Several days passed and the Rover boys and their chums began to feel thoroughly at home in the camp at Big Bear Lake. The weather since the storm when they had arrived had been ideal, and they slept with all the doors and windows wide open. This aired the bungalow thoroughly.
Because of Jeff’s constant worrying concerning snakes they had made a thorough search in and around the bungalow for such reptiles. Their only discovery was a nest of half a dozen garter snakes, not one of them over two feet long, under some rocks near the shed behind the house.
“I half wish we could find a snake three or four feet long and scare Jeff almost to death,” grumbled Gif. “Then maybe he’d pack up and go home.”
“What a pity I didn’t bring that paper snake along—the one we used to scare Codfish with,” answered Andy. “I might try that big imitation firecracker on him, only he saw it the other day and saw that I was using it for a collar and necktie box.”
During those days the boys went in swimming several times. They even got up a little race among themselves, which Jack won with ease, Spouter and Randy being tied for second place. They saw but little of the cadets at the Willoughby camp. Once they noticed several rowboats going in the direction of Beldane at the lower end of the lake, and with the aid of the fieldglasses Gif had brought along recognized some of the occupants.
“I guess they’re going down there for their supplies instead of getting them of Mose Mumbleton,” was Jack’s comment. “I suppose they have an idea that Mumbleton is a special friend of yours, Gif, and that’s why some of those fellows, especially Flanders and his bunch, don’t want to trade with him.”
“Well, I’m sorry to have Mumbleton lose the money,” answered Gif.
“Oh, he won’t lose very much,” put in Randy. “Don’t you remember he said they were very close at driving a bargain for what they wanted? They would probably like to have him sell his goods without any profit.”
“I’d like to have a look at their camp,” said Andy. “What’s the matter with rowing over to that side of the lake to-morrow?”
The others were willing, and they left directly after lunch on the following day, Gif first instructing Jeff as to what he was to do during their absence.
“I want you to clean up the living room thoroughly, Jeff,” said he. “And then I want you to get a first-class dinner ready for us. We’ll be back about six o’clock. Have those fish we caught this morning and some fried potatoes, corn, and see if you can’t turn out some kind of nice cake or a pie. There are plenty of apples on hand for a pie.”
“All right, I’ll ’tend to everything,” mumbled the colored man, but he looked anything but pleased at the prospect. He had come to the camp hoping that the boys would do most of the work and that he could take it easy.
One of the rowboats was considerably larger than the others, and the six boys piled into this, taking two pairs of oars with them.
“We can take turns at rowing,” said Gif. “That will give each fellow a chance to rest. We can take our own time, too, because it isn’t so very much of a trip.”
“Let’s row in and out among the Cat and Kittens,” suggested Jack. “I’ve been wanting to land on those islands ever since we came to the bungalow.”
“You won’t find much of a landing place, Jack. Every one of the islands is covered with brushwood to the water’s edge, as you can see.”
The boys rowed around the larger island and then in and out among the four which were smaller. As Gif had said, they found each of them heavily wooded and did not see a single place where a good landing could be made.
“If anybody wanted to build on any of these islands he’d have a job clearing the ground,” was Spouter’s comment. “Not a single spot where a fellow could run a boat ashore. You’d have to fairly fight your way through the bushes.”
“That’s what makes them so beautiful,” said Fred. “I never saw prettier islands anywhere—not even over at Lake George.”
Having gone around all the Cat and Kittens, they set out for the eastern shore of Big Bear Lake, heading for the cove into which the recovered rowboat had drifted.
“We might possibly pick up one or both of the oars we lost,” said Randy. “I’d like to get them back.”
“Oh, Randy, you mustn’t worry about those oars,” put in Gif. “They were not worth a fortune, and we’ve got several extra pairs up at the bungalow, as you know.”
Nevertheless, with plenty of time on hand, the boys spent the best part of an hour skirting the cove and looking into every corner where they thought the oars might have drifted. Once they thought they saw one of the oars, but the object proved to be nothing more than a sunken log.
“I suppose we might as well give it up,” said Randy, after a while. “Let’s go around to the Willoughby camp and see what those fellows are doing.”
A row of less than ten minutes brought them in sight of the camp occupied by the cadets from Longley Academy. The little dock and the two small bungalows behind it seemed to be deserted, not a soul being anywhere in sight.
“Must have all gone off for the day,” said Jack. “Well, I don’t blame them for wanting to get away when the weather is so fine. Plenty of time to stick around camp when it rains.”
