“And it will suit me, too,” added Sam.
“I mentioned Brill for two reasons,” explained Mr. Rover. “The one was because it is near Hope Seminary and the other is because I happen to know the president, Dr. John Wallington, quite well; in fact, we went to school together. He is a fine gentleman—as fine a fellow as Captain Putnam—and I am sure his college must be a good one.”
“If it’s as good as dear old Putnam Hall, I shall be well content,” answered Dick.
“Then you are satisfied to go there, Dick?”
“Yes, sir.”
So it was settled and arrangements were at once made for the three boys to go to Brill. Fortunately it was found that their diplomas from Putnam Hall would admit them to the freshmen class without examination. All of the boys wrote letters to the girls and received answers in return.
The college was to open two weeks before the seminary, so that to journey to Ashton together would be out of the question.
“Well, we’ll see the girls later, anyway,” said Dick. “I hope they like it at Hope and we like it at Brill; then we’ll have some splendid times together.”
“Right you are,” answered Sam, and Tom said the same.
At last came the day for the boys to leave home. Trunks and dress-suit cases were packed, and not only their father but also their Uncle Randolph and their Aunt Martha went to the depot to see them off.
“Now be good and take care of yourselves,” said Mr. Rover on parting.
“Learn all you can,” added Uncle Randolph. “Remember that knowledge is better than wealth.”
“Oh, I’m going to cram my head full of learning this trip,” answered Tom with a grin.
“Take care of yourselves and don’t get sick,” was Aunt Martha’s warning. “If you do, get a doctor right away.” And then she gave each of the boys a warm, motherly kiss and a hug. She thought the lads the very best in all this wide world.
The train came and the boys were off. After a two hours’ ride they had to change to the main line and got into the parlor car already mentioned. Then they had dinner in the diner and went back to the other car to read and to look at the scenery. Thus several hours slipped by, when of a sudden came the jar and shock that told them something out of the ordinary had happened.
CHAPTER II
AT THE SANDERSON HOUSE
When the Rover boys reached the head of the train they found an excited crowd beginning to collect. The locomotive of the express had cut into the last freight car a distance of several feet, smashing a number of boxes and barrels and likewise the headlight of the engine. Nobody had been hurt, for which everybody was thankful. But the engineer of the express was very angry.
“Why didn’t you send a man back with a flag or put a torpedo on the track?” he demanded of the freight train conductor.
“Did send a man back,” was the answer, “but he didn’t go back far enough—hadn’t time. This happened only a few minutes ago.”
“You can’t expect me to stop in a hundred feet,” growled the engineer. As a matter of fact he had not stopped in many times that distance.
“Well, I did what I could,” grumbled the freight conductor.
By making inquiries the Rover boys learned that the freight train had jumped a frog at a switch and part of the cars were on one track and part on another. Two trucks were broken, and nobody could tell how long it would take to clear the track upon which the express stood.
“May be an hour, but more likely it will be six or eight,” said one of the brakemen to Tom. “This section of the road is the worst managed of the lot.”
“And how far is it to Ashton?” asked Dick.
“About twelve miles by the railroad.”
“Then walking is out of the question,” came from Sam. “I shouldn’t mind hoofing it if it was two or three.”
“The railroad has to run around the hill yonder,” went on the train hand. “If you go up the tracks for a quarter of a mile you’ll come to a country road that will take you right into Ashton, and the distance from there isn’t more than seven or eight miles.”
“Any houses on that road?” asked Tom.
“Of course—farmhouses all along.”
“Then come on,” went on Tom to his brothers. “We can hire a carriage to take us to Ashton and to the college. Some farmer will be glad of the chance to earn the money.”
“Let us wait and see if the train moves first,” answered Dick.
“She won’t move just yet,” answered the brakeman with a sickly grin.
The boys stood around for a quarter of an hour and then decided to walk up to the country road that had been mentioned. Their trunks were checked through, but they had their dress-suit cases with them.
“We’ll have to carry these,” said Sam dolefully.
“Let us see if we can’t check them,” returned his big brother. But this was impossible, for the baggage car was locked and they could not find the man who had charge of it.
“Oh, well, come on,” said Tom. “The cases are not so heavy, and it is a fine day for walking,” and off he started and his brothers followed him.
It was certainly a fine day, as Tom said. It was early September, clear and cool, with a faint breeze blowing from the west. On the way they passed an apple orchard, laden with fruit, and they stopped long enough to get some.
“I declare this is better than sitting in that stuffy car,” remarked Sam as he munched on an apple. “I am glad to stretch my legs.”
“If we don’t have to stretch them too long,” remarked Dick.
“Say, I wonder if we’ll pass anywhere near Hope Seminary!” cried Tom, “It may be on this road.”
“What of it?” returned his younger brother. “The girls are not here yet—won’t be for two weeks.”
“Oh, we might get a view of the place anyway, Sam.”
“I want to see Brill first,” came from Dick. “If that doesn’t suit us—” He ended with a sigh.
“Oh, it will suit, you can bet on it!” cried Sam. “Father wouldn’t send us there if he wasn’t sure it would be O.K. He’s as much interested as we are.”
