CHAPTER II
SOMETHING ABOUT THE ROVERS
“Sheer off! Sheer off!”
“You’ll send us to the bottom!”
“Why don’t you look where you’re running?”
“It wasn’t our fault! You changed your course!” came from the steam yacht.
“Nothing of the sort! I was runnin’ as straight as an arrow!” yelled Pud Hicks, in reply.
Then the two boats sheered away from each other and presently both came to a standstill in order that the occupants might ascertain what damage had been done. In the meantime Phil Franklin, who had disappeared beneath the surface of the lake, reappeared and struck out lustily for the motor boat.
“Where are Andy and Randy?” gasped Fred, who had kept himself from being hurled overboard by a firm hold on the rear gunwale.
“Ouch! My fingers!” came in a wild yell from Spouter Powell. He had had the digits of his left hand severely pinched when the two craft came together.
“The trophy went overboard!” groaned one of the other cadets. “Andy and Randy took the silver vase with them!”
“Never mind the trophy!” interrupted Jack quickly. “If only they are not hurt!” he added fervidly.
The youthful major had scarcely spoken when a head bobbed up on the surface of the lake about fifty feet away. It was Andy Rover, and he struck out somewhat feebly for the motor boat.
“Andy! Andy! Are you all right?” yelled Jack.
“I—I guess so!” gasped his cousin.
“Where is your brother?” screamed Fred. He was in mortal terror, fearing Randy had been seriously hurt and gone to the bottom.
The words were scarcely off his lips when the waters of the lake parted once more and Randy Rover reappeared. He threw up a hand feebly.
“Help! Help!” he gasped out. “Somebody help me!”
“He’s got a cramp, or something!” exclaimed Jack. “I’m going after him. Bring the boat over,” and without further ado he balanced himself on a seat of the motor boat and then dove overboard in the direction where his cousin had appeared. Randy’s head and hand had gone down slowly, and now he was once more out of sight.
As my old readers know, the young major was an excellent swimmer and he struck out with vigor for the spot where his cousin had disappeared.
In less than a minute after Jack left the boat Andy managed to reach the craft and was pulled on board by Fred and Gif. Then the motor boat was turned in the direction where Jack was swimming.
“Be careful, Pud. We don’t want to hit anybody,” cautioned Fred. And then he and some others helped Phil Franklin to clamber aboard.
“I’ll be careful,” answered the man at the wheel. “Confound those fellers on that steam yacht! They’re to blame!”
“It’s a steam yacht from up the lake—Jocelyn,” said a cadet. “It belongs to the crowd that hangs around the Outlook Hotel.”
A minute of vigorous swimming brought Jack to the place where he had seen Randy go down. Filling his lungs with air, he dove beneath the surface, keeping his eyes wide open for whatever might appear.
He saw his cousin a few yards away, struggling feebly to regain the surface. In another moment he was at Randy’s side and then both came up as quickly as possible.
“Oh, Jack, I’m so glad you came after me!” were Randy’s first words, coming with severe gasps. “I was afraid I was a goner.”
“What was the matter, Randy, that you couldn’t swim better? Were you struck or was it a cramp?”
“Neither. It was the silver trophy. I tried to save it, but it was too heavy for me.”
“Oh, gee, I forgot all about it!” answered Jack. “Then the trophy has gone to the bottom of the lake! But never mind—I’d rather have the trophy missing than you,” he added grimly, and then aided his cousin to keep afloat until the motor boat came alongside and they were both assisted on board.
And now I think it is high time that I pause for a moment to introduce the Rover boys and their friends to those who are meeting them for the first time. In the first volume of this line of books, entitled “The Rover Boys at School,” I introduced three brothers, Dick, Tom and Sam Rover, and related how they were sent to Putnam Hall Military Academy where they made a number of chums, including a cadet named Lawrence Colby. From Putnam Hall the three Rover boys went to Brill College and then entered business in Wall Street, New York City.
During their days at school the Rover brothers fell in love with three nice girls, Dora Stanhope and her cousins, Nellie and Grace Laning. The three young couples became married and settled down in connecting houses on Riverside Drive in New York City. As the result of his marriage Dick Rover became the father of a son, Jack, and a daughter named Martha; Sam Rover was blessed with a girl named Mary, and then a son, who was christened Fred. About this same time Tom Rover’s wife, Nellie, came forward with a lively pair of twin boys, who were named Anderson and Randolph after their grandfather and their great-uncle. Andy and Randy, as they were always called, were full of fun, thus following in the footsteps of their ever-lively father.
Residing side by side, the younger generation of Rover boys, as well as the girls, were brought up very much as one large family. At first they attended private institutions of learning in the metropolis. But presently, when the lads began to develop a propensity for fun, it was decided to send them to some stricter institution of learning.
At that time Larry Colby was at the head of a military academy called Colby Hall. Jack and Fred, as well as the lively twins, were sent to that institution of learning, and what happened to them during their first term there has already been related in a volume entitled “The Rover Boys at Colby Hall.”
At school and elsewhere the young Rovers made many friends, and also a few enemies. Among their warmest chums were Gif Garrison, the son of their fathers’ old friend, Fred Garrison, after whom Fred Rover was named, and Spouter Powell, the son of the older Rover boys’ chum, John Powell, always known as Songbird.
