Dave Porter at Star Ranch | Page 3

the door to it and swing it to and fro. We'll
try to hit the bear while he's swinging."
"That's the talk!" returned Dave, enthusiastically. "I'll get the rope!"
And he ran off to the barn for it. Little did he dream of what trouble
that swinging target was to make for himself and his chums.
Many of my old readers already know Dave Porter, but for the benefit
of others a brief outline of his past history will not be out of place.
When he was a wee boy he had been found one day wandering along
the railroad tracks outside of the village of Crumville. Nobody knew
who he was or where he came from, and consequently he was put in the
local poorhouse, there to remain until he was nine years old. Then a
broken-down college professor named Caspar Potts, who was doing
farming for his health, took the lad to live with him.
Caspar Potts gave Dave the rudiments of a good education. But he
could not make his farm pay, and soon got into the grasp of Aaron
Poole, a miserly money-lender, who threatened to sell him out.

Things looked exceedingly black for the old man and the boy when
something very unexpected happened, as has been related in detail in
the first volume of this series, called "Dave Porter at Oak Hall." In
Crumville lived a rich manufacturer named Oliver Wadsworth, who
had a beautiful daughter named Jessie, some years younger than Dave.
Through an accident to the gasoline tank of an automobile, Jessie's
clothing took fire, and she might have been burned to death had not
Dave rushed in and extinguished the flames.
Mr. Wadsworth was profuse in his thanks, and so was his wife, and
both made inquiries concerning Dave and Caspar Potts. It was found
that the latter was one of the manufacturer's former college professors,
and Mr. Wadsworth insisted that Professor Potts give up farming and
come and live with him, and bring Dave along. Then he sent Dave to
boarding school, where the lad soon proved his worth, and made close
chums of Roger Morr, the son of a United States senator; Phil
Lawrence, the offspring of a wealthy shipowner, and a number of
others.
The cloud concerning his parentage troubled Dave a great deal, and
when he saw what he thought was a chance to clear up the mystery, he
took a long trip from home, as related in "Dave Porter in the South
Seas." After many adventures he found his uncle, Dunston Porter, and
learned much concerning his father, David Breslow Porter, and his
sister, Laura, then traveling in Europe.
Dave was now no longer a "poorhouse nobody," as some of his
enemies had called him, but a well-to-do youth with considerable
money coming to him when he should be of age. While waiting to hear
from his parent he went back to Oak Hall, as related in "Dave Porter's
Return to School." Here he added to his friends; yet some boys were
jealous of his prosperity and did all they could to injure him. But their
plots were exposed, and in sheer fright one of the lads ran away to
Europe.
Much to Dave's disappointment, he did not hear from either his father
or his sister. But he did receive word that the bully who had run away
from Oak Hall had seen them, and so he resolved to go on another hunt

for his relatives. As told in "Dave Porter in the Far North," he crossed
the Atlantic with his chum, Roger, and followed his father to the upper
part of Norway. Here at last the lonely lad met his parent face to face, a
meeting as thrilling as it was interesting. He learned that his sister had
returned to the United States, and with some friends named Endicott
had gone to the latter's ranch in the Far West.
Mr. Oliver Wadsworth's mansion was a large one, and by an
arrangement with him it was settled that, for the present, the Porters
should make the place their home. All in a flutter of excitement, Laura
came back from the West, and the meeting between brother and sister
was as affecting as had been that between father and son. The girl
brought with her some news that interested Dave deeply. It was to the
effect that the ranch next to that of the Endicotts was owned by a Mr.
Felix Merwell, the father of Link Merwell, one of Dave's bitterest
enemies at Oak Hall. Link had met Laura out there and gotten her to
correspond with him.
"It's too bad, Laura; I wish you hadn't done it," Dave had said on
learning the news. "It may make trouble, for Merwell is no gentleman."
And trouble it did make,