Walking along the highway, which ran down to a little milk station on the railroad, the three boys soon discovered a farmhouse nestling between some trees and bushes. They threw their baggage on the grass and walked up to the front door.
They had to knock several times before their summons was answered. Then an old lady opened the door several inches and peeped out.
“What do you want?” she demanded in a cracked voice.
“Good afternoon,” said Dick politely. “Can we hire somebody to drive us to Ashton? We were on the train, but there has been a smash-up, and we—”
“Land sakes alive! A smash-up, did you say?” cried the old lady.
“Yes, madam.”
“Was my son Jimmie killed?”
“Nobody was killed or even hurt.”
“Sure of that? My son Jimmie went to Crawford yesterday an’ was coming back this afternoon. Sure he wasn’t on that train?”
“If he was he wasn’t hurt,” answered Dick. “Can we hire a carriage to take us to Ashton?”
“How did it happen—that accident?”
“The express ran into the end of a freight train.”
“Land sakes alive! The freight! Maybe it was the one we sent the cows away on. Was there any cows killed, do you know?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Well, tell me the particulars, will you? I don’t go out much an’ so I don’t hear nuthin’. But an accident! Ain’t it awful? But I always said it was risky to ride on the railroad; I told Jimmie so a hundred times. But he would go to Crawford an’ now maybe he’s a corpse. You are sure you didn’t see a tall, thin young man, with a wart on his chin, that was cut up?”
“What do you mean,
the wart or the young man?” asked Tom, who was bound to have his fun.
“Why, the young man o’ course; although I allow if he was cut up the wart would be, too. Poor boy! I warned him a hundred—”
“Can we hire a carriage here or not?” demanded Dick. The talk was growing a little tiresome to him.
“No, you can’t!” snapped the old lady. “We never hire out our carriage. If we did it would soon go to pieces.”
“Is there anybody who can drive us to Brill College? We’ll pay for the service, of course.”
“No. But you might get a carriage over to the Sanderson place.”
“Where is that?” asked Sam.
“Up the road a piece,” and the old lady motioned with her head as she spoke. “But now, if my son Jimmie was in that accident—”
“Good day, madam,” said Dick and walked away, and Sam and Tom did the same. The old lady continued to call after them, but they paid no attention.
“Poor Jimmie! If he isn’t killed in a railroad accident, he’ll be talked to death some day,” was Sam’s comment.
“Don’t you care. We know that Jimmie’s got a wart, anyway,” observed Tom, and he said this so dryly his brothers had to laugh. “Always add to your fund of knowledge when you can,” he added, in imitation of his Uncle Randolph.
“I hope we have better success at the next farmhouse,” said Sam. “I don’t know that I want to walk all the way to Ashton with this dress-suit case.”
“Oh, we’re bound to find some kind of a rig at one place or another,” said Dick. “All the folks can’t be like that old woman.”
They walked along the road until they came in sight of a second farmhouse, also set in among trees and bushes. A neat gravel path, lined with rose bushes, ran from the gate to the front piazza.
“This looks nice,” observed Sam. “Some folks of the better sort must live here.”
The three boys walked up to the front piazza and set down their baggage. On the door casing was an electric push button.
“No old-fashioned knocker here,” observed Dick as he gave the button a push.
“Well, we are not wanting electric push buttons,” said Tom. “An electric runabout or a good two-seat carriage will fill our bill.”
The boys waited for fully a minute and then, as nobody came to answer their summons, Dick pushed the button again.
“I don’t hear it,” said Sam. “Perhaps it doesn’t ring.”
“Probably it rings in the back of the house,” answered his big brother.
Again the boys waited, and while they did so all heard talking at a distance.
“Somebody in the kitchen, I guess,” said Tom. “Maybe we had better go around there. Some country folks don’t use their front doors excepting for funerals and when the minister comes.”
Leaving their dress-suit cases on the piazza, the Rover boys walked around the side of the farmhouse in the direction of the kitchen. The building was a low and rambling one and they had to pass a sitting-room. Here they found a window wide open to let in the fresh air and sunshine.
“Now, you must go, really you must!” they heard in a girl’s voice. “I haven’t done a thing this afternoon, and what will papa say when he gets back?”
“Oh, that’s all right, Minnie,” was the answer in masculine tones. “You like us to be here, you know you do. And, remember, we haven’t seen you in a long time.”
“Yes, I know, Mr. Flockley, but—”
“Oh, don’t call me Mr. Flockley. Call me Dudd.”
“Yes, and please don’t call me Mr. Koswell,” broke in another masculine voice. “Jerry is good enough for me every time.”
“But you must go now, you really must!” said the girl.
“We’ll go if you’ll say good-by in the right kind of a way, eh, Dudd?” said the person called Jerry Koswell.
“Yes, Minnie, but we won’t go until you do that,” answered the young man named Dudd Flockley.
“Wha—what do you mean?” faltered the girl. And now, looking through the sitting-room window and through a doorway leading to the kitchen, the Rover boys saw a pretty damsel of sixteen standing by a pantry door, facing two dudish young men of eighteen or twenty. The young men wore checkered suits and sported heavy watch fobs and diamond rings and scarf-pins.
