The Rover Boys Megapack

by Edward Stratemeyer

  From the farm, and while their father was in Africa, the boys had been sent to Putnam Hall, as related in the first volume of this series, entitled, “The Rover Boys at School.” At the Hall they made a score of friends and several enemies, some of which will be introduced later. A term at school was followed by a trip on the ocean, and then one into the jungles of the Dark Continent in search of Mr. Rover, who had mysteriously disappeared. Then the Rover boys went out west and to the great lakes, and later spent a fine time hunting in the mountains. They likewise spent some time in camp with their fellow cadets, and during the summer vacation took a long trip on land and sea. Then they returned home, and during another vacation sailed down the Ohio River in a houseboat, spent some time on the plains, took an unexpected trip to southern waters, and then came back to the farm.

  On getting back home, as related in the twelfth volume of this series, called “The Rover Boys on the Farm,” the boys had imagined that adventures for them were a thing of the past. They were willing to take it easy, but this was not to be. Some bad men, including a sharper named Sid Merrick, were responsible for the theft of some freight from the local railroad, and Merrick, by a slick trick, obtained possession of some traction company bonds belonging to Randolph Rover. The Rover boys managed to locate the freight thieves, but Sid Merrick got away from them, dropping a pocketbook containing the traction company bonds in his flight. This was at a time when Dick, Tom and Sam had returned to Putnam Hall for their final term at that institution. At the Hall they had made a bitter enemy of a big, stocky bully named Tad Sobber and of another lad named Nick Pell. Tad Sobber, to get even with the Rovers for a fancied injury, sent to the latter a box containing a live, poisonous snake. The snake got away and hid in Nick Pell’s desk and Nick was bitten and for some time it was feared that he might die. He exposed Tad Sobber, and fearing arrest the bully ran away from the Hall. Later, much to their surprise, the Rover boys learned that the bully was a ward and nephew of Sid Merrick, and when the sharper disappeared, Tad Sobber went with him.

  “They are certainly a bad pair,” said Dick, but how bad the Rovers were still to find out.

  With the boys on the train were John Powell, better known as “Songbird,” because he had a, habit of reciting newly made doggerell which he called poetry, Hans Mueller, a German youth who frequently got his English badly twisted, Fred Garrison, who had graduated with the Rovers, and some others.

  “Dick, you haven’t told me yet what you intended to do this summer,” remarked Fred Garrison, as the train rolled on.

  “Because I don’t know, Fred,” answered the elder Rover. “My father has something in store, but I don’t know what it is.”

  “Can’t you guess?”

  “No.”

  “I wish we could take another trip like that on the houseboat—it was certainly a dandy.”

  “The best ever!” put in Tom. “Even if we did have trouble with Lew Flapp, Dan Baxter and some others.”

  “Speaking of Dan Baxter puts me in mind of something,” came from Songbird Powell. “It has just leaked out that Tad Sobber sent a note to Captain Putnam in which Tad blamed some of the cadets for his troubles, and said he was going to get square some day.”

  “Did he mention any names?” questioned Sam.

  “Yes.”

  “Mine?”

  “Yes—and Dick’s and Tom’s, too.”

  “It is just like Sobber—to blame his troubles on somebody else,” remarked Dick.

  “I am not afraid of him,” declared Tom. “He had better keep his distance unless he wants to get the worst of it. We used to put up with a whole lot from Dan Baxter before he reformed—I am not going to put up with as much from Sobber.”

  “Tad certainly went off in bad company,” said Sam. “His uncle ought to be in prison this minute.”

  “Have the authorities heard anything of Merrick?” asked Songbird.

  “Not a thing.”

  “I dink me dot feller has skipped to Europe alretty,” vouchsafed Hans Mueller. “He vould peen afraid to stay py der United States in, yah!” And the German boy shook his head wisely.

  “Personally I never want to set eyes on Sobber again,” said Dick, with a shrug of his broad shoulders. “The idea of introducing that deadly snake into the school was the limit. Why, half a dozen of us might have been bitten instead of only poor Pell.”

