They advanced with their guns ready for use, but nobody appeared, and presently they stood close to the camp-fire. Then Dick ran into the shelter, to find Jasper Grinder lying as Sam had left him.
“Mr. Grinder, where is the Baxter crowd?” he asked.
“Gone, half an hour ago,” replied the wounded man.
“Where did they go to?”
“I don’t know. They said something about following you up and spying on you, to see if you had found the treasure.”
“Creation!” ejaculated Dick, and ran outside again. “We’ve made a mess of it!” he said. “They followed us up, and more than likely they’ve got the treasure box this minute!”
It was found that but little in the camp had been disturbed, excepting that Sam’s gun had been taken off. What to do was now the question. Sam could not walk further.
“Better stay here,” said Dick. “If the Baxter crowd comes back, you can hide.”
Then he, Tom, and John Barrow set out to return to where the treasure had been left. They were still some distance away when they discovered Dan Baxter, Bill Harney, and Lemuel Husty making their way along the snow-covered trail. In a few minutes they came up to the party.
“Baxter, where are you bound?” demanded Dick, striding up.
“You know well enough.”
“We are after thet treasure,” came from Harney, and it was plain to see that he and Husty had been drinking heavily.
“The treasure is ours, Baxter, and you can’t touch it.”
“It will belong to whoever finds it,” growled the bully.
“That’s right,” came from Husty. “Whoever gits it, owns it. Eh, Harney?”
“Plain truth, that is,” hiccoughed the big guide.
“In that case, it is ours for sure,” grinned Dick. “We have it already.”
At this announcement Dan Baxter staggered back.
“It—it aint true; you’re joking,” he faltered.
“It is true, Baxter. Come, I will show you where the treasure was hidden—if that will do you any good. Here is the description.” And Dick brought it forth and let the bully read it.
“Where’s the tree?” demanded Baxter.
“There is the tree, and over yonder is the rock. We turned it over and found the treasure, just as we anticipated. It’s ours, and I am simply telling you this to save you the trouble of looking further for it. Dan Baxter, you have played this game to a finish with your companions, and you have lost.”
If ever there was a disappointed and angry individual, it was Dan Baxter. He raved and said all sorts of uncomplimentary things, and Husty and Harney joined in, until John Barrow told all of them to shut up or he would have the law on them.
“You had no right to make prisoners of Tom and Sam,” he said. “But if you’ll behave yourselves, and not bother us in the future, we’ll let that pass.”
To this Husty, who was a thorough sneak, consented at once, and then Bill Harney did the same. Baxter remained silent.
“You’ve defeated me this time,” he said, at last. “But, remember, I am not done with you.”
A little later Baxter moved off, and Bill Harney and Lemuel Husty went with him. It was the last that the Rovers saw of their enemies for a long while to come.
A few words more and we will bring to a close this story of the Rover boys’ adventures in the mountains.
Our friends found it no easy matter to get the heavy treasure box safely to camp. In order to move it, they had to construct a drag of a treelimb and hook a rope to this, and then it was all they could do to move it along through the deep snow.
When they got the box into camp they lost no time in examining the treasure. The gold and silver amounted to twenty-five hundred dollars, and there were diamonds and other precious stones worth nearly as much more.
“About five thousand dollars, all told,” announced Dick. “That is not such a bad haul, after all.”
As there was now nothing more to look for, our friends spent ten days in the camp, taking it easy most of the time, and spending a day in getting back the missing sled. They went hunting twice, and the second time out Dick got a fine shot at a deer, and brought down the creature without trouble. Tom and Sam brought down considerable small game, and all voted the outing a complete success, despite the interference occasioned by their enemies.
At the end of the ten days Jasper Grinder was able to walk around, although still weak. In the meantime John Barrow had constructed a sled for the former school-teacher to sit upon, and on this he rode when they started on the return to Timber Run.
