CHAPTER VIII

AN UNWELCOME ARRIVAL

The second week pa.s.sed and they spent a quiet Sunday in camp.

They were fortunate in their hunting and brought in large quant.i.ties of small game. Shep brought down a silver-tailed fox, of which he was very proud, and Whopper laid low the biggest rabbit they had yet seen. One day Giant and Snap went out for partridge and brought in three, all of fair size. They had also come across the track of some deer, and hoped to get on the trail of big game in the near future.

But Tuesday morning brought a disagreeable surprise. They were just getting ready for dinner, and Giant was out in the boat, fishing, when they heard a noise that was new to them.

"What do you suppose that is?" asked Whopper. "Sounds like an automobile approaching," answered Shep. "But of course it can't be that."

"It's a gasolene launch," declared Snap. "There she is now!" and he pointed to an outlying spur of land, around which the craft was puffing.

The launch was a craft fully forty feet long and correspondingly broad of beam. She was piled high with an outfit for camping, and in the boat were six men, two of whom were evidently camp helpers and guides.

"I believe those men are coming here!" declared Shep, as the launch turned in toward them.

The boys watched the approach of the gasolene launch with interest.

It did not take long for the craft to reach a position directly in front of the camp, and there the power was turned off and one of the men prepared to leap ash.o.r.e.

"Hullo!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed a man in the stern of the launch, gazing ash.o.r.e at the cabin. "What in thunder does this mean?"

No one answered him, and a moment later the bow of the launch sc.r.a.ped the sand and one after another the men leaped out. The boat was tied up and the men approached the young hunters.

"I say, what does this mean?" demanded the man who had spoken before. He was a burly individual, with a heavy black moustache and closecut beard. The look out of his eye was far from a pleasant one.

"What does what mean?" returned Snap, as coolly as he could, yet he felt that something "was in the wind."

"This!" cried the man, pointing to the cabin. "Who built that?"

"We did," put in Shep.

"Did you?" sneered the man. "And who gave you permission to do it?"

"n.o.body," said Whopper. "We took permission. What have you got to say about it?" he added, not liking the man's tone.

"What have I got to say about it?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the bearded man.

"I've got a good deal to say about it, seems to me. Don't you know this is my private property?"

"No; we didn't know that," put in Snap, quickly. "Are you Mr.

Chester?"

"No; I am Mr. Andrew Felps."

"Oh!" exclaimed Snap, but the word meant a good deal. He remembered that the man named was the head of the lumber company with which the Barnaby Lumber Company had had its dispute over the Spur Road tract. Snap's father had had several interviews with Mr. Andrew Felps, and the feeling engendered was decidedly bitter.

"You boys have no right on this property," went on Andrew Felps.

"I thought Mr. Chester owned this tract of land."

"He did, but he has sold out to the Felps Lumber Company, of which I am the head. Who ar you?"

"My name is Charley Dodge."

"Humph!! Come from Fairview?"

"Yes, sir."

"Is it your father who has the interest in the lumber company there?"

"Yes, sir."

At this discovery Andrew Felps' face grew positively resentful.

"I suppose he sent you up here, eh?" he snarled.

"No. We got permission to go camping out and picked this place as suiting us."

"Well, you knew what was good," put in another of the men.

"Did you see us looking around here a couple of weeks ago?" went on Andrew Felps.

"We did not."

"Who are these---other kids with you?"

"Thank you, but I am not a kid," put in Shep. "My name is Sheppard Reed, and I am the son of Dr. Reed of Fairview. This is Frank Dawson, and the boy out in the boat is Will Caslette. We all belong at Fairview. As Snap---I mean Charley---says, we came to camp out. We have always understood that this was a free camping-out place. Folks have come to this lake for years."

"Well, they are not coming here any more!" cried Andrew Felps.

"After this those who come will pay for the privilege."

"The place isn't fenced in," said Whopper.

"No; but it will be, shortly. I am going to have a wire fence put up."

Seeing there was a dispute going on, Giant came ash.o.r.e.

"What's the trouble?" he sang out. "Bad news from home?"

"No---bad news right here," murmured Shep, coming towards him.

"What do you mean?"

"Wait and see."

"I came down here to camp out myself," went on Andrew Felps. "I and my friends picked this very spot over two weeks ago. I am going to have a first-cla.s.s cabin built here shortly. You boys had no right to cut down the trees."