  “Maybe he did it only for a joke,” said Larry Colby, another of the cadets.

  “If he did, it was carrying a joke altogether too far—endangering one or more human lives. I don’t believe in that sort of fun.”

  “Nor do I,” came from several.

  “If he is in Europe with his uncle perhaps I’ll meet him there,” said Larry Colby. “I am going to France and Italy with my uncle and cousin. Wish some of you fellows were going along,” he added, wistfully.

  “I am going to the Maine woods,” said a lad named George Granberry. “You can never guess who is going there, too.”

  “Who?”

  “William Philander Tubbs and Mr. Strong.”

  “What, our own dude going to camp in the wilderness,” cried Tom. “Oh, if I was only along wouldn’t I give him some surprises!”

  “I’ll have some fun don’t forget that!” replied George, with a grin. “But as Mr. Strong is going to be along, of course I’ll have to be a little careful.”

  “Dear Mr. Strong!” murmured Sam, with a sigh. “What a fine teacher he is, and how I hate to give him up!”

  “I envy your having him along,” said Dick.

  At that moment the train rolled into a station and Larry and some of the others got off.

  “We leave you at the next station,” said Songbird, to the Rovers. “When you find out what you are going to do this summer, write and let me know.”

  “I certainly shall,” answered Dick.

  The three Rover boys soon after found themselves alone. They had to make a change of cars, and some time later rolled into the station at Oak Run.

  “Home again!” shouted Tom, as he alighted on the depot platform.

  “Yes, and there is Uncle Randolph waiting for us,” added Dick, as he hurried forward to meet his relative. “How do you do, Uncle!” he cried.

  “I am well, Richard,” answered Randolph Rover, and then he shook hands with all three boys. “Your—er—your father—” he began and hesitated.

  “Father? What of him?” asked Tom, in quick alarm, for he saw that his uncle was much disturbed.

  “Isn’t he with you?”

  “Why, no!” answered the three, in a chorus.

  “He started for home last night,” added Dick.

  “Took the train after the one you and Aunt Martha took.”

  “But he didn’t come home,” said Randolph Rover.

  “Didn’t come home?”

  “No.”

  “Didn’t he send any word?” questioned Sam.

  “None that I received.”

  “He said he was going straight home would telephone from Lockville for the carriage to meet the last train,” said Tom. “This is mighty queer.”

  It was queer and for the moment the Rover boys and their uncle stared blankly at one another.

  “Something is wrong,” declared Dick, presently. “And I am going to make it my business to find out at once what it is.”

  CHAPTER II

  AN IMPORTANT TELEGRAM

  Dick Rover would not have been so much disturbed by his father’s disappearance had it not been for one thing, which was that Mr. Rover, on leaving the closing exercises at Putnam Hall, had declared that he would take the last train home that night. This train got into Oak Run at one o’clock in the morning, when the station was closed and the platform usually deserted.

  “Let us ask around and see if anybody was here when the train came in,” suggested Tom.
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br />   They first appealed to Mr. Ricks, the station master, an old and crabbed individual, who disliked the boys for the jokes they had played on him in times past. He shook his head at once.

  “Don’t keep the station open that long,” he grunted. “I was home an’ in bed, an’ I don’t know anything about your father.”

  “Was anybody around the station, that you know of?” went on Dick.

  “No.”

  “Did any telegram come in for our family?”

  “If it did I reckon Jackson would send it over, or telephone.”

  “Let us ask Jackson and make sure,” said Sam, and led the way to the telegraph office. The telegraph receiver was ticking away at a lively rate, and Jackson, who had charge of the office, was taking down a message on a blank.

  “Hullo!” cried the telegrapher, as he finished and looked up. “Here is a message for Mr. Randolph Rover hot off the wire. It won’t take long to deliver it,” and he handed it over. “It’s paid for,” he added. “But you’ll have to sign for it,” and Mr. Rover did so.

