“As I wrote you a few days ago,” he began, “I expected to sail from New York to-morrow on a business trip to Europe. I had my plans all made and even had my passage engaged and then like a bolt out of a clear sky we found that Father’s cashier had skipped with nearly a quarter of a million dollars. John Stebbins had been with us for over twenty years and we all thought him the very soul of honor. It comes at a very hard time for Father. You see business has been poor lately and he lost a lot of money a few months ago through the failure of one of our biggest customers and the loss of this money will pretty badly cripple him.”
“Now I know that you are wondering what I am doing up here in Maine but I have reason to think that he’s up here. Did you ever hear of a lake by the name Umsaskis?”
The boys thought a moment.
“I’m not sure,” Bob replied slowly. “But I think there’s a lake by that name up some twenty or thirty miles north of Chemquessbamticook. It’s up pretty close to the border if I’m correct. But Father will know and he ought to be home pretty soon.”
“Well just a few days ago I happened to pass Stebbins’ office and heard him talking to some man whom I didn’t know. I didn’t intend to listen but I was getting some papers out of the safe and couldn’t help hearing what he was saying. He mentioned that lake and I heard him say that he had been there some years ago and might be there before long. As it was pretty near to the time he was to leave for his vacation I thought nothing of it. In fact I had forgotten all about it but after we found that he had left with the money I remembered it.
“I told Father about it and I can’t say that he seemed to attach a great deal of importance to it but when we couldn’t find a single clue to his whereabouts he consented to my coming up here to see if I could locate him. You see Father’s business is in such shape that if it was known that he had lost all the money it would be sure to ruin him. So for that reason, he has not let it be known.”
“Will you let us go up there with you?” Jack asked eagerly.
“Will I? I was hoping that you’d propose it. I hated to ask you but I sure do want you.”
“Of course we want to go,” Bob assured him. “You couldn’t keep us at home with a ten-horse team.”
“And he was saying only yesterday that he hoped nothing would happen the rest of the summer.”