When the settlement was gained the Laning girls, Mrs. Barrow, and Addie were glad to see them back, and delighted to learn of the treasure and its value. They said they had heard of Baxter and his followers, but that all of the party had left Timber Run for parts unknown.
“Well, we don’t want to see them again,” said Dick. “We’ve had quite enough of all of them.” At Timber Run Jasper Grinder left them, and the Rovers saw no more of him for many days.
The home-coming of the Rover boys was a day long to be remembered. There was a regular party given at the country home, at which many of their friends were present. The Laning girls were there, and also Dora Stanhope, and Larry, Fred, George, and a host of others, not forgetting Captain Putnam himself, who came upon a special invitation sent by Mr. Anderson Rover. Alexander Pop waited upon the table as usual, his face beaming with pleasure.
“Jes tell yo’, yo’ can’t down dem Rober boys nohow,” said the colored man to Captain Putnam. “Da is jes like apples in a tub—yo’ shoves ‘em under, an’ up da pops, bright as eber.” And the owner of Putnam Hall laughingly agreed with Alexander.
“I trust that you will never be troubled by Dan Baxter again,” said Dora Stanhope to Dick, after he had told her the story of the treasure hunt.
“I trust so myself,” replied Dick. “But he’s like a bad cent, sure to turn up when not wanted.” Dick told the truth. How Dan Baxter turned up, and what he did to bring the Rovers more trouble, will be told in another volume, to be entitled, “The Rover Boys on Land and Sea; or, The Crusoes of Seven Islands,” a tale full of happenings far out of the ordinary.
But for the time being troubles were of the past, and here let us leave our friends, shouting as did the pupils from the Hall when the party broke up:
“Three cheers for the Rover Boys! Hip, hip, hurrah!”
THE ROVER BOYS ON LAND AND SEA
CHAPTER I
THE ROVER BOYS IN SAN FRANCISCO
“Well, Dick, here we are in San Francisco at last.”
“Yes, Tom, and what a fine large city it is.”
“We’ll have to take care, or we’ll get lost,” came from a third boy, the youngest of the party.
“Just listen to Sam!” cried Tom Rover. “Get lost! As if we weren’t in the habit of taking care of ourselves.”
“Sam is joking,” came from Dick Rover. “Still we might get lost here as well as in New York or any other large city.”
“Boston is the place to get lost in,” said Tom Rover. “Got streets that curve in all directions. But let us go on. Where is the hotel?”
“I’m sure I don’t know,” came from Sam Rover.
“Cab! carriage! coupe!” bawled a cabman standing near. “Take you anywhere you want to go, gents.”
“How much to take the three of us to the Oakland House?”
“Take you there for a dollar, trunks and all.”
“I’ll go you,” answered Dick Rover. “Come on, I’ll see that you get the right trunks.”
“I think we are going to have some good times while we are on the Pacific coast,” observed Tom Rover, while he and Sam were waiting for Dick and the cabman to return.
“I shan’t object to a good time,” replied Sam. “That is what we came for.”
&n
bsp; “Before we go back I am going to have a sail up and down the coast.”
“To be sure, Tom. Perhaps we can sail down to Santa Barbara. That is a sort of Asbury Park and Coney Island combined, so I have been told.”
Dick Rover and the cabman soon returned. The trunks were piled on the carriage and the boys got in, and away they bowled from the station in the direction of the Oakland House.
It was about ten o’clock of a clear day in early spring. The boys had reached San Francisco a few minutes before, taking in the sights on the way. Now they sat up in the carriage taking in more sights, as the turnout moved along first one street and then another.
As old readers of this series know, the Rover boys were three in number, Dick being the oldest, fun-loving Tom next, and sturdy-hearted Sam the youngest. They were the only offspring of Anderson Rover, a former traveler and mine-owner, who, at present, was living with his brother Randolph and his sister-in-law Martha, on their beautiful farm at Valley Brook, in the heart of New York State.
