“Oh, they’re all well enough up at the farm,” answered the young major. “But Ruth has her troubles,” and then he told of what the girl had written.
“It’s too bad,” remarked his cousin. “I wonder why Mr. Stevenson doesn’t try to get on the track of those two men, Norris and Lemrech, the workmen who were interested in getting such formulas. Don’t you remember they said Lemrech was of a shady reputation and not above stealing the formulas and that the other fellow, who was his cousin, was the same kind of man?”
“Well, Mr. Stevenson is probably trying to locate those fellows. But maybe they know enough to keep out of sight.”
“If he shouldn’t get the formulas back, Jack, it might bankrupt him.”
“That’s just what I have been thinking,” answered the young major soberly.
CHAPTER XX
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.”