  Eagerly all the Rovers read the communication, which ran as follows:

  “Am following man I want to catch if possible. May be away from home several days or a week. Very important to see man—trip this summer depends upon it.

  “ANDERSON ROVER.”

  “Wonder who the man can be?” mused Dick, after reading the message twice.

  “He has something to do with this matter father was going to tell us about,” returned Sam. “It’s certainly a mystery.”

  “Well, this relieves our anxiety,” said Randolph Rover. “So long as I know nothing has happened, your father can stay away as long as, he pleases.”

  “But I am dying to know what it is all about,” burst out Tom, who was always impatient to get at the bottom of things. “Uncle Randolph, do you know what father has in mind to do this summer?”

  “He talks about taking a sea trip, but where to I don’t know.”

  “And he wants us to go along?” queried the youngest Rover.

  “I believe so, Samuel.”

  “Hurrah! I’d like a sea trip first rate.”

  “Yes, but—” Mr. Rover lowered his voice. “He doesn’t want anybody to know where to. It’s some kind of a secret—very important, I imagine —something to do with a gold mine, or something of the sort. He did not give me any particulars.”

  “He said he was going to let us know about it when we got home from the Hall,” said Dick. “I hope he catches his man.”

  “Wonder who it can be?” came from Tom.

  Nobody could answer that question, and in a thoughtful mood the three Rover boys followed their uncle to the carriage and got in. Then the team was touched up and away they whirled, out of the village, across Swift River, and in the direction of Valley Brook farm.

  It was a beautiful day in June and never had the country looked finer. As they swept along the well kept road Dick drew a deep breath of satisfaction.

  “This air makes a fellow feel new all over!” he declared.

  “I suppose you are going to plant and grow some wonderful things this summer, Uncle Randolph,” said Tom. His uncle had studied scientific farming for years, but had never made any tremendous success of it in fact his experiments usually cost him considerably more than they brought in.

  “Well—er—I am trying my hand this year on some Mexican melons said to be very fine, Thomas,” was the reply.

  “Mexican melons?” said the fun-loving Tom, innocently. “That puts me in mind when I was over to Albany last I saw a pumpkin in a restaurant window eight feet high and at least ten feet across.”

  “Is it possible!” ejaculated Randolph Rover, gazing at his nephew incredulously.

  “Sure thing. The pumpkin looked to be good, too. They had a lot of pumpkin pies set around it, just for an advertisement.”

  “Thomas, did you measure that pumpkin?”

  “No; why should I?”

  “Then how do you know it was eight feet high and ten feet across?”

  “Why, Uncle Randolph, I didn’t say the pumpkin was eight feet high and ten feet across. I said I saw it in a restaurant window eight feet high and ten feet across,” and Tom drew down the corners of his mouth soberly.

  “Tom, that’s the worst ever!” cried Sam.

  “You ought to be made to walk home for that,” added Dick.

  “Thomas! Thomas! you are as bad as ever!” said Mr. Rover, with a sigh. “But I might have been on my guard. I know there are no pumpkins of that size.”

  “Uncle Randolph, you’ll have to forgive me,” said Tom, putting his hand affectionately on his relative’s shoulder. “I really couldn’t help it—I am just bubbling over to think that school days are over and I won’t have to do any studying for several months to come.”

  “I fancy we’ll have to tie you down to keep you out of mischief.”

  “You won’t have to tie me down if I go on a sea trip with dad.”

  “Haven’t you had sea trips enough with being cast away in the middle of the Pacific, and being wrecked in the Gulf of Mexico? It seems to me every time you and the others leave home something serious happens to you.”

  “True but we always come back right side up with care and all charges paid,” answered the fun-loving Rover airily.

  They soon made a turn in the road which brought them in sight of the big farmhouse, nestling comfortably in a group of stately trees. As they turned into the lane their Aunt Martha came to the front piazza and waved her hand. Down in the roadway stood Jack Ness; the hired man, grinning broadly, and behind Mrs. Rover stood Alexander Pop, the colored helper, his mouth open from ear to ear. At once Tom began to sing:

  “Home again! home again! Safe from Putnam Hall.”