During the past few years the Rover boys had had numerous adventures, so many, in fact, that they can scarcely be hinted at here. While their father was in the heart of Africa, their Uncle Randolph had sent them off to Putnam Hall Academy. Here they had made many friends among the boys and also among some folks living in the vicinity, including Mrs. Stanhope and her daughter Dora, a girl who, according to Dick Rover’s idea, was the sweetest creature in the whole world. They had also made some enemies, the worst of the number being Dan Baxter, a fellow who had been the bully of the school, but who was now a homeless wanderer on the face of the earth. Baxter came from a disreputable family, his father having at one time tried to swindle Mr. Rover out of a rich gold mine in the West. The elder Baxter was now in prison suffering the penalty for various crimes.
A term at school had been followed by an exciting chase on the ocean, and then by a trip through the jungle of Africa, whence the Rover boys had gone to find their long-lost father. After this the boys made a trip West to establish their parent’s claim to the gold mine just mentioned, and this was followed by a grand trip on the Great Lakes in which the boys suffered not a little at the hands of the Baxters. On an island on one of the lakes the Rover boys found a curious casket and this, on being opened, proved to contain some directions for locating a treasure secreted in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains.
“We must locate that treasure,” said Tom Rover, and off they started for the mountains, and did locate it at last, but not before Dan Baxter had done everything in his power to locate it ahead of them. When they finally outwitted their enemy, Dan Baxter had disappeared, and that was the last they had seen of him for some time.
The Rover boys had expected to return to Putnam Hall and their studies immediately after the winter outing in the Adirondacks, but an unexpected happening at the institution of learning made them change their plans. Three pupils were taken down with scarlet fever, and rather than run the risk of having more taken sick, Captain Victor Putnam had closed up the Academy for the time being, and sent the pupils to their homes.
“The boys will have to go to some other school,” their Aunt Martha had said, but one and another had murmured at this, for they loved Captain Putnam too well to desert him so quickly.
“Let us wait a few months,” had been Dick’s suggestion.
“Let us study at home,” had come from Sam.
“Let us travel,” Tom had put in. “Travel broadens the mind.” He loved to be “on the go” all the time.
The matter was talked over for several days, and Tom begged that they might take a trip across the continent and back, using some of the money derived from the old treasure. At last Anderson Rover consented; and two days later the three boys were off, going by way of New York City, on the Chicago Limited. They had spent two days in the great city by the lakes, and then come direct to the Golden Gate city.
“I wonder if we will meet anybody we know while we are out here,” said Tom, as the carriage continued on its way.
“If we get down to Santa Barbara I think we’ll meet somebody,” answered Dick, and he blushed just a trifle. “I got a letter in Chicago, as you know. It was from Dora Stanhope, and she said that she and her mother were traveling again and expected to go either to Santa Barbara or Los Angeles. Her mother is not well again, and the doctor thought the air on the Pacific coast might benefit her.”
“Oh, my, but won’t Dick have an elegant time, if he falls in with Dora!” cried Sam. “Tom, we won’t be in it.”
“Now don’t you start to tease me,” returned Dick, his face redder than ever. “I guess Dora always gave you a good time, too.”
“That’s right, she did,” said Tom. And then he added: “Did she say anything about the Lanings?” For the Laning girls, Nellie and Grace, were cousins to Dora Stanhope, and Tom and Sam thought almost as much of them as Dick did of Dora.
“To be sure she did,” replied Dick. “But I guess it’s—well, it’s a secret.”
“A secret!” shouted Sam. “Not much, Dick! Let us in on it at once!”
“Yes, do!” put in Tom.
“But it may prove a disappointment.”
“We’ll chance it,” returned Tom.
“Well then, Dora wrote that if she and her mother could find a nice cottage at Los Angeles or Santa Barbara they were going to invite Nellie and Grace to come out and keep house with them for six months or so.”
“Hurrah!” cried Sam enthusiastically. “I hope they come. If they do, won’t the six of us just have boss times!” And his face glowed with anticipation.
