“What is it, Dick?”
“I think I saw somebody moving around the corner of the house just now.”
Both boys strained their eyes, but could see nothing that resembled a human form.
“I don’t see a thing, Dick.”
“Come, we’ll move around to the outside of the garden,” returned the older brother.
The flower garden was not large, and was separated from the vegetable laths. As they made their way along this, both caught the sound of a window sliding up.
“Hark! Did you hear that?” whispered Dick excitedly.
“I did. It came from the back of the house.”
“Somebody must be trying to get into the kitchen window!”
Dick broke into a run, with Tom at his heels. Entering the garden by a rear gate, they soon reached the vicinity of the kitchen. A window stood wide open, and through this they beheld somebody inside the apartment with a blazing match in his hand trying to light a candle.
“Hi, there, who are you?” cried Tom, before Dick could stop him.
At the sound of the call the man in the kitchen jumped as though stung by a bee. Then he wheeled around, with the lighted candle in his hand, and both boys saw that it was Josiah Crabtree.
CHAPTER V
A STRUGGLE IN THE DARK
“Crabtree, you rascal!” ejaculated Dick.
“Who—who is that?” spluttered the former teacher of Putnam Hall, in dismay.
“It is I—Dick Rover. What are you doing here?”
“I—I came to call upon the Widow Stanhope,” stammered Josiah Crabtree. He was so astonished he knew not what to say.
“You came to rob her, more likely,” sneered Tom. “You just broke in at the window.”
“No, no—it—it is all a mistake, Rover. I—I am stopping here for the night.”
“Indeed!” gasped Dick, almost struck dumb over the man’s show of “nerve,” as he afterward expressed it.
“Yes, I am stopping here.”
“With Mrs. Stanhope’s permission of course.”
“Certainly. How could I stop here otherwise?”
“What are you doing in the kitchen all alone?’”
“Why, I—er—I was up in my room, but I—er—wanted a glass of water and so came down for it.”
“Then Mrs. Stanhope and Dora have gone to bed?”
“Yes, they just retired.”
“Have you become friends again?” asked Dick, just to learn what Josiah Crabtree might say.
“Yes, Rover, Mrs. Stanhope is once more my best friend.”
“Then she doesn’t know what a rascal you were out in Africa.”
“My dear Richard, you are laboring under a great delusion. I was never in Africa in my life.”
“What!” roared Dick aghast at the man’s audacity.
“I speak the truth. I have made an investigation, and have learned that somebody went to Africa under my name, just to take advantage of my—ahem—of my exalted rank as a professor.”
“Great Scott! how you can draw the long bow!” murmured Tom.
“I speak the plain truth. I can prove that for the past six months I have been in Chicago and other portions of the West.
“Well, if you are a guest here, just stay with Tom while I call the Stanhopes,” said Dick, and leaped in at the window.
“Boy, you shall do nothing of the kind,” cried Josiah Crabtree, his manner changing instantly.
“Why not? If you are friends, it will do no harm.”
“Mrs. Stanhope is—er—is not feeling well, and I will not have her disturbed by a headstrong youth like you.”
“We’ll see about that. If you—”
Dick broke off short, for just then a voice he knew well floated down into the kitchen from upstairs.
“Who is talking down there? Is that you, Dick?” It was Dora speaking, in a voice full of excitement.
“Yes, Dora, it is I—and Tom. We have caught Josiah Crabtree here in your kitchen.”
“Oh!” The girl gave a little scream. “What a villain! Can you hold him?”
“We can try,” answered Dick. He turned to Crabtree. “I reckon your game is up, old man.”
“Let me go!” growled the former teacher fiercely, and as Dick advanced upon him he thrust the lighted candle full into the youth’s face. Of course Dick had to fall back, not wishing to be burnt, and a second later the candle went out leaving the room in total darkness.
But now Tom sprang forward, bearing Crabtree to the floor. Over and over rolled the pair, upsetting first a chair and then a small table.
At the sound of the row Dora Stanhope began to scream, fearing one of her friends might be killed, and presently Mrs. Stanhope joined in. But the cottage was situated too far away for any outsiders to hear, so the boys had to fight the battle alone.
At length Josiah Crabtree pulled himself clear of Tom’s hold and made for the open window. But now Dick had recovered and he hurled the man backward.
The movement kept Crabtree in the room, but it was disastrous to Tom, for as the former teacher fell back his heel was planted on Tom’s forehead, and for the time being the younger Rover lay stunned and unable to continue the contest.
Finding himself unable to escape by the window, Josiah Crabtree felt his way to the door and ran out into the hall. Because of his former visits to the house he knew the ground plan well, and from the hall he darted into the parlor and then into the sitting room.
Dick tried to catch him, and once caught his arm. But Crabtree broke loose and placed a large center table between them.
“Don’t dare to stop me, Rover,” hissed the man desperately. “If you do you will be sorry. I am armed.”
“So am I armed, Josiah Crabtree. And I call upon you to surrender.”
“What, you would shoot me!” cried the former teacher, in terror.
“Why not? Didn’t you try to take my life in Africa?”
