fred, along with Jeff, were in the first boat to get off. Quickly Andy and Jack followed, and then came Randy and Spouter.
The course lay along the lakeshore and then past a broad cove where there was a string of small islands. As they passed the last of these islands they found the wind increasing and suddenly saw some whitecaps ahead.
“We’re in for a regular blow!” cried Gif.
“How far have we still to row?” called out Randy.
“About a mile.”
“Oh, that isn’t so bad.”
“We’ve got to go slow around here,” called back Gif. “The lake is shallow and there are a great number of snags. Don’t hit any of them and upset.”
As the boys continued to row the wind increased in violence, and soon whitecaps surrounded them.
“Maybe we’d bettah pull in closer to shore,” suggested Jeff, as one of the whitecaps came over the side of the rowboat, covering them with spray.
“Oh, we’ll head straight for the bungalow,” answered Gif. “Come on, Fred, bend to it!” and they began to row with a will and the others followed.
A quarter of a mile more was covered when the wind seemed suddenly to descend on the three boats with added violence.
“Gee! we can’t make any headway against this,” gasped Fred.
“Hadn’t we better turn toward shore?” called out Andy, from the second boat, which was close behind.
“Perhaps we’d better,” was the answer. “I don’t believe this blow will last any great length of time.”
The third boat had dropped a little behind and was almost lost to view in the fast-gathering darkness.
“They’re turning to shore,” said Spouter to Randy. “We might as well do the same thing.”
To turn the craft in that heavy wind was not easy. A wave came dashing over the side, wetting them from the knees down. Then the boat whirled around and all at once slid up on a snag.
“Look out! We’re going over!” cried Spouter, and the next instant the rowboat upset and he and Randy were floundering in the lake.