“Why, you’ll give us each a nice kiss, won’t you?” said Dudd Flockley with a smile that was meant to be alluring.
“Of course Minnie will give us a kiss,” said Jerry Koswell. “Next Saturday I’m coming over to give you a carriage ride.”
“I don’t wish any carriage ride,” answered the girl coldly. Her face had gone white at the mention of kisses.
“Well, let’s have the kisses anyway!” cried Dudd Flockley, and stepping forward, he caught the girl by one hand, while Jerry Koswell grasped her by the other.
“Oh, please let me go!” cried the girl. “Please do! Oh, Mr. Flockley! Mr. Koswell, don’t—don’t—please!”
“Now be nice about it,” growled Dudd Flockley.
“It won’t hurt you a bit,” added Jerry Koswell.
“I want you to let me go!” cried the girl.
“I will as soon as—” began Dudd Flockley, and then he gave a sudden roar of pain as he found himself caught by the ear. Then a hand caught him by the arm and he was whirled around and sent into a corner with a crash. At the same time Jerry Koswell was tackled and sent down in a heap in another corner. The girl, thus suddenly released, stared at the newcomers in astonishment and then sank down on a chair, too much overcome to move or speak.
CHAPTER III
LIKE KNIGHTS OF OLD
The Rover boys had acted on the impulse of the moment. They had seen that the girl wanted the two dudish young men to leave her alone, and stepping into the kitchen, Dick had tackled Dudd Flockley while Tom and Sam had given their attention to Jerry Koswell.
“You cowards!” cried Dick, confronting Flockley. “Why can’t you leave a young lady alone when she tells you to?”
“They ought to be kicked out of the house,” added Tom.
“You—you—” spluttered Dudd Flockley. He did not know what to say. He gathered himself up hastily and Jerry Koswell followed. “Who are you?” he demanded, facing Dick with clenched fists.
“Never mind who I am,” was the reply of the oldest Rover. “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”
“This is none of your affair,” came from Koswell.
“Well, we made it our affair,” answered Tom. He turned to the girl “I hope we did right,” he added hastily.
“Why—er—yes, I think so,” faltered the girl. She was still very white and trembling. “But—but I hope you didn’t hurt them.”
“See here, Minnie, are you going to stand for this?” growled Dudd Flockley. “It ain’t fair! We’re old friends, and—”
“You had no right to touch me, Mr. Flockley,” answered the girl. “I told you to let me go. I—I thought you were a—a—gentleman.” And now the tears began to show in Minnie Sanderson’s eyes.
“I am a gentleman.”
“You didn’t act like one.”
“Oh, come, don’t get prudish, Minnie,” put in Jerry Koswell. “We didn’t mean any harm. We—”
“I want you to leave this house!” said the girl, with a sudden show of spirit. “You had no warrant to act as you did. It—it was—was shameful! Leave at once!” And she stamped her small foot on the floor. Her anger was beginning to show itself and her face lost its whiteness and became crimson.
“We’ll leave when we please,” muttered Dudd Flockley.
“So we will,” added Jerry Koswell.
On the instant Dick looked at his brothers, and the three advanced on the two dudish-looking young men.
“You do as the young lady says,” said Dick in a cold, hard voice. “I don’t know you, but y
ou are not wanted here, and that is enough. Go!” And he pointed to the door.
“See here—” blustered Flockley. But he got no further, for Dick suddenly wheeled him around and gave him a shove that sent him through the doorway and off the back porch.
“Now the other fellow,” said the oldest Rover, but before Tom and Sam could touch Jerry Koswell that individual ducked and ran after Flockley. Then both young men stood at a safe distance.
“We’ll fix you for this!” roared Flockley. “We don’t know who you are, but we’ll find out, and—”
“Maybe you want a thrashing right now,” came from Tom impulsively. “I’m in fighting trim, if you want to know it.” And he stepped out of the house, with Sam at his heels. Dick followed. At this hostile movement Flockley and Koswell turned and walked hurriedly out of the garden and down the country road, a row of trees soon hiding them from view.
“They are as mad as hornets,” observed Sam. “If they belong anywhere near Ashton we’ll have to look out for them.”
“Right you are,” answered Tom. “But I am not particularly afraid.”
Having watched the two young men out of sight, the three Rover boys returned to the farmhouse. Minnie Sanderson had now recovered somewhat and she blushed deeply as she faced them.
“Oh, wasn’t it awful,” she said. “I—I don’t know what you think of it. They had no right to touch me. I thought they were gentlemen. They have called here several times, but they never acted that way before.”
“Then we came in the nick of time,” answered Dick. “Will you allow me to introduce myself?” and he bowed. “My name is Dick Rover and this is my brother Tom and this my brother Sam. You are Miss Sanderson, I suppose.”
“Yes, Minnie Sanderson.”
“We are strangers here. We were on the train, but there was a little accident and we were in a hurry to get to Ashton, so we got off and walked up this road, thinking we could hire somebody to drive us to Brill College.”
“Oh, do you go to Brill?” And the girl’s eyes opened widely.
“We don’t go yet, but we are going.”
The Rover Boys Megapack Page 202