“Well, my knee doesn’t feel any too good,” came from Tom. “I guess I scratched it quite some.”
“Shall we try to find those fellows first or go upstairs and look around?” asked Songbird.
“Let us try to find them first,” said Dick. “We can come back here any time.”
“I have a plan,” said Tom. “Let us scatter in all directions. If anybody sees anything of them, give the school whistle.”
“Good! that’s the talk!” exclaimed Sam. “The sooner the better.”
In a minute more the six cadets were hunting in as many different directions for those they were after. Larry, Songbird and Fred took to the lake shore, while the three Rover boys went up and down the roadway and into the woods beyond.
Nearly half an hour was spent in the search when the other lads heard a whistle from the lake shore. The signal came from Larry, and was repeated several times.
“He wants us in a hurry,” said Sam to Dick, when they met, and started on a run. They met Larry coming towards them, beckoning wildly.
“Hurry up!” he called.
“What’s up?” asked Dick.
“They just went past in a sailboat and they are bound across the lake.”
“The two men?” asked Sam.
“Yes, and Tad Sobber, too.”
“Tad!”
“Yes. Their boat couldn’t have been very far from mine. I saw the two men get on board and then Tad came from a cabin, and all three hoisted the sails as quickly as they could and stood over in the direction of the point with the three rocks—you remember the spot?”
“I do—the place we once went nutting,” said Dick.
By this time the other cadets were coming up, and they listened with keen interest to what Larry had to tell. In the meantime all ran to the Polly, and the sloop was poled out of the cove and the mainsail and jib were hoisted. As Larry was in no condition to steer, Dick took the tiller.
“They will get away if they possibly can,” observed Songbird. “Do you think, if we get too close to them, they’ll fire at us, or anything like that?”
“There is no telling,” answered Dick. “But I am going to load up that empty barrel of the shotgun, and if they dare to shoot I’ll shoot back,” he added, with determination.
The other boat was in sight, but a good half mile away, and it was a serious question whether the Polly could get anywhere near the craft before the point with the three rocks was gained.
“Well, if they go ashore we can capture the boat anyway,” observed Sam. “That will be something.”
“Probably the boat was only hired. The owner may not know what rascals those chaps are.”
“The craft looked old and clumsy to me,” said Larry. “If you sail the Polly with care perhaps you can catch her—if they don’t play us some trick.”
The chase was now on in earnest, and the cadets on board the sloop did all in their power to make speed. There was a fair breeze, the gale having gone down while they were at the house.
“I don’t think they know much about running a boat,” said Tom, presently. “What are they up to now?”
“They are turning back!” cried Sam. “See, they are headed for yonder cove. They are not going up to the three rocks.”
“What cove is that?” asked Songbird. “Is it the place we went fishing the day we caught the turtle?”
“Yes.”
“Then they had better look out! Don’t you remember those sharp rocks, right near the mouth of the cove?”
Those who had been fishing the day mentioned did remember the rocks, and they watched the boat ahead with keen interest. The wind had freshened a little and the craft had swung around swiftly and was rushing for the cove. They could see one of the men trying to lower the mainsail.
“They are in dangerous water!” cried Dick.
He had just uttered the words when they saw the boat strike something, shiver from stem to stern, and back away. Then she went ahead and struck a second time. A second later she went over to larboard, throwing the two men and Tad Sobber into the lake!
“They’ve struck the rocks!”
“The boat is sinking!”
“They are all in the water!”
“Lower the mainsail!” yelled Larry. “We don’t want to get caught on the rocks! Sheer off, Dick!”
Dick swung the tiller around, and in a few seconds the mainsail came down with a bang and was secured by the others. The jib was still up, and this drew just sufficiently to send them forward slowly, to the spot where the catastrophe had occurred.
They found Pike floundering around in the water, yelling lustily for aid. Sid Merrick and Tad Sobber had struck out for the nearest part of the shore, about two hundred feet away.
“Here, catch hold of this and I’ll pull you up,” said Tom, reaching down to Pike with a pole. The floundering man did as told willingly, and was quickly hauled to the deck. Then the Polly was turned toward the shore and the jib was lowered.
It was no easy task to bring the sloop in, for they had to beware of the rocks, and by the time this was accomplished Sid Merrick and Tad Sobber had landed and were running for the woods with all possible speed. Dick raised his shotgun and fired to scare them, but they kept on, and in a few minutes disappeared from sight.
CHAPTER XXX
GOOD-BYE TO PUTNAM HALL
Leaving John Pike in charge of the others, the three Rover boys set off after Sobber and Merrick. They followed the trail for awhile with ease, for the fugitives were dripping wet from their involuntary bath.
“We have one advantage,” said Dick, as they ran along. “Being wet they will attract attention, and we’ll be able to follow them up that way.”
About a quarter of a mile was covered when they heard a crashing in the brushwood not far ahead of them. Then came a yell of pain from both Merrick and Tad Sobber.
“Ouch! I’m being stung to death!”
“Get off of me! Oh! oh! oh!”
“They are hornets, Tad! Run, or they’ll be after us!”
“I—I can’t run! Oh! one stung me in the eye!” screamed Tad Sobber.
