The Rover Boys Down East: or, The Struggle for the Stanhope Fortune

“Dick, you cut him up,” answered Hans, rather faintly.

Dick took the carving knife and set to work. The knife went into the “cake” with ease, but there it stuck.

“What’s the matter, Dick?” asked Sam.

“I don’t know – the knife is stuck.”

“Better let me cut it.”

“Go ahead and try your luck, Sam.”

The youngest Rover came around and took hold of the knife. He tried to draw the blade free but merely succeeded in raising the “cake” into the air.

“Hello, it sticketh closer than a brother!” exclaimed Tom. “Hans, did you put a porous plaster in that cake?”

“Not much I tidn’t!” snapped the German lad. “Here, you gif me dot cake! I cut him ub for you, so quick like neffer vas!”

Very valiantly Hans took the “cake” and the knife and set to work. He had no more success than had Dick and Sam. Finally, in a rage, he lifted knife and “cake” on high and brought them down on a stone with a bang. The “cake” bounced back like a rubber ball and all but struck him in the face.

“Hello, Hans has been manufacturing a football!” cried Tom.

“Vot’s der madder mit dot ennahow!” roared the German youth. “I make him chust like mine mudder make him in der old country.”

“Hans, did you make the coffee cake with glue?” asked Dick.

“I ton’t know how I make him!” groaned poor Hans. “I got me all mixed up, mit eferybody around me! Say, can’t you vos got dot knife owid somehow?” he questioned anxiously.

“I’ll try a new way,” said Dick, and placed the “cake” under his feet. Then he drew on the knife, and it came up between his feet with a sucking sound.

“I guess you can sell that coffee cake for rubber,” said Sam.

“Don’t you want a slice, Sam?” asked Tom.

“Not today, thank you.”

“I dink I drow him into der vater!” cried Hans, and picked up the glue-like mass. Then he ran down to the lake front and balanced it on one of his hands. He gave a throw, but the “cake” did not land in the water as he had intended. Instead it remained stuck to his fingers.

“Can’t get rid of it so easily!” cried Dick. “Be careful, Hans, or that cake will be the death of you!”

“Du meine zeit!” groaned the German youth, and then he pulled at the mass until he had it free from his fingers. Then he gave it a kick with his foot, and it went into the lake with a splash.

And that was the first and last time Hans tried to make German coffee cake.

CHAPTER XV

STRANGE NEWS

Several days passed and during that time the lads amused themselves hugely, hunting, fishing, swimming and knocking around generally. Once they had a snake scare. The reptile got in the tent and held possession for nearly an hour, when Dick dislodged it with a stick and Sam ended its life with a stone.

“Say, I ton’t like dot!” cried Hans, when the excitement was at an end.

“I don’t believe any of us do,” answered Dick, dryly.

“I’ll be almost afraid to sleep in the tent tonight,” added Fred, with a shiver.

“Oh, I guess there was only one snake,” said Sam. “But we can look around for more.” Which they did, in as thorough a manner as possible. But no more reptiles were brought to light.

On Saturday it rained and the rain kept up all day Sunday. This was not so nice, and the boys remained under shelter most of the time.

“I guess I am a fair-weather camper,” observed Fred. “I don’t like this a bit.”

“Oh, let’s have a song!” cried Tom. “And then each fellow can tell a story.”

“And then we can play a little music,” added Sam. He had brought along a mouth harmonica, and Hans had a jews-harp.

Sunday evening it began to clear, and by midnight the stars were shining brightly.

“The weather will be all right by tomorrow,” said Dick, who had been out to look around.

“But the woods will be wet,” grumbled Fred.

“Never mind, let us go out in the boat. I’d like to explore the creek running in from the other shore.”

“That will suit me, Dick. Maybe we can get an extra lot of nice fish over there.”

All of the boys slept soundly and it was nearly eight o’clock when they commenced to get breakfast, and it was almost ten before they were ready to start in the sailboat for the other shore of the lake.

“Hello, here comes a boat!” exclaimed Dick, as he looked down Lake Nasco.

“Two men in it,” added Tom. “They seem to be in a hurry, too, by the way the fellow at the oars is rowing.”

“Why, it’s Jack Ness in the back of the boat!” exclaimed Sam, as the craft drew closer. “That is Pete Hawley rowing.”

“Jack must have a message,” came from Dick. “Wonder what it can be?”

“Hello, boys!” yelled the Rovers’ hired man, as soon as he was within hailing distance. “Got a very particular letter fer you!” And he waved the communication in the air.

“What is it, Jack?” demanded Dick, quickly.

“You jess read the letter, and you’ll find out as quick as I kin tell you,” answered the man.

“Anybody sick or hurt?” asked Sam.

“Nobuddy hurt – leas’wise not in body, an’ nobuddy sick nuther, in the ordinary way. But I reckon your friends from Cedarville is putty sick all the way through, when they think of their loss.”

Dick snatched the letter and glanced at it. It was in his father’s handwriting and bore only a few lines, as follows:

“Just received a telegram from Mrs. Stanhope, wanting to know if I had received her money, as asked for? Telegraphed back that I had not asked for money and had received none. Then she telegraphed that she had sent money to a certain place at my request. I don’t understand this at all. I fear something is wrong, and I am going to Cedarville without delay. Better come home and wait to hear from me.”