“Shall we go ashore?” questioned Fred.
“Better not,” came from Spouter. “If we landed and anything was found to be wrong afterwards they’d say we did it.”
“Listen! I hear somebody calling!” cried Andy suddenly.
“It’s a cheer! Somebody is cheering!” exclaimed Jack.
“I believe they’re having some sort of a game,” said Gif. “They’re out in that cleared spot up the lake a bit.”
“Come on! Let’s row in that direction!” cried Randy.
They were soon at a point on the lakeshore where only a thin fringe of bushes and trees separated them from what had once been a pasture lot belonging to a small farm. Here they discovered half a dozen of the Longley cadets enjoying a game of baseball with two boys batting and the others in the field.
“There is Tommy Flanders,” said Fred, in a low tone as they brought their rowboat to a standstill. “He’s at the bat!”
“And there is Billy Sands on first, and Halliday is pitching.”
“Codfish is in the field. There is the fellow they called Fiddler, too.”
Flanders, who had just had two strikes called on him, now knocked a ball well out in the field and began to run to first base, and then back to home. Codfish tried to catch the ball, but missed it and went sprawling on the grass.
“Good work, Tommy!” cried one of the boys, as the runner came in.
“Hello! what are you fellows doing here?” came a sudden cry from the brushwood. “If it isn’t the fellows from Colby Hall! What do you know about that?”
The speaker was a Longley boy named Bob Mason whom Jack and Gif knew fairly well. He had been tramping along the shore looking for a good place to fish. He carried a fishing pole in one hand and a can of bait in the other.
“Oh, we just thought we’d take a little row,” answered Gif pleasantly. “We get tired of sticking in one place.”
“I don’t blame you,” answered the Longley cadet. Then he set up a shout: “Hi, you fellows! Come over and see who’s here!”
“What’s that?” questioned Billy Sands, as the baseball game came to an abrupt halt.
“Here are the fellows from Colby Hall!” called back Mason.
“Colby Hall!” exclaimed Billy Sands. “What are they doing here?” And then he and the others forsook the improvised diamond and came crowding down to the lakeshore.
“Have you fellows been up to our bungalows?” demanded Tommy Flanders before the visitors could say a word.
“No. We haven’t been ashore. We’re just rowing around the lake,” answered Jack.
“Huh! Spying around our camp, eh?”
“We have a right to look at it, haven’t we?” demanded Gif sharply.
“Oh, you don’t have to get on any high horse, Gif Garrison, just because your father owns that bungalow on the other side of the lake,” cried Paul Halliday. “This is our side, and we want you to keep away from it.”
“Oh, say, Halliday! what’s the use of acting that way?” put in Bob Mason. “They aren’t doing any harm. The lake is free to anybody.”
“You can’t tell me anything about that crowd, Mason. I know them better than you do,” answered Paul Halliday sullenly. “I didn’t leave Colby Hall for nothing.”
“We left it as much as anything to get rid of that bunch,” put in Billy Sands.
“They always want to pick on a fellow,” came from Codfish. “They’re as mean as dirt. I think all of the fellows here ought to make them keep away.”
“We won’t come near your camp if you don’t want us to,” answered Jack. “You can keep to your side of the lake and we’ll keep to ours.”
By this time several other of the Longley boys had appeared, including Ted Maxwell. Most of the crowd were of the Flanders stripe and apt to take sides against the Rover boys and their chums. But Maxwell and Mason, on the other hand, wanted to be friendly.
“No use of getting hot about it, Tommy,” said Maxwell to Flanders. “Why not have some good-natured rivalry? We might have some rowing races, some swimming races, and we might even get up a baseball game, six on a side—that is, if they would care to play with six men.”
“You’ve got the right spirit, Maxwell,” answered Jack promptly. “We’ll go into any contest against you that you suggest. We’ll row you or swim you or play baseball against you. Or we’ll even shoot against you if you say so,” he added, with a smile.
“That’s the talk!” cried Mason. “Let’s get up a few contests. This outing is getting awfully stale, anyhow.”
“We don’t want any contests with them,” grumbled Flanders.
“Sounds as if you were afraid,” put in Fred.
“Oh, I’m not afraid. But I like to pick my opponents.”
“Well, we’ll be ready for you any time you say,” called out Gif, after a few whispered words with his companions. And thereupon he and his chums rowed away.