“I repeat, you are mistaken.”
“I am not mistaken, and can prove my assertion by half a dozen persons.”
“I have not been near Africa.”
“I won’t argue the point with you. Do you surrender or not?”
“Yes, I will surrender,” replied Josiah Crabtree meekly.
Yet he did not mean what he said, and as Dick came closer he gave the lad a violent shove backward, which made the elder Rover boy sit down in an easy chair rather suddenly. Then he darted into a small conservatory attached to the sitting room.
“Stop!” panted Dick, catching his breath.
“Tom, he is running away!”
Crash! jingle! jingle! jingle! Josiah Crabtree had tried the door to the conservatory and finding it locked and the key gone, had smashed out some of the glass and leaped through the opening thus afforded.
By this time Dora was coming downstairs, clad in a wrapper and carrying a lamp in her hand. The first person she met was Tom, who staggered into the hall with his hand to his bruised forehead.
“Oh, Tom, are you hurt?” she shrieked.
“Not much,” he answered. “But Dick—Dick, where are you?”
“Here, in the conservatory. Crabtree just jumped through the glass!”
Dora ran into the little apartment, which Mrs. Stanhope had just begun to fill with flowers for the coming winter. Tom came behind her, carrying a poker he had picked up.
“Is he out of sight?” asked Tom.
“Yes, confound the luck,” replied his brother. “Which way did he go?”
“I don’t know.”
“We ought to follow him.”
“We will.” Dick turned to Dora. “After we are gone you had better lock up better than ever, and remain on guard until morning.”
“I will, Dick,” she answered.
The key to the con
servatory door was hanging on a nearby nail, and taking it down they unlocked the door, and the two boys passed into the darkness of the night outside.
“Please take care of yourselves!” cried Dora after them, and then turned to quiet her mother, who had come downstairs in a state of excitement bordering on hysteria, for, as old readers know, Mrs. Stanhope’s constitution was a delicate one.
Running into the garden, Dick made out a dim form in the distance, on the path leading to the lake.
“There he is!” he cried. “Come, Tom, we must catch him, if we can!”
“I am with you,” answered Tom. “But take care what you do. He may be in a desperate frame of mind.”
“He is desperate. But I am not afraid of him,” returned the elder Rover, with determination.
Josiah Crabtree was running with all the speed of his long legs, and the two lads soon found that they had all they could do to keep him in sight.
“Stop!” yelled Tom, at the top of his voice, but to this command the former, teacher paid no attention. If anything, he ran the faster.
“He is bound for the lake,” said Dick. “He must have a boat.”
But Dick was mistaken, for just before the water came into view Josiah Crabtree branched off onto the road leading into Cedarville. Then of a sudden the shadows of a patch of woods hid him from view.
“He’s gone!” came from Tom, as he slackened his speed.
“He didn’t turn down to the lake.”
“That’s so. He must have gone toward Cedarville.”
The Rover boys came to a halt and looked about them searchingly. On one side of the road lay a tilled field, on the other were rocks and trees and bushes. They listened intently, but only the occasional cry of a night bird broke the stillness.
“We are stumped!” groaned Dick dismally.
“What, you aren’t going to give up the hunt already, are you?” demanded Tom.
“No, but where did he go?”
“Perhaps he went back to the house.”
“I don’t believe he would dare to do that. Besides, what would he go for?”
“What made him go in the first place?”
“I am sure I don’t know. Perhaps he was going to abduct Dora—or Mrs. Stanhope.”
“If he was going to do that alone, he would have had his hands full.”
The two boys advanced, but with great caution. They peered into the woods and behind some of the larger rocks, but discovered nothing.
“That is the second time we have lost our game to-day,” remarked Tom soberly. “First it was Dan Baxter or somebody else, and now it is Josiah Crabtree.”
“It must have been Baxter who tried to wreck the stage. He and old Crabtree always did hang together.”
“If they are stopping anywhere in Cedarville we ought to put the police on their track.”
“I’ll do that sure. We can easily hold both on half a dozen charges—if we can catch them.”
CHAPTER VI
AN INTERESTING LETTER
But to catch Josiah Crabtree was not easy. The former teacher of Putnam Hall was thoroughly alarmed, and once having taken to the woods, he plunged in deeper and deeper, until to find him would have been almost an impossibility. Indeed, he completely lost himself, and when the boys had left the vicinity he found himself unable to locate the road again, and so had to remain in the cold and damp woods all night, much to his discomfort. He could not keep warm, and sat chattering on a rock until daylight.
Finding it of no use to continue the search, Dick and Tom retraced their steps to the Stanhope homestead. They found Dora on guard, with every window and door either locked or nailed up. The girl had persuaded her feeble mother to lie down again, but Mrs. Stanhope was still too excited to rest comfortably.
“Did you catch him?” Dora asked anxiously, after she had admitted them.
“No, he got away in the darkness,” answered Dick.
“It is too bad. What do you suppose he was up to?”
“That is what we would like to find out, Dora. Certainly he was up to no good.”
“Perhaps he wished to rob us.”
“He must know that you do not keep much money in the house.”
