“Nonsense, Dudd!” put in Stanley. “He wanted to make a home run—he wasn’t aiming at your hat at all.”
“I know better!” answered the other student, bitterly. “Say, Tom Rover, it’s up to you to buy me a new hat,” he added.
“All right, if that’s the way you feel about it,” answered Tom. “You get the hat and I’ll pay for it. But I didn’t smash it on purpose, Dudd.”
“That hat cost me five dollars, and I don’t know where to get one like it,” growled the dudish pupil.
“Oh, I can tell you where to get a hat like that!” piped in a drawling voice. “Try the Melrose English Shop, on Broadway. They have all styles, don’t you know.”
“Good for William Philander Tubbs!” cried Dick. “He knows the directory on straw hats.”
“Huh! Think I’m going all the way to New York for a new hat?” growled Dudd Flockley. “I want one to go home in.”
“Maybe I can lend you an old one,” suggested Tom, dryly.
“I don’t want your old hat,” growled Dudd Flockley. “I’ll get a new one—and you can foot the bill!” and he turned and walked away, his face full of sourness.
“The same old Flockley,” whispered Sam to his brother. “After all we did for him, too!”
“You beware of Dudd,” put in Songbird, who was near. “He pretends to be friendly, since you put in a good word for him to the doctor, but, just the same, he has got it in for you.”
“Play ball!” called out the umpire; and then the ball was thrown down to Frank Holden, and the game went on. Tom gave one more glance in the direction of Dudd Flockley and saw that the dudish student had stopped in his walk, turned around, and was glaring at him savagely.
To my old readers the lads who have thus far taken a part in this story will need no special introduction. But for the benefit of others who have not read the former volumes in this “Rover Boys Series,” let me state that Dick, Tom and Sam Rover were three brothers, who, when at home, lived with their father, Anderson Rover, and their Uncle Randolph and Aunt Martha, on a beautiful farm called Valley Brook.
From the farm, and while their father was in Africa, the three boys had been sent to a military academy, as related in the first volume of this series, called “The Rover Boys at School.” At the school they made a large number of friends, and also a few enemies, and had “the best time ever,” as Sam expressed it.
A term at school was followed by a trip on the ocean, as set down in the second volume of this series, and then by a journey to Africa, where the boys went to locate their father, who had become a captive of the natives. After that came a trip out West, to locate a mine belonging to the Rovers, and then trips to the Great Lakes, and to the mountains, and then, returning to the school, the lads went into camp with the other cadets.
“I guess we had better settle down now,” said Dick. But this was not to be. Not much later they took a long trip on land and sea, and followed this up by a voyage on the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers on a flatboat. Then came some thrilling adventures on the plains, and a little later found the dauntless boys in Southern waters, where they solved the mystery of a deserted steam yacht.
“The farm for mine!” said Tom, after traveling north from the Gulf, and all of the boys were glad to take it easy for some weeks, and also get ready to graduate from Putnam Hall. They had an idea they were to go directly from the military school to college. But something turned up which made them change their plans.
Through Mr. Rover it was learned that a small fortune belonging to a certain Stanhope estate was missing. It had been secreted on an island of the West Indies, and it was settled that the Rovers and some of their friends should go in quest of it.
The boys were particularly anxious to locate this treasure, and with good reason. While at Putnam Hall they had made the acquaintance of Dora Stanhope and also of Nellie and Grace Laning, Dora’s cousins. From the very start Dick was attracted to Dora, and now the pair were practically engaged to be married. Tom had taken a particular liking to Nellie Laning and it must be confessed that Sam was equally smitten with Grace.
It was learned that the treasure had been willed to Mr. Stanhope, and consequently, on his death, it had become part of his estate, which in turn had been willed in part to his wife and Dora, with a small share to Mrs. Laning, his sister.