A term at Colby Hall had been followed by some stirring winter adventures on “Snowshoe Island.” Then the cadets returned to school to go into an encampment “Under Canvas.” Later still the lads went on a great “Hunt.” During these times Jack and Fred took a great interest in military matters, and the former gradually worked up until he became major of the school battalion while Fred became captain of Company C. This was at a time when the World War was taking place and when their fathers, and also Colonel Colby, were doing their duty on the battlefields of France.
The war at an end, the older Rovers returned to the United States. Through a soldier whose life he had saved Dick Rover became interested in the oil fields of Texas and Oklahoma, and how he journeyed to the oil fields, taking the four Rover boys with him, is fully set forth in a volume entitled “The Rover Boys in the Land of Luck.” Dick Rover, aided by the boys, was highly successful in his quest for oil, but he made several bitter enemies, including Carson Davenport, who, with two of his pals, was sent to prison.
From the oil fields the boys returned to school, but a short time later accompanied Spouter Powell on a trip to “Big Horn Ranch.” Later still they went with Gif Garrison to “Big Bear Lake,” where they had some great doings. It was here that they found some of the Longley Academy boys in camp and where Tommy Flanders, the pitcher for the rival academy, had sought to do them much harm and had been brought to book.
Colby Hall was located on Clearwater Lake not far from the town of Haven Point. On the other side of the town was situated Clearwater Hall, a school for girls. Among the pupils at this institution were Ruth Stevenson and also May Powell, a cousin of Spouter Powell. Jack and the other lads speedily became acquainted with these girls and later on induced the folks at home to allow Martha and Mary to become pupils at the place.
Before Jack Rover had been elected major of the school battalion, Ralph Mason had occupied that important position. Through Ralph the lads obtained an invitation for a motor boat trip out to Nantucket and Cape Cod. What this trip led to has already been related in the volume preceding this, entitled “The Rover Boys Shipwrecked.” They found themselves carried down to the West Indies and were there plunged into an unexpected hunt for pirates’ gold.
“Well, we certainly had great times on that trip,” declared Randy. “I don’t suppose we’ll ever have such strenuous times again.” But Randy could not look into the future. Strenuous days were still to come for the boys, as the pages which follow will prove.
“Do you feel all right, Randy?” questioned Fred anxiously, as his cousin came aboard, followed by Jack.
“I—I think I’m all right!” gasped Randy. “Gee, it’s too bad the silver trophy went to the bottom of the lake! I hung on to it as long as I could, but it was too much for me.”
“You shouldn’t have risked your life for it,” said Phil Franklin.
“I had hold of it, too, but I let go before Randy did,” put in Andy. “I wasn’t going to drown for any trophy, no matter how valuable it was.”
“It’s all the fault of that steam yacht,” growled Pud Hicks. “We’re lucky they didn’t cut us in two.”
“Run up alongside and see what they’ve got to say,” said Jack, and as he spoke the young major of the school battalion did what he could to wring the water from his baseball uniform. Fortunately, it being a warm day, there was little danger of those who had been submerged taking cold.
The steam yacht was crowded with men and boys, most of whom had attended the ball game.
“You can’t lay this accident on me,” growled the man in charge of the steam yacht, a burly fellow with reddish hair and a bristly mustache. “I blew my whistle and I had the right of way.”
“No such thing!” retorted Pud Hicks. “You ran into us on purpose. I’m goin’ to report you.”
“It certainly was too bad it happened,” said a young man on the steam yacht, as he eyed the cadets critically. “You fellows didn’t get hurt, did you?”
“I came pretty close to getting drowned,” growled Randy.
“Yes, and the silver trophy we just won was knocked overboard,” added his brother. “I guess the owner of the yacht will have to settle that bill.”
“We won’t settle anything! It was all your fault, and you know it!” said the man who was running the steam yacht. “If any one is to make a complaint, it ought to be me!”
After this there was a wordy war lasting for five minutes or more. Each side seemed to be convinced that the fault lay with the other crowd. Finally a number of men aboard the steam yacht began to grumble.
“Stop chewing the rag and take us up to the hotel,” said one man. “I’ve got to catch that evening train.”
“That’s the talk!” put in another. “You fellows can settle this some other time.” And a minute later the steam yacht continued on its way up Clearwater Lake.
“Well, we didn’t make much out of that,” remarked one of the cadets.
“Just the same, I hold that they are responsible,” said Pud Hicks sturdily.
“I think so myself,” answered Jack. “But whether you can hold them for it or not is a question. If you took it to court probably they would have as many witnesses to side with them as we’d have for us.”
“I wouldn’t care so much if only the silver vase hadn’t been lost,” sighed Randy, who was now feeling once more like himself. “Gee! what are we going to tell the other fellows and Colonel Colby when we get back to the school?”
“I’m afraid there’ll be an awful howl go up when the fellows learn that the trophy has been lost,” answered the young major soberly.
“Why can’t we fish it up?” questioned Fred quickly. “How deep do you suppose the water is around here?”
“Thirty or forty feet at least—maybe twice that,” answered Pud Hicks.
“Well, we’ve got to get it back somehow!” cried Gif. “We worked too hard to win it to lose it this way.”
The motor boat was run around in a circle in the vicinity of the spot where the precious silver trophy had disappeared beneath the waters of the lake. Then, with heavy hearts, Pud Hicks and the cadets turned once more in the direction of the Colby Hall boat-landing.