“What’s that?” called out Randy Fairwell.
“Those Rover boys!” ejaculated Arnold Baxter, and his face turned white.
“I said, Hold those men!” repeated Tom. “Don’t let them get away from you.”
“What for? Who are you?”
“Those fellows are rascals, and the father is an escaped prison-bird,” put in Sam. “Hold them or they will run, sure.”
“It’s false,” burst out Dan Baxter. “That fellow is crazy. I never saw him before.”
“I guess they are both crazy,” put in Arnold Baxter, taking the cue from his son. “Certainly I never set eyes on them before.”
“Do not believe one word of what he says,” said Tom. “His name is not what he said, but Arnold Baxter, and he is the man who got out of a New York prison by means of a forged pardon. You must have read of that case in the newspapers last summer?”
“I did read of it,” answered Randy Fairwell. “But—but—” He was too bewildered to go on. “Where did you young men come from?”
“We were carried off in a schooner hired by these rascals and put in a cave on this island. We escaped only after a hard fight.”
“But why were you carried off?” asked one of the other men on board of the sloop.
“These Baxters wanted to get our father to pay them money for our safe return.”
“A kidnapping, eh?”
“It’s a—a fairy story, and these fellows must be stark mad!” cried Arnold Baxter. “I give you my word, gentlemen, I never set eyes on the chaps before. Either they are escaped lunatics or else their lonely life here has turned their brains.”
For a moment there was a pause; Sam and Tom standing at the end of the plank, clubs in hand, and the Baxters on the deck of the sloop, surrounded by the three men who had been sailing the craft. Those of the sloop looked from one party to the other in bewilderment.
“Well, I must say I don’t know whom to believe,” said Randy Fairwell slowly. He turned to the boys. “Who are you?”
“Tom Rover, and this is my brother Sam,” answered the elder of the pair.
“I never heard the name before,” said Arnold Baxter loftily.
“They don’t appear to be very crazy,” put in one of the men, whose name was Ruff.
“That’s true, but they must be crazy or they wouldn’t address my father and me in this fashion,” said Dan Baxter.
“They can talk all they please,” retorted Sam. “But if you let them escape, you will make a great mistake.”
“Here is a fair suggestion,” said Tom. “Take us all to the mainland and to the nearest police station. The authorities will soon straighten out this tangle.”
“That certainly seems fair,” muttered Randy Fairwell.
“I say these boys must be crazy,” blustered Arnold Baxter. “If you take them on board, the chances are they’ll try to murder us.”
“I don’t want to sail with a couple of crazy fellows,” put in Dan, scowling darkly at the Rovers.
“We might keep a close watch on them,” suggested Ruff.
“And keep a close watch on the Baxters,” added Tom.
At this moment the door of the tiny cabin of the sloop opened, and a girl came out, rubbing her eyes as if she had been taking a nap, which was a fact.
She stared at the Baxters like one in a dream, and then gave a sudden cry of alarm.
“Is it you!”
“Dora Stanhope!” ejaculated Tom and Sam in a breath.
Then the girl started and turned her eyes ashore. “Tom Rover! And Sam! Where in the wide world did you come from?”
The Baxters fell back, almost overcome, and the father clutched the arm of his son savagely.
“We’ve put our foot into it here,” he muttered.
“Who would have supposed that she was on this boat?” came from the son.
“Do you know these folks, Miss Stanhope?” questioned Randy Fairwell.
“Yes, I know all of them.” answered the girl, when she had somewhat recovered from her surprise.
“Of course she knows us,” put in Tom, “and she knows those rascals, too; don’t you, Dora?”
“Yes, Tom. But how did you come here?”
“It’s a long tale, Dora. But just now I want you to help me bring the Baxters to justice. They are trying to make out that they are all right and that we are crazy.”
“Crazy! The idea! Indeed, Mr. Fairwell, these boys are not crazy. They are my best friends. They are Tom and Sam Rover, and they are brothers to the Dick Rover I told you about.”