“We’ll get that treasure and make the girls happy,” declared Dick, and how the whole crowd set off on the quest has already been told in the thirteenth volume of this series, entitled: “The Rover Boys on Treasure Isle.” The treasure was also claimed by two of their enemies, Sid Merrick and his nephew, Tad Sobber, and they did all they could to gain possession of the valuables. But the treasure was at last brought safely to this country, and then it was learned that Sid Merrick had been lost at sea in a hurricane. Tad Sobber was saved, and carried on a passing vessel to England.
“And now for college!” cried all of the Rover boys, and wondered to what institution of learning they were to go.
“How would you like to go to Brill?” asked Mr. Rover. “It is a fine place, located in one of our middle-western states, and the head of it, Doctor John Wallington, is an old friend of mine.”
The boys had heard that Dora, Grace and Nellie were going to an institution known as Hope Seminary, not far from the town of Ashton. As soon as they learned that Brill College was situated less than two miles from Hope they decided without hesitation to go to the institution their parent had mentioned.
“We’ll be near the girls, and we ought to have lots of good times,” said Tom.
“It will be our own fault if we don’t,” Dick had answered.
How the brothers went to Brill has already been related in the volume entitled “The Rover Boys at College.” At Brill, as at Putnam Hall, they quickly made a number of friends, not the least of whom were Stanley Browne, Max Spangler, a German student, and Allen Charter, the leading senior. They also had with them their former school chums, John Powell, better known as Songbird because of his cleverness in writing and reciting doggerel, and William Philander Tubbs, a student whose entire spare time was spent in buying things to wear of the latest fashions, and in seeking the society of his young lady friends.
At Brill the Rovers soon came into contact with the dudish pupil, Dudd Flockley, and also with two bullies, Jerry Koswell and Bart Larkspur. Led by Koswell, who was a thoroughly bad egg, the three tried their best to make trouble for the Rovers, and finally succeeded. But the rascals overreached themselves, and when they were exposed Koswell and Larkspur became so frightened that they ran away from Brill and refused to return. Dudd Flockley remained, and he pleaded so earnestly to be forgiven that the Rovers finally decided to drop the case against him, and spoke a good word for him to the head of the college, and he was allowed to continue at Brill.
“I guess Flockley has learned his lesson,” said Dick. But it looked as if he might be mistaken, for Flockley, as soon as he felt himself secure at Brill, acted in anything but a grateful manner. Yet he was not as assertive as he had been, for he missed the companionship and support of his former cronies.
With the fortune in their possession, and Sid Merrick dead, the Stanhopes and Lanings had felt secure of their wealth. But, returning from England, Tad Sobber had gone to a shyster lawyer, and put in a claim, and the lawyer had obtained a court injunction, restraining anybody from touching a dollar of the money. This depressed the girls greatly, and made them, for a time, leave Hope. But in the end, the injunction was dissolved, and the Stanhopes and Lanings were told that they could do as they pleased with the fortune.
“That’s the best news yet!” Dick had said, on hearing it. “I guess that will put a spoke in Tad Sobber’s wheel.”
“It will take one out, you mean,” returned Tom, with a sly grin. “Wonder what Tad will do next?”
“He can’t do anything,” had come from Sam. “He is knocked out cle
an and clear. I always said he had no right to the fortune. That claim of Sid Merrick’s was a fake pure and simple.”
“I believe you,” Dick answered. “Just the same, I feel, somehow, that Tad won’t give up even yet.”
“But what can he do?” his two brothers had asked.
“I don’t know—but he’ll try to do something; see if he doesn’t.”
A few days later had come in some particulars of the case. After the injunction had been dissolved Tad Sobber and his lawyer had gotten into a big row and Sobber had ended by blackening the legal gentleman’s left eye. Then Sobber had mysteriously disappeared, but the next day he had sent a rambling letter to Mrs. Stanhope, stating that, even if thrown out of court, he considered that the fortune from Treasure Isle belonged to him, and, sooner or later, he meant to gain possession of it.
