“Oh, no you don’t! Hand it over or I’ll take it by force.”
Wendell looked searchingly at the ranger. “See here,” he said in a conciliatory tone. “I’ll pay for the book and the canoe too. I meant no harm. I only want to catch my train at Bryson. You see, I picked up the book by accident—”
“You’ll catch no train today,” Jack interrupted bluntly. “You’re going back to Loon Lake. Incidentally, there’s a matter of a board bill to settle. Now hand over the book!”
Reluctantly, the chemist relinquished it. Jack passed it on to Madge who hastily examined it to see that no pages were missing.
“You knew it contained the formula,” she accused.
“That’s the wildest accusation yet!” the chemist laughed derisively. “You and that Fairaday girl have built up a pretty story which you’ve kidded yourselves into believing is true. Fairaday never owned a formula. It was an obsession.”
“Move along!” Jack ordered. “Walk ahead of me and don’t try any tricks.”
Madge followed close behind. She was highly elated at having regained possession of “Kim.” Yet what if Anne should fail to bring out the secret writing? Clyde seemed so confident they would not succeed.
“We’ll find some way to reveal the writing!” she resolved. “At any rate, I’ll not worry until after we’ve made another laboratory test.”