Then the Rover boys heard the man and the boy plunge on, Tad screaming with pain at every step.
“Wait! we can’t go that way!” cried Tom, who had no desire to tumble into the hornets’ nest as the others had probably done. “Let’s go around!” And he leaped to the left.
As they progressed they heard Tad Sobber still crying wildly, and they heard Sid Merrick urging him to run faster.
“I’m stung, too—in about a dozen places!” said the bond thief. “But we mustn’t be captured.”
“Oh, it is awful!” groaned Tad. “I can hardly bear the pain!” And he went on, clutching his uncle by the arm. Both were indeed in a sorry plight.
But coming out on a road, fortune favored them. They met a colored man running a touring car. He was alone and they quickly hired him to take them to the nearest town.
“We fell into the lake by accident,” said Sid Merrick. “We want to get where we can change our clothing.”
“And get something for these hornet stings,” added Tad Sobber. “If I don’t get something soon I’ll go crazy from pain.”
As the three Rover boys ran towards the roadway Dick saw a big, flat pocketbook lying on the ground. He darted for it and picked it up.
“Merrick must have dropped this,” he said. “It’s wet, and here is a dead hornet stuck fast to it. Guess the hornets made him forget that he had it.”
Slipping the pocketbook into his pocket, Dick ran out on the roadway and looked up and down. But Merrick and Sobber were gone, and what had become of them the boys did not learn until the next day, and then it was too late.
“What’s in that pocketbook?” asked Sam, after the hunt had come to an end for the time being.
“We’ll soon learn,” said his big brother, and opened up the still wet leather. Inside were several bank bills and a fat envelope.
“Uncle Randolph’s missing traction company bonds!” cried Dick, bringing them forth. “This is the best ever!”
“Are they all there?” asked Tom.
Dick counted them over rapidly.
“Yes—ten for one thousand dollars each.”
“Hurrah!” shouted Sam. “Won’t Uncle Randolph be glad when he hears of this!”
The boys were highly elated over the find, and now they had the bonds they concluded that a further search for Sid Merrick could wait. They did not care whether Tad Sobber was captured or not, as they did not think the bully was much of a criminal.
When they got back to the sloop they found that the others had bound John Pike’s hands behind him. The robber was very meek, and he declared that Sid Merrick was to blame for everything.
“He wanted to sell the bonds many times,” said Pike. “But he knew that Mr. Rover had advertised the numbers in the newspapers and he was afraid to do it. He said he would wait until the affair blew over. Then he was going to sell out, divide up, and go to Europe.”
Pike added that the boat had belonged to himself. She was an old craft and was allowed to remain on the rocks. It came out later that Pike had formerly lived on the lake shore and had thus become acquainted with Merrick and the Sobbers.
As soon as possible the captured robber was handed over to the authorities, and Dick sent a message home acquainting his uncle with what had occurred. This brought on both Randolph Rover and the boys’ father.
“You have certainly done wonderfully well,” said Randolph Rover, as he took his bonds. “Were you not so rich already I should want to reward you.”
“We don’t want any reward,” said Dick. “But I am sorry we didn’t catch Merrick.”
For a long time the authorities tried to catch Sid Merrick and also endeavored to learn the whereabouts of Tad Sobber, but without success. They had disappeared, and that seemed to be the end of it. The old house was visited again, but nothing of value was found there. Later on some tramps set it on fire and it was burnt to the ground. A month later John Pike and one other freight thief who was captured were tried for their misdeeds and sent to prison. The authorities used Bill Dangler as a witness against them, and Dangler, consequently, was let go. Strange to say, Dangler turned over a new leaf and became a hard working man in a railroad stone quarry some miles from Carwell.
With the mystery of the traction company bonds cleared up, the Rover boys returned to Putnam Hall to complete their last term at that institution of learning. They applied themselves diligently to their studies, and when the final examinations came off all passed with flying colors.
“Whoop! I’m glad those exams are over!” cried Tom. “I feel as if a hundred-pound weight was taken off my shoulders.”
“I am glad, too,” answered Sam.
“And I am glad all of us did so well,” put in Dick. “Our reports will please father and Uncle Randolph and Aunt Martha.”
It had been arranged that the commencement exercises should be carried out on rather an elaborate scale, and many people were invited to attend. This brought all the Rovers and also the Stanhopes and the Lanings to Putnam Hall. Dick had been called on to deliver the valedictory and he made such a stirring address that he was vigorously applauded. Sam and Tom appeared in a humor dialogue, with Fred and Larry, and this was received with shouts of laughter. Songbird recited an original poem which was a vast improvement over the most of his doggerel, and Hans and some of the others sang in a quartet which would have done credit to the average college glee club.
“Oh, it was splendid, Dick!” said Dora, after it was over and congratulations were in order. And her eyes shone like stars as she pressed his hand.
“I saw only you, Dora, when I got up to speak,” he whispered. “And that’s why I did my best.”
“You and Sam had better go on the stage,” said Nellie to Tom. “That dialogue was too funny for anything!”
“I laughed till the tears came,” added Grace. “It was a splendid programme all the way through.”