“We’ll have to watch out for Tad Sobber,” had been Dick’s comment, on learning the news. “He is growing desperate, and there is no telling what he will do next.”
“He’s the same old sneak he was at Putnam Hall,” declared Tom.
“This will scare Mrs. Stanhope, and Mrs. Laning, too,” had been Sam’s comment.
“And the girls,” his oldest brother had added. “I wish we could round Tad Sobber up, and put him where he couldn’t worry them any more.”
“Maybe he’ll drop out of sight,” said Tom. But this was not to be. Tad Sobber was to cause a great deal of trouble, as we shall learn in the near future. The young rascal had convinced himself that the Stanhope fortune belonged to him, and he meant to leave no stone unturned to get possession of it.
CHAPTER II
THE FIRE ON THE STEAMER
“That’s the way to do it!”
The cry came as Tom knocked a neat liner out to center field. He managed to get to first base with ease, while Dick, on the alert, slid to the home plate just before the ball came in.
“That gives us five runs, anyway!” was Stanley’s comment. “Now, Spud, see what you can do.”
“Here is where I knock one across the river and back,” declared Spud Jackson, as he came forward with a bat. “Better chase your men away out,” he added to Frank Holden.
“They can use nets,” answered the pitcher with a grin.
Spud had a ball and a strike called on him and then met the leather and sent it to the shortstop. Tom had to run for second and he legged it with might and main. But the ball got there ahead of him and he was put out, and so was the runner at first.
“Wow!” cried Songbird. “Thought you were going to knock the ball across the river and back, Spud.”
“So I did,” answered Spud, as he walked up from first. “It landed on the other side, bounced back, and the shortstop got it. Fierce luck, eh?” And he cut a face that made many of the students standing by laugh outright.
In the next inning the other side added two runs to their total. One of these runs was made by Sam, much to the youngest Rover’s satisfaction.
“We’ve got you going!” he cried, to his brothers and the others. “Might as well give up.”
“Huh! we haven’t started yet,” retorted Tom. He turned to William Philander Tubbs, who had strolled near. “Say, Tubby, old boy, lend me your green socks for luck, will you?”
“Oh, Tom, please don’t ask me to—ah—lend those socks,” pleaded William Philander, innocently. “They are the only pair of that shade I have, and the young ladies say—”
“They can’t resist you when you have them on,” finished Tom. “All right, if you want me to lose the game, keep the socks,” and the fun-loving Rover put on a mournful look.
“But, my dear Tom, how can my socks have anything to do with the game?” questioned the dude, helplessly.
“Why, it’s a psychological phenomena, Tublets. Sort of an inter-mental telepathy, so to speak—a rhomboid compendium indexus, as it were. Of course you understand,” said Tom, soberly.
“Why—ah—I don’t think I do, Tom,” stammered the dude. “But I can’t loan the socks, really I can’t!” And he backed away with all possible haste, while some of the students poked each other in the ribs and some laughed outright.
“Now then, here is where we go at ’em, hammer and tongs!” cried Dick, as he walked to the plate. And he met the first ball pitched and lined a beautiful three-bagger to deep center.
“Hurrah! That’s the way to do it!” yelled Tom. “Leg it, old man, leg it!”
“We’ve struck our gait!” sang out another player. “Now, Tom, you’ve got to bring him home sure.”
Tom was on the alert and after one strike managed to send the ball down into left field. Dick came home and the batter got to second, although it was a tight squeeze.
Spud was up next, and this time his face wore a “do-or-die” look. He had two balls called on him, and then whack! his bat struck the ball and the horsehide went sailing far over the right fielder’s head.
“Say, that’s a beaut!”
“Come on in, Tom!”
“Make it a two-bagger, Spud!”
“You can get to third if you try!” yelled Dick, and Spud did try and landed in a cloud of dust on third base just a second before the ball got there.
“Now then, Wilson, bring Spud in,” said Dick, to the next fellow at the bat.
“Make it a homer and bring yourself in too, Wilson,” added Tom.