“We can certainly have good times if Mrs. Stanhope’s health will permit,” said Dick. “Here we are at the hotel.”
He uttered the last words as the carriage came to a stop at the curb. He leaped out and so did the others; and a few minutes later found them safe and sound in the hotel. They were assigned to a large room on the third floor, and hither they made their way, followed by their trunks, and then began to wash and dress up, preparatory to going down to the dining room, for the journeying around since breakfast had made them hungry.
“I think I am going to like San Francisco,” said Tom, as he was adjusting a fresh collar and gazing out of the window at the same time. “Everything looks so bright and clean.”
“They have some pretty tall buildings here, the same as in Chicago and New York,” came from Dick, as he, too, gazed out of the window.
“Oh, all the big cities are a good deal alike,” put in Sam, who was drying his face on a towel.
“San Francisco is a mighty rich place,” continued Tom. “They are too rich even to use pennies. It’s five cents here, or a bit there, or two bits for this and two bits for that. I never heard a quarter called two bits in New York.”
“I’ve been told that is a Southern expression, and one used in the West Indies,” said Dick. “The early Californians—My gracious!”
Dick broke off short and leaned far out of the window, which they had opened to let in the fresh spring air.
“What’s up?” queried Tom. “Don’t fall out.” And he caught his elder brother by the arm.
“I must have been mistaken. But it did look like him,” said Dick slowly.
“Look like whom?” asked Sam, joining the pair.
“Dan Baxter.”
“Dan Baxter! Here?” shouted the others.
“I am pretty sure it was Dan Baxter.”
“Where is he?” asked Tom.
“He is gone now—he just disappeared around the hotel corner.”
“Well, if it really was Dan Baxter, we want to keep our eyes open,” was Sam’s comment.
CHAPTER II
THE TURNING UP OF DAN BAXTER
The boys were very curious concerning their old enemy, and on going below took a walk around several squares in the vicinity, in the hope of meeting the individual who had
attracted Dick’s attention.
But the search proved unsuccessful, and they returned to the hotel and went to dinner, with a larger appetite than ever.
“It would be queer if we met Dan Baxter out here,” said Tom, while they were eating. “He seems to get on our heels, no matter where we go.
“If he came to San Francisco first, he’ll think we have been following him up,” said Sam.
“He must have come here before we did,” said Dick. “Our arrival dates back but three hours,” and he grinned.
The meal over the boys took it easy for a couple of hours, and then prepared to go out and visit half a dozen points of interest and also purchase tickets for a performance at one of the leading theaters in the evening.
As they crossed the lobby of the hotel they almost ran into a big, burly young fellow who was coming in the opposite direction.
“Dan Baxter!” ejaculated Dick. “Then I was right after all.”
The burly young fellow stared first at Dick and then the others in blank amazement. He carried a dress-suit case, and this dropped from his hand to the floor.
“Whe—where did yo—you come from?” he stammered at last.
“I guess we can ask the same question,” said Tom coldly.
“Been following me, have you?” sneered Dan Baxter, making an effort to recover his self-possession.
“No, we haven’t been following you,” said Sam.
“Supposing you tell us how it happens that you are here?”
“Suppose you tell us how it happens that you are here,” came from Dick.
“That is my business.”
“Our business is our own, too, Dan Baxter.”
“You followed me,” growled the big bully, his face darkening. “I know you and don’t you forget it.”
“Why should we follow you?” said Tom. “We got the best of you over that treasure in the Adirondacks.”
“Oh, you needn’t blow. Remember the old saying, ‘He laughs best who laughs last.’ I aint done with you yet—not by a long shot.”
“Well, let me warn you to keep your distance,” said Dick sternly. “If you don’t, you’ll regret it. We have been very easy with you in the past, but if you go too far, I, for one, will be for putting you where your father is, in prison.”
The Rover Boys Megapack Page 91