AT THE RIVAL CAMP
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.