The Rover Boys Under Canvas | Page 6

than those which had gone before. The ground all
around seemed to tremble, and those who were still in the grandstand
cried out in alarm.
"The grandstand is going down! Everybody jump for his life!"
"Look! Look!" was the sudden cry from Jack Rover, and he pointed to

a place on the opposite shore of Clearwater Lake. A dense volume of
smoke was rolling skyward. Then came another tremendous explosion,
and a mass of wreckage could be seen to be lifted skyward.
"It's the Hasley ammunition factory going up!" cried Fred Rover.
"What an awful thing to happen!"
"That factory is right across the lake from our school!" cried Martha
Rover. "I wonder if it will damage that place any?"
"I shouldn't be surprised," answered her cousin Andy. And then he
added quickly: "I hope Mary will be safe."
"Oh, oh! do you think Mary is in danger?" cried Ruth Stevenson, who
had just joined the others. Mary was Fred Rover's sister, who had been
left behind at the girls' boarding school because she had been suffering
that day with a severe headache, and had said she preferred resting to
attending the ball game, even though she loved to be with the others.
"There goes another building!" yelled Andy Rover, as another report
rent the air. Then those who were looking down the river and across the
lake saw some strange objects being hurled through the sky in the
direction of Clearwater Hall.
"If that whole ammunition factory starts to go up, it will certainly mean
damage to the boarding school," declared Jack. "I guess the best we can
do is to get down there and see if Mary is safe."
"That's just what I say!" declared Fred. "I'm going to get down there
just as fast as I can." And he ran off, to board one of the automobiles
headed in that direction.
Now, I know it will not be at all necessary to introduce the Rover boys
or their friends to my old readers, but for the benefit of those who have
not perused any of my former stories a few words concerning these
characters will be necessary. In the first volume, entitled "The Rover
Boys at School," I told how three brothers, Dick, Tom, and Sam Rover,
were sent off to Putnam Hall Military Academy, where they made a

great number of friends, including a youth named Lawrence Colby.
From Putnam Hall the lads went to Brill College, and on leaving that
institution of learning went into business in New York City with offices
on Wall Street. They organized The Rover Company, of which Dick
was now president, Tom secretary and general manager, and Sam
treasurer.
While at Putnam Hall the three Rovers had become acquainted with
three very charming girls, Dora Stanhope and her two cousins, Nellie
and Grace Laning, and when Dick went into business he made Dora
Stanhope his lifelong partner. A short time later Tom married Nellie
Laning and Sam married Grace.
The three brothers purchased a fine plot of ground on Riverside Drive
overlooking the noble Hudson River, and there they built three
connecting houses, Dick and his family living in the middle house, with
Tom on one side and Sam on the other.
About a year after their marriage Dick and his wife became the proud
parents of a little son, who was named John after Mr. Laning. This son
was followed by a daughter, called Martha after her great-aunt Martha
of Valley Brook Farm, where the older Rovers had spent many of their
younger days. Little Jack, as he was commonly called, was a manly lad
with many of the qualities which had made his father so well liked and
so successful.
It was about this time that Tom and Nellie Rover came to the front with
a surprise for all of the others. This was in the shape of a pair of very
lively twins, one of whom was named Anderson, after his grandfather,
and the other, Randolph, after his great-uncle Randolph of Valley
Brook Farm. Andy and Randy, as they were always called, were very
active lads, in that particular being a second edition of their father.
About the time Tom's twins were born Sam and Grace Rover came
along with a beautiful little girl, whom they named Mary after Mrs.
Laning. Then, a year later, the girl was followed by a sturdy boy,
christened Fred after Sam Rover's old and well-known school chum,
Fred Garrison.

Residing so close together, the younger generation of Rover boys, as
well as their sisters, were brought up very much like one family. They
spent their winters usually in New York City, and during the summer
often went out to Valley Brook Farm, where their grandfather,
Anderson Rover, still resided with Uncle Randolph and Aunt