“By chimminy! Make him two home runs while you are at it alretty!” cried Max Spangler, with a broad smile. Since arriving at Brill the German American lad had become quite a baseball “fan.”
“Hi, there, you fellows!” came unexpectedly from the center fielder.
“What’s the matter?” yelled back Frank Holden, stepping out of the pitcher’s box and turning around.
“Something is wrong on the river.”
“Wrong on the river?” queried several, in a chorus.
“Yes. Don’t you hear the screaming?”
“Time!” cried the umpire, and the game came to a stop.
“Say, that is somebody screaming!” exclaimed Stanley. “Sounds like a girl’s voice.”
“It’s from that excursion boat!” said another student. And as he spoke he pointed to a small river steamer, gaily decorated with flags and bunting, that had appeared around a bend of the stream.
“Why, that’s the Thistle!” ejaculated Dick.
“The Thistle?” repeated Sam. “Oh, Dick, that’s the steamer the girls from Hope were going to use for their picnic up the river!”
“I know it.”
“Do you suppose Grace and Nellie and Dora are on board?”
“More than likely.”
“What’s the trouble?”
“They are yelling like Indians!” cried the center fielder. “Come on, something is wrong, sure!”
On the instant the game of baseball was forgotten, and like a drove of wild horses the college boys raced down to the edge of the river, which at this point was over a quarter of a mile wide but quite shallow. As they did this they heard the steam whistle of the Thistle sound out loud and long.
“That’s a call for assistance, that’s certain,” said Dick.
“Oh, I hope the girls are safe!” murmured his youngest brother.
“She’s on fire, that’s what’s the matter!” exclaimed Tom. “See the smoke coming from the cabin!”
“Fire! fire! fire!” was the cry taken up on all sides. “The steamer is on fire!”
“Why don’t they run to the dock?” asked one of the students.
“Can’t—it isn’t deep enough,” was the reply. “They are going to dredge out the channel this summer.”
“They are turning towards shore!” came, a second later, and then it could be seen that the Thistle had turned partly around. But the next instant the vessel ran into a mud shoal and there she stuck.
“Co
me on, let us get out and help those who are on board!” cried Dick, and started on a run for the college boathouse, located two hundred yards further up the shore.
The alarm was now general, and fully two score of students and several of the faculty, as well as some workmen, were running for the boathouse, to get out the rowboats and other craft usually housed there.
“Stanley, how about your gasolene launch?” questioned Dick, as they raced along the river bank.
“She’s all ready to use,” was the answer. “I had her out a little while early this morning.”
“Then I’ll go out with you in that, if you say so.”
“Sure,” was the ready response.
“Want us?” queried Tom.
“You and Sam better bring another boat,” answered Dick. “The more the better. The Thistle must have quite a crowd on board—if all the Hope students went on that picnic.”
“Grace said about thirty girls were going,” replied Sam. “Oh, if they get burned—”
“They won’t wait for that—they’ll jump into the river first,” answered Tom soberly. For the time being all the fun was knocked out of him.
While talking, the boys had been busy with the boats. Stanley’s gasolene launch was pushed out, and he and Dick leaped aboard, and the latter set the flywheel going. The engine was in good running order, and soon a steady put-put! sounded out, and the craft headed for the burning steamer. But, as quick as Dick and Stanley were in their movements, Tom and Sam were equally alert, and as the launch moved away Tom and his brother scrambled into a rowboat, oars in hand, and caught fast to the power craft with a boathook.
“You can pull us as well as not,” said Tom.
“Right you are,” answered Stanley. “And the quicker both boats get to that steamer the better.”
As they drew closer to the Thistle they saw a volume of smoke roll up from the engine room. A barrel of oil had taken fire and the crew had found it impossible to subdue the conflagration. As yet the fire was only a small one, but there was no telling how soon it would spread, and the seminary girls on board were panic-stricken, more especially as the teacher who chanced to be with them was herself an extremely nervous person.
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