“And what of these fellows?” questioned the master of the sloop.
“This man is an escaped prisoner, and this is his son, who is also wanted by the authorities, I believe.”
“Trash and nonsense!” stormed Arnold Baxter, hardly knowing what to say. “This is simply a plot against us.” He caught his son by the arm. “Come, we had better be going, since we are not wanted here.”
He leaped upon the plank and Dan came after him.
“Get back there!” roared Tom, standing at the outer end of the plank. “Another step and I’ll crack your head open, Arnold Baxter!”
And he swung his club in the air defiantly.
“Out of my way, or I will fire on you!” answered Arnold Baxter, and started to draw his pistol.
“Oh, don’t!” screamed Dora, and covered her face with her hands.
“We want no shooting here—” began Randy Fairwell, and then stopped short in wonder.
For reaching down, Tom had suddenly given the end of the plank a wobble. Before they could save themselves, the Baxters, father and son, pitched with a loud splash into the lake.
“Good for you!” cried Sam. “If only they don’t try to shoot when they come up.”
There was a commotion in the water and mud lining the shore, and slowly the Baxters appeared to view, covered with slime and weeds, and both empty-handed, for Dan had not had time to draw his weapon, and that of the father lay somewhere on the bottom.
“Now do you surrender, or shall I do a little shooting?” said Tom sternly, although he had no weapon.
“Don’t shoot me, please don’t!” howled Dan, his last bit of courage deserting him.
The father said nothing, but looked as if he would like to annihilate both of the Rovers.
Randy Fairwell turned quickly to Dora Stanhope.
“You are certain these people are bad?” he said.
“Yes, yes; very bad!” answered Dora, and continued: “You can believe all the Rovers tell you concerning them.”
One end of the plank still rested on the sloop, and Fairwell quickly placed the board in position again.
By this time the Baxters were crawling out of the lake. Sam caught hold of Dan while Tom tackled the father.
With a heavy boathook in his hand Randy Fairwell now ran ashore, followed by Ruff.
“You had better give up the fight,” said Fairwell to Arnold Baxter. “If you are in the right, you shall have justice done to you.”
“I will never give in!” growled Arnold Baxter savagely, and did his best to get away. Seeing this, Sam let Dan go and started in to help Tom. The struggle lasted several minutes, but Fairwell put an end to it by catching Arnold Baxter from behind and holding him in a grasp of iron, and then the rascal was made a close prisoner by being bound with a rope.
“Now for Dan!” cried Tom, and turned around, to find that Dan Baxter had taken time by the forelock and disappeared. It was destined to be many a day before any of the Rovers set eyes on him again.
CHAPTER XXX
HOME AGAIN—CONCLUSION
“Dan is gone!”
“Which way did he go?”
“I don’t know.”
“He ran up the shore, in that direction!” called out Dora, pointing with he
r hand.
Leaving Arnold Baxter in the grasp of Fairwell and Ruff, Tom and Sam hurried off.
But Dan Baxter had disappeared in a perfect wilderness of rocks and bushes and could not be located.
“Never mind,” said Tom; “let him go, if he wants to remain on this lonely spot.”
All were soon on board the sloop, and Tom and Sam told their tale, to which Dora, as well as the others, listened with close attention.
“Then my mother is safe!” burst out the girl. “Thank Heaven for that!”
“She was safe when last we saw her,” said Tom. “I guess the best thing we can do will be to get back to the wreck of the Wellington without delay.”
“Yes! yes! take me to my mother at once. I have been hunting for her ever since she disappeared.”
“But how did you happen to come here?”
“I found out that Josiah Crabtree had hired the Wellington, and day before yesterday we ran across a steamboat which had sighted the schooner headed in this direction.”
“How did he get her away in the first place?”
“We were stopping at a hotel in Canada and I went out to do some necessary shopping. When I got back my mother was gone. She had received a bogus note, written I presume by Crabtree, asking her to come to me at once, as I had been taken sick in one of the stores. I immediately hired a detective, Mr. Ruff here, and we tracked Mr. Crabtree to the lake.”