  And then he made a flying leap from the carriage, rushed up the steps and gave his aunt such a hug as made her gasp for breath.

  “Oh, Tom, you bear! Do let up!” she cried. “Now, there’s a kiss for you, and there’s another! How do you do, Sam, and how are you, Dick?” And she kissed them also. “I am glad you are back at last.” She turned to her husband “What of Anderson, did you hear anything?”

  “Yes, he will be back in a few days.”

  “I’se jess too pleased fo’ anything to see yo’ boys back heah!” came from Aleck Pop. “It’s dun been mighty lonely since yo’ went away.”

  “Don’t worry, Aleck, we’ll cheer you up,” answered Tom.

  “Oh, I know dat, Massa Tom yo’ll turn dis place upside down in two days suah!”

  “Why, Aleck, you know I’d never do anything so rash,” answered Tom, meekly.

  “Going to uncover some more freight thieves?” asked Jack Ness, as he took charge of the team and started for the barn.

  “I think dem boys had bettah cotch some of dem chicken thieves,” put in Aleck Pop. “Yo’ don’t seem to git holt ob dem nohow.”

  “Oh, never you mind about the chicken thieves,” grumbled Jack Ness.

  “Has somebody been stealing chickens again?” asked Dick, remembering that they had suffered several times from such depradations.

  “Yes, da has took two chickens las’ Wednesday, foah on Saturday, an’ two on Monday. Jack he laid fo’ ’em wid a shotgun, but he didn’t cotch nobody.”

  “I’ll catch them yet, see if I don’t,” said the hired man.

  “Perhaps a fox is doing it,” suggested Sam. “If so, we ought to go on a fox hunt. That would suit me first rate.”

  “No fox in this,” answered Jack Ness. “I see the footprints of two men,—tramps, I reckon. If I catch sight of ’em I’ll fill ’em full of shot and then have ’em locked up.”

  CHAPTER III

  FUN ON THE FARM

  Two days passed and the boys felt once more at home on the farm. The strain of the recent examinations and the closing ex
ercises at school had gone and as Sam declared, “they were once more themselves,” and ready for anything that might turn up.

  In those two days came another telegram from Mr. Rover, sent from Philadelphia, in which he stated that he had caught his man, but had lost him again. He added that he would be home probably on the following Sunday. This message came in on Monday, so the boys knew they would have to wait nearly a week before seeing their parent.

  “I am just dying to know what it is all about,” said Tom, and the others said practically the same.

  Tom could not keep down his propensities for joking and nearly drove Sarah, the cook, to distraction by putting some barn mice in the bread box in the pantry and by pouring ink over some small stones and then adding them to the coal she was using in the kitchen range. He also took a piece of old rubber bicycle tire and trimmed it up to resemble a snake and put it in Jack Ness’ bed in the barn, thereby nearly scaring the hired man into a fit. Ness ran out of the room in his night dress and raised such a yell that he aroused everybody in the house. He got his shotgun and blazed away at the supposed snake, thereby ruining a blanket, two sheets, and filling the mattress with shot. When he found out how he had been hoaxed he was the most foolish looking man to be imagined.

  “You just wait, Master Tom, I’ll get square,” he said.

  “Who said I put a snake in your bed?” demanded Tom. “I never did such a thing in my life.”

  “No, but you put that old rubber in, and I know it,” grumbled the hired man and then went back to bed.

  Tom also had his little joke on Aleck Pop. One evening he saw the colored man dressing up to go out and learned that he was going to call on a colored widow living at Dexter’s Corners, a nearby village.

  “We can’t allow this,” said the fun-loving Rover to his younger brother. “The next thing you know Aleck will be getting married and leaving us.”

  “What do you think of doing?” asked Sam.

  “Come on, and I’ll show you.”

  Now, Aleck was rather a good looking and well formed darkey and he was proud of his shape. He had a fine black coat, with trousers to match, and a gorgeous colored vest. This suit Tom was certain he would wear when calling on the widow.