“Day before yesterday mother had me draw four hundred dollars out of the bank, to pay for the new barn we have had built. The carpenter, however, went to Ithaca on business, so as yet we have not been able to pay him the money.”
“It was a mistake to keep so much cash in the house. You should have paid by check—it’s the same thing,” put in Tom.
“I know it, but Mr. Gradley is peculiar. He once had some trouble over a check, and he stipulated that he should be paid in cash.”
“Do you suppose Josiah Crabtree saw you draw the money from the bank?” remarked Dick thoughtfully.
“I don’t know what to think.”
“He would be just rascal enough to try to get it, if he knew of it. I guess we had better remain here until morning, and after that you had better have a man around the house.”
“Yes, mother says she will hire a man. But men are difficult to get—that is, one who is reliable. We had to discharge Borgy on account of drunkenness.”
“Perhaps father will let Alexander Pop come up here for a while,” cried Dick, struck with the idea. “I don’t believe he needs the man at home, and Aleck is thoroughly reliable, even if he is colored.”
“Yes, I know Pop well. I would like to have him first-rate. But it is asking a good deal at your hands, Dick.”
“As if I wouldn’t do a good deal more than that, Dora,” he cried quickly, and caught her hand.
“I know you would—you have already. You are the best friend I have, Dick—you and your brothers.”
“And I always will be, Dora, always!” he whispered, and pressed her hand so tightly that she blushed like a peony.
Tom had passed into the kitchen and was looking around to see what damage his struggle with Crabtree had done. Nothing was injured. Under the kitchen table lay a letter and a small vial. He picked up both.
“Chloroform!” he cried, as he smelt of the contents of the vial, just as the others came in.
“Where did you get that?” asked Dora.
“Found it under the table, along with this letter. Crabtree must have dropped both.”
“Let me see the letter!” cried Dick.
Tom passed it over, and all three read the communication with interest. It had been sent to Josiah Crabtree while the latter had been stopping in New York, and was post-marked Albany.
“It’s from Dan Baxter,” said Dick.
The letter ran as follows:
“Dear Mr. Crabtree:
“I drop you a few lines as promised. I have seen my father and his plans are about completed. The Rovers think they have the upper hand, but when he gets out of jail he will be able to show them a thing or two and surprise them. If you go to Cedarville I will meet you there on the 5th of next month—at the old meeting place. We won’t have Mumps, the turncoat, to bother us, and maybe we can lay plans for a fat deal all around. Anyway, we ought to square accounts with those Rover boys. They treated both of us outrageously and they ought to suffer for it.
“Yours as faithfully as ever,
“D.B.”
“Won’t Crabtree be mad when he finds out that he lost this?” grinned Tom.
“He may not know that he dropped it here.”
“Well, it clears up one point. Baxter and he are both around, and intent on mischief.”
“True enough.”
“What shall you do next?” put in Dora anxiously.
“I hardly know. ‘Forwarned is forearmed,’ they say, but Baxter and Crabtree are such underhanded rascals one never knows what to expect of them next.”
“Of course you will tell the Cedarville police—or I shall.
”
“I’ll do that. But you know what they did before. Never helped us a bit, but let both slip through their fingers.”
“Perhaps they will be on their mettle now.”
The situation was talked over for half an hour, and then it was decided that Tom should return to Putnam Hall to explain to Captain Putnam and to Sam, while Dick should remain with the Stanhopes.
This agreed upon, Tom took his departure immediately, as it was now midnight, and he did not wish to be locked out for the night.
“And now you had better return to bed, Dora,” said Dick, after his brother had departed. “I will remain downstairs, on the sofa, and I don’t believe anybody will disturb me.”
“All right, if you wish it that way,” replied the girl. “But you can have one of the bedrooms if you wish.”
“No, I’ll stay here, and keep my clothes on.”
Dora went upstairs, but soon came back, carrying a pillow and a quilt.
“There, that will provide a little comfort,” she said, but then, as Dick caught her hand as if to kiss it, she gave a merry little laugh and ran upstairs again.
It was a long while before Dick could go to sleep. He had read the letter found in the kitchen with care, and he wondered what it all meant.
“What plans can Arnold Baxter be completing?” he asked himself. “And how can he surprise father? Can that refer to the missing mine in Colorado? He talks as if he was going to get out of jail pretty soon, but that can’t be, for the judge will certainly give him three or four years at the least. Perhaps I had better write to father about this.”
No other person came that night to disturb the inmates of the cottage, and when at last Dick did fall into slumber he did not awaken until the sun was shining in the window and a neighboring Irish woman, who did Mrs. Stanhope’s washing and ironing, was knocking on the kitchen door for entrance.
“Good-morning, Mrs. O’Toole,” he said, as he leaped up and let her in.
“Good-marnin’, young sir,” stammered the washerwoman. “Sure an’ I didn’t ixpict to see you here.”
“I suppose not. But come in, and I will call Miss Dora.”
“No need to call me, if you please,” came in a silvery voice from the hall, and Dora appeared, as bright and fresh as ever. “I would have been down before, only I had to wait on mamma.”
The Rover Boys Megapack Page 48