“Good for you, Dora,—a man couldn’t have done better,” cried Sam so enthusiastically that Dora had to blush.
“But now I want to get to mother without further delay.”
“Let us set sail at once, then,” said Tom. “The distance to the wreck is not over two miles.”
Without delay the anchor was hoisted, the mainsail set, and the sloop left the shore. She was a trim-built craft, and under a good breeze her bow cut the shining waters of the lake like a knife.
The only one on the boat who was not in good humor was Arnold Baxter. When he got the chance he called Tom Rover to him.
“Rover, what do you intend to do with me?” he asked.
“We intend to hand you over to the authorities.”
“You are making a great mistake.”
“I’ll risk that.”
“If you’ll let me go I’ll promise to turn over a new leaf, and, more than that, I’ll help your father to make a pile of money out of that mine in Colorado.”
“Your promises are not worth the breath they are uttered in, Arnold Baxter. You belong in prison, and that is where you are going.”
At this Baxter began to rave and utter words unfit to print. But Tom soon stopped this.
“Keep a civil tongue in your head, or we’ll gag you,” he said, and then Baxter relapsed into sullen silence.
The breeze was favorable, and it was not long before the sloop rounded a point of the island and came in sight of the Wellington.
“Let us surprise old Crabtree,” suggested Sam. “We can keep out of his sight until the last moment.”
Tom was willing, yet Dora demurred, wishing to get to her mother as soon as possible. Yet, as they drew closer, the girl stepped behind the cabin for a minute.
“A ship!” cried Peglace, who was on watch on deck. “A ship at last, and coming to shore!”
He uttered the words in French, and they speedily brought to the deck his companion and his companion’s fat wife.
“A ship, sure enough,” said the other Canadian, while his wife shed tears of joy.
Josiah Crabtree had just been interviewing Mrs. Stanhope in the cabin. He was trying again to hypnotize her, and she was trying to keep from under the spell.
“A boat must be coming, by the cries,” said the former teacher. “I will go to the deck and investigate.”
He ran up the companion way, and Mrs. Stanhope followed. The lady felt weak and utterly discouraged.
“If I only had Dora with me!” she murmured to herself.
“Did you speak?” asked Crabtree, looking over his shoulder.
“Not to you,” she answered coldly.
Soon Crabtree was at the stern. The sloop came closer, and a rope was thrown to the Wellington and made fast by the Canadians. The smaller craft drew so little water that she did not ground, even when lying at the larger ship’s stern.
“Hullo!” began Josiah Crabtree, addressing Randy Fairwell. “This is most fortunate.”
“I see you are wrecked,” returned Fairwell calmly.
“Exactly, sir—a very unfortunate affair truly. Will you rescue us?”
“Anybody else on board?”
“Yes, a lady to whom I am engaged to be married,” and Crabtree smiled blandly. “Will you come on board?”
“I guess I will,” answered Fairwell. “Eh, Mr. Ruff?”
“Yes,” answered the detective, and leaped on the deck of the wreck.
By this time Mrs. Stanhope was on deck also, gazing curiously at those on the sloop.
“I believe this is Mr. Josiah Crabtree?” went on Ruff coldly.
“Eh? Why—er—you have the advantage of me!” stammered the former teacher of Putnam Hall, falling back in dismay.
“Are you Josiah Crabtree or not?”
“I am; but—”
“Then consider yourself my prisoner, Mr. Crabtree.”
“Your prisoner!”
“That is what I said.”
“But why do you say I am arrested? Who are you?”
“You are arrested for plotting against the welfare of Mrs. Stanhope there and Dora Stanhope, her daughter; also for forging Dora Stanhope’s name to a letter sent to the girl’s mother.”
“It is false. I—I—Oh!”
Josiah Crabtree staggered back, for Dora had run forward. In a second more mother and daughter were in each other’s arms. An affecting scene followed. Josiah Crabtree turned a sickly green, and his knees smote together.
