the next day was sunday, and the entire family, including mike, attended church in the village of east madison, about a mile from the cottage. the afternoon was spent in reading and talking, for the boys never went on the lake sunday, except in case of necessity. soon after breakfast the next day, jack and bob were sitting on the porch discussing plans for the day, when they saw a rowboat, containing two men, rounding the point. they watched them, with no particular interest, till it was evident that they were making for their wharf, then suddenly jack declared, "they are the men who were in our boat the other day."
"so they are," affirmed bob, "wonder what they want?"
"guess we'll have to wait and see," advised jack.
by this time the boat was within a few feet of the dock, and soon she was tied and the men were approaching the house.
"good morning, boys," said the older man, pleasantly, as they reached the steps. 44"good morning," replied both boys. "won't you come up and sit down?"
"thanks," and both accepted the invitation. "we've come up to have a little business talk," began the older man and without waiting for the boys to speak, he continued, "my name is robert king, and this," indicating his companion, "is william reed. we are from boston and are spending a few days at the hotel down the lake. now we want to buy a motorboat, and seeing yours saturday, we thought we might be able to strike a bargain with you."
"sorry, sir," broke in bob, "but she is not for sale."
"that's too bad," said mr. king, "for she is just what we want. of course," he continued, "we could get one like her, but it would take several days and we don't want to wait, as our time is limited. now i'll tell you what we'll do. we are both rich men and money is no object to us, so we get what we want, and we are willing to pay you one thousand dollars for the boat."
this, as the boys knew, was considerable more than the sprite was worth, but bob gave jack a slight wink as he said:
"that's a very generous offer, and much more than the sprite is worth, but we don't wish to sell."
"suppose we make it two thousand dollars," spoke up mr. reed.45
"nothing doing," replied jack.
"then you won't sell at any price?" asked king.
"no, not at any price," repeated bob.
"well, would you rent her to us for a few days?"
"sorry, sir, but you see our vacation will be over in a short time, and we want her to use every day," replied bob.
"very well, then, we'll bid you goodby," said mr. king, as they both arose, but the look he gave them was by no means as pleasant as the one with which he had greeted them.
as soon as the two men were out of hearing, jack turned to his brother, "pretty thin wasn't it?"
"it sure was; all they were after was to get hold of that new battery. something tells me that we are going to have trouble keeping our secret."
at this moment their father came out on the porch.
"boys, can you take me across? i want to catch the nine-thirty downtown."
"sure thing," answered jack, "but we'll have to hustle, as it's after nine now."
on the way across the boys told their father about the visit of the two men and he agreed with them as to their motive. they landed mr. golden just in time for his car and, as they were casting off, they saw mr. wright running down the wharf towards them.46
"don't forget, boys, that you are coming to see us today."
"all right, sir," replied bob, "we'll be down right after supper."
"and bring your sister and her friend with you," invited mr. wright.
"we'll do that," answered jack eagerly.
the boys made good time back to the cottage, and spent the rest of the day playing tennis with the girls and swimming in the lake. as soon as supper was over, accompanied by the two girls, they started down the lake to make their promised call.
"hope to goodness they don't make a big fuss over us," grumbled jack.
"oh, you are too modest," declared edna.
they spent a very pleasant evening with the wrights, although poor jack's worst fears were realized, for it seemed that mr. and mrs. wright could not praise them enough for saving their children. the two little girls, who were twins about ten years old, were very profuse with their thanks, fairly hugging both boys, to their embarrassment, which, however, greatly delighted both edna and may. to their great surprise, mr. wright presented each of the boys with a very pretty gold watch "not," he said, "to pay you for saving my girls, for i could never do that, but as a slight token of my gratitude."
about nine o'clock they said good night and 47started for home. it was a beautiful evening and, although the moon was not yet up, the stars helped to make the darkness less intense. bob ran the sprite at about half speed, for, although they had an electric searchlight, he did not want to take any chances with the girls on board. they were about half way home and near the middle of the lake, when suddenly a rowboat loomed up dead ahead, and coming directly toward them. in it were two men. one was at the oars, while the other was sitting in the bow. in a moment the two boats were within speaking distance and a voice, which both boys recognized as king's hailed them.
"i say, boys, can you give us a few matches; our lantern has gone out and we haven't a single one left."
it happened that bob had a box of safety matches in his pocket, and always willing to oblige, he shut off the power and soon the rowboat pulled up alongside. reed caught hold of the side of the sprite to steady his boat, while king dropped his oars and stood up in the boat, stretching forth his hand as if to take the box which bob was holding out to him. but suddenly he was dumfounded to see, shining from king's hand, the barrel of a revolver.
"now, young fellow, we are desperate men and want no fooling. just hand over that cell you are using to run that boat, and be mighty quick about it, too."48
"why—why—what do you mean?" stammered bob, for he was so amazed at the turn affairs had taken that he could hardly speak.
"quick, now, or we'll throw you all into the lake."
"oh, bob," whispered edna, "let them have it or they'll kill us."
by this time bob had partially recovered his senses, and his quick brain was trying to figure a way out of the difficulty, for he did not intend to give up the cell if he could help it. fortunately, however, the problem was solved for him in a very unexpected manner. the stern of the rowboat was directly opposite the stern of the sprite where jack was sitting. the latter, quickly taking in the situation, rose to his feet, and suddenly giving a spring, landed, with his full weight, on the stern of the light rowboat. under his one-hundred sixty pounds, the boat gave a heavy lurch and in a second king had lost his balance and fallen over backwards into the lake. both girls screamed and jack shouted as he scrambled back on board the larger boat. "full speed ahead, bob."
when the rowboat lurched, reed lost his hold and before he could recover it, the sprite was darting up the lake, while a string of oaths from the rowboat followed them.
"my, but that was great work, jack, old fellow," exclaimed bob. "i don't know how we would have 49saved the cell if you hadn't tipped that fellow out of the boat. how'd you happen to think of it?"
"didn't think of it at all," chuckled jack, "just did it without thinking."
"well," spoke up may, "it saved us and it was a mighty brave thing to do."
"now, turn off the soft soap spigot," ordered jack, and they all laughed.
they soon reached the wharf, and, running up to the house, told mr. golden what had happened.
"this is serious, indeed," he declared, taking up the phone. he soon had the manager of the hotel on the wire, telling him of the hold-up. the manager, in turn, said that two men, calling themselves king and reed had been stopping there for about a week and had started off for a row about eight o'clock that evening. he promised to have them arrested at once if they returned, but doubted very much if they would show up again. he suggested that mr. golden call up the police of skowhegan and madison and ask them to be on the lookout for them. this he did, describing the two men as well as he could from the boys' description, and the police promised to be on the watch. but although the country round about was well searched, no clue to them was found, but the rowboat was picked up the next morning near the foot of the lake.