“Well done, my boys, well done,” said Anderson Rover, as he took each by the hand. “I was never so proud of you as I am today.”
“Now that we have finished our studies here what are we to do next?” questioned Dick, earnestly.
“We will settle that question this summer,” answered his father. “But in the meantime—” Mr. Rover paused and looked at his oldest son thoughtfully.
“But what, father?”
“I will tell you when we get home, Dick—there is no use of my trying to do so in this excitement. I have something very unusual to propose,” answered Anderson Rover, and what that proposal was, and what came of it, will be related in another volume, to be entitled, “The Rover Boys on Treasure Isle; Or, The Strange Cruise of the Steam Yacht.” In that volume we shall meet many of our old friends again, and also learn something concerning the disappearance of Sid Merrick and Tad Sobber.
That evening the celebration at Putnam Hall was continued. The cadets lit a huge bonfire on the campus and around this they danced and sang and made speeches. They cheered everybody, from Captain Putnam down to Peleg Snuggers, and the festivities were kept up until midnight. Then the boys went to bed—but not to sleep—for was this not the last night at school? Innumerable tricks were played, including one on Peter Slade that that youth never forgot. This made the bully so angry he declared he was going to quit Putnam Hall for good, and he did, and nobody missed him.
“And now for home!” cried Dick the next morning on dressing.
“And fresh adventures,” added Tom.
“But I do hate to leave dear old Putnam Hall,” sighed Sam, and then the others sighed, too.
It was not until noon that the three Rover boys were ready to go, having first bid farewell to their numerous friends. Then they shook hands with Captain Putnam.
“We hate awfully to leave you,” said Dick, earnestly.
“And I hate to have you go, Richard,” was the reply. “You must visit the Hall some time in the future.”
“And you must come and see us, Captain Putnam,” said Tom.
“Yes, indeed,” added Sam.
“I will,” answered the master of the Hall.
Then the boys shook hands all over again and ran for the carryall. Some boys left behind set up a shout:
“Good-bye, Dick!”
“Sorry to have you go, Tom!”
“May we meet again, Sam!”
“Good-bye, everybody!” was the answering shout. “Good-bye to dear old Putnam Hall!”
Then the whip cracked, the carryall rolled from the door; and the Rover boys’ days at Putnam Hall military school were at an end.
THE ROVER BOYS ON TREASURE ISLE
CHAPTER I
BOUND FOR HOME
“Hurry up, Sam, unless you want to be left behind!”
“I’m coming!” shouted Sam Rover, as he crossed the depot platform on the run. “Where is Tom?”
“He went ahead, to get two good seats for us,” answered Dick Rover. He looked around the crowd that had gathered to take the train. “Hi, there, Songbird, this way! Come in this car, Hans!”
“Say, aren’t you fellows coming aboard?” came a voice from the nearest car, and a curlytopped head with a pair of laughing eyes appeared. “Folks crowding in to beat the band! Come on in if you want seats.”
“We’ll be in directly,” answered Sam, and followed his brother Dick to the car steps. Here there was quite a jam, and the Rover boys had all they could do to get into the car, followed by half a dozen of their school chums. But Tom Rover had managed to keep seats for all, and they sat “in a bunch,” much to their satisfaction. Then the train rolled out of the station, and the journey homeward
was begun.
The term at Putnam Hall Military Academy was at an end, and the school days of the three Rover boys at that institution were now a thing of the past. Each had graduated with honors, yet all were a trifle sad to think that there would be no going back to a place where they had made so many friends.
“It’s almost like giving up your home,” Dick had said, several times, while at the actual parting Sam had had to do his best to keep back the tears which welled up in his eyes. Even fun-loving Tom had stopped a good deal of his whistling and had looked unusually sober.
“We’ll never have such good times as we’ve had at Putnam Hall,” Sam had said, but he was mistaken, as later events proved.
The three Rover boys did not wish to part from their many school chums, yet they were, more than anxious to get home, and for this there was a very good reason. Their father had told them that he had a very important communication to make to them one regarding how the summer was to be spent. So far no arrangements had been made for the vacation, and the brothers were anxious to know “what was in the wind,” as Tom expressed it.
“Maybe we are to prepare for college,” said Dick.
“Perhaps we are to go on another trip to Africa?” added Sam.
“Or start on a hunt for the North Pole,” put in Tom. “That would be just the thing for this hot weather.”
“I can tell you one thing,” went on Dick. “Whatever father has on his mind is of a serious nature. It is no mere outing for pleasure.”
“I know that,” answered Sam, “I could see it by the look on his face.”
“Well, we’ll know all about it by this time tomorrow,” said Tom. “I hope it is some trip—I love to travel,” and his brothers nodded their heads in approval.
To those who have read any of the twelve previous volumes in this “Rover Boys Series” the three brothers will need no special introduction. For the benefit of new readers allow me to state that Dick was the oldest, fun-loving Tom next, and Sam the youngest. They were the sons of Anderson Rover, a widower and rich mine owner. The father was a great traveler, and for years the boys had made their home with their uncle, Randolph Rover, and their Aunt Martha, on a farm called Valley Brook, in the heart of New York state.
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