The Rover Boys in New York | Page 8

Seminary buildings.
"Wonder where they are?" mused Dick, as the biplane came to earth at the spot where they had landed before.
"If they are around they must have heard us," answered Tom. "The engine makes noise enough to wake the dead." And this was well expressed, for the motor, like many of the flying machine kind, had no muffler attached, and the explosions were not unlike the firing of a gatling gun.
Some girls had seen them come down, and presently the boys saw three figures hurrying towards them.
"Oh, what made you come so late?" cried Grace, as she rushed up and shook hands with Sam and then with the others.
"We thought you might come to-day," put in Nellie, as she beamed on Tom, and extended both hands.
"I heard the machine first," declared Dora, and came straight to Dick, who did not hesitate to give her the hearty kiss to which he thought his engagement entitled him.
"We have been to Plankville," came from Tom and Sam, in a breath.
"Have you heard the news?" questioned their big brother, and he looked anxiously from Dora to her cousins.
"What news?" cried Dora, quickly. "We have heard nothing unusual."
"Josiah Crabtree broke out of the Plankville jail and ran away."
"Oh, Dick!" and Dora grew suddenly pale. "Do you really mean it?"
"When was this?" demanded Nellie.
"Tell us all about it," supplemented Grace.
"We can't tell you any more than what we have heard," answered Sam. "We just got word ourselves this morning."
Then the boys told their story and answered innumerable questions which the girls put to them.
"This will be bad news for mother," said Dora, to Dick. "She is afraid of Josiah Crabtree, and always has been-- because of his strange hypnotic power."
"I don't think he will dare to show himself-- at least, not for a while, Dora," he answered. "He knows only too well that the jail is waiting to receive him."
"That strange man with the bushy eyebrows and the pointed chin must have helped him to get away," was Nellie's comment.
"So we think," answered Tom.
"But who was he?" questioned her sister.
"That's a conundrum we can't answer," returned Sam. "I think he was waiting around with that auto, and as soon as the fire started Crabtree saw the chance he wanted and got out."
"Maybe Crabtree started the fire?" suggested Dora.
"No, that was purely an accident-- so the jailer says. The wind blew a curtain against a lamp and the burning curtain fell into some excelsior in a box of new dishes. The excelsior made quite a blaze and a lot of smoke, and everybody in the jail was badly frightened for a while."
After that the talk became general, and quite unconsciously Dick and Dora strolled off by themselves, down towards a tiny brook that flowed past the campus grounds.
"You must be very careful, Dora, now that Crabtree is at liberty," said the eldest Rover boy. "I wouldn't have him run off with you again for the world," he added, tenderly.
"I shall watch out, Dick,-- and I'll make the others watch out, too." And then, as he squeezed her hand, she added, in a lower voice: "How is that other matter coming along?"
"Not very well, Dora," and Dick's face became more serious than ever.
"Can't your father manage it?"
"I don't think so. You see, he isn't in very good health-- he breaks down every once in a while. Those business matters worry him a great deal."
"Can't your uncle help him?"
"No, Uncle Randolph means well, but he is no business man-- he showed that when he allowed those men to swindle him out of those bonds," went on Dick, referring to an event which has been related in detail in "The Rover Boys on the Farm."
"But what can you do, Dick?" questioned the girl, earnestly.
"I think I'll have to quit college and take up the matter myself," answered Dick Rover.
CHAPTER IV
THE END OF THE "DARTAWAY"
"Quit college? Oh, Dick, do you want to do that?"
"Not exactly, Dora-- and yet I don't think I am exactly fitted for a professional career. That seems to be more in Tom and Sam's line. I like business, and I'd enjoy getting into something big, something worth while. I think I could handle those matters, if father would only let me try. And then there is another thing, Dora," went on the youth, looking squarely into his companion's face. "Perhaps you can guess what that is."
She blushed deeply.
"What?" she whispered.
"I want to marry you, and take you some place where I know you'll be safe from such creatures as Crabtree and Sobber and Larkspur-- and I want the right to look after your mother, too."
"Oh, Dick!" And she clung tightly to his arm.
"Aren't you willing, Dora?"
"Yes." She looked at him frankly" "Yes, Dick, whenever you say."
"And your mother----"
"Mamma depends upon me in everything, and she has told