“I—er—that is, we—the lady and myself—there is some mistake.” He tried to go on, but failed utterly.
“You fraud, you!” cried Tom, and came forward, followed by Sam. “Now, Josiah Crabtree, we are on top, and we mean to stay there. Mr. Ruff, you had better handcuff him.”
“I will,” returned the detective, and brought forth a pair of steel “nippers.”
“Handcuff me!” groaned Crabtree, “Oh, the disgrace! No! no!”
“You ought to have thought of the disgrace before,” was Ruff’s comment, and the next minute the handcuffs were fast on the prisoner.
A shout was now heard from one of the Canadian sailors. He was pointing to the north of the island, where a steam tug had just hove into sight.
The tug was coming on rapidly, and as she drew closer Tom and Sam made out a youth standing on the cabin top, eagerly waving his hand to them.
“Dick!” cried both of the Rovers. “Dick, by all that is wonderful!”
It was indeed Dick and the Rocket, and soon the steam tug came up to the stern of the sloop and made fast.
“Tom and Sam, and safe!” burst out Dick, and then his eyes fell upon the Stanhopes. “Dora!” He shook hands and blushed deeply, and so did the girl. “Why, I never expected this!”
“None of us did,” answered Dora with a warm smile.
“And your mother, too!”
“It’s like a fairy tale,” put in Tom, “and I guess it’s going to end just as happily as fairy tales usually do.”
It took some time for each to tell his story. When it came to Dick’s turn, he said the steam tug had done her best to follow up Captain Langless and his schooner, but had failed because of the darkness.
“She’s now out of sight,” he concluded, “and there is no telling where she is.”
“Well, let him go,” said Tom. “We have Arnold Baxter, and he is the chief villain. I don’t believe Captain Lang
less will ever bother us again.”
After a long conversation it was decided that all of the party should return to the mainland in the steam tug and the sloop, the latter to be towed by the former. Dick remained on the sloop with the Stanhopes, while Josiah Crabtree was placed in the company of his fellow-criminal, Arnold Baxter. With the party went the Canadian who was married, and his wife, leaving the other Canadian to look after the wreck until his partner should return with material with which the boat could be patched up.
The run to the mainland was a pleasing one to the Rovers, and also to Larry and faithful Aleck Pop. The negro was on a broad grin over the safety of the brothers.
“Dem boys beat de nation,” he said. “Nebber gits into trouble so deep but wot da paddles out ag’in in short ordah; yes, sah!”
During the trip it was decided by the Stanhopes, on Dick’s advice, to prosecute Josiah Crabtree to the full extent of the law. Mrs. Stanhope demurred somewhat to this, but Dora was firm, and when the case was brought to trial Crabtree was sent to prison for two years.
The first thing the Rover boys did when on shore was to telegraph to their father, telling him of their safety. This telegram caught Mr. Rover just as he was about to arrange for sending the ten thousand dollars to Arnold Baxter. He was overjoyed at the glad tidings, and came on as far as Detroit to meet the whole party.
“My boys, how you must have suffered!” he said, as he shook one after another by the hand. “In the future you must be more careful!”
Arnold Baxter wished to see Anderson Rover, hoping thereby to influence the latter in his behalf, but Mr. Rover refused to grant the interview, and on the day following Arnold Baxter was sent back to the prison in New York State, there to begin his long term of imprisonment all over again.
There was much speculation concerning Dan Baxter, and when the Rovers went back to the island on the steam tug,—to obtain what had been discovered in the cave,—they asked the Canadian on the wreck if he had seen the youth.
“Yes, I see him,” was the answer. “But he is gone now. He went off in a small boat that torched here yesterday.”
“It’s just as well,” said Tom. “We didn’t want to see the fellow starve here.”
But at the cave which Dick and the others had discovered he changed his tune, for there were many signs that Dan Baxter had visited the locality. The money which had been lying on the dust-covered table was gone, likewise the map and the dagger.
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