Page:Outdoor Girls at Rainbow Lake.djvu/178

164. It was very strange. Mr. Ford and his lawyer friends could not understand it. The interests opposed to him were preparing to take action, it was rumored, and if the papers were found this would be stopped. Even a detective agency that made a specialty of tracing lost articles had no success. Prince and the papers seemed to have vanished into thin air.

One day as Betty and her chums were motoring about the lake, having gone to the store for some supplies, they saw the two boys who had been searching for their canoe.

"Did you find it?" asked Grace.

"No, not a trace of it. Too, bad, too, for we saved up our money nearly a year to buy her. Some one must have her. The reward is four dollars, now," said the taller of the two lads. "If you find her we'll give you that money; won't we?" and he appealed to his companion.

"We sure will!"

"Well, if we see, or hear, anything of it we'll let you know," promised Betty. "Poor fellows," she murmured, as they rowed away. They had made a circuit of the lake, going in many coves, but without success.

"It's about time to be thinking of camp, if we're going in for that sort of thing," announced Betty one day. "Shall we try it, girls?"