The Rover Boys on Treasure Isle | Page 8

put in Peter Thomas. "Look wot it reads, 'I
hab got to hump to cotch de widow.' Hah! hah! hah! Dot's a good one."

"Yo' needn't hump yo'self to cotch me," cried the widow, wrathfully.
"I'se engaged to Mistah Thomas." And she smiled on the individual in
question.
Crestfallen and bewildered, Aleck felt of his back and took off his coat.
He squeezed the rubber rabbit so hard that it exploded with a bang,
scaring himself and the others.
"Dat's a trick on me!" roared the Rover's man, and tore the rabbit from
his coat. "Dem boys did dat!"
"I can't see yo' to-night, or any udder night, Mistah Pop," said the
widow. "I'se engaged to Mistah Thomas."
"Den good-night," growled Aleck, and turning on his heel he started for
home.
Tom and Sam saw that he was angry, yet they had to roar at the scene
presented. They wondered what Aleck would say when he got back to
the farm.
"We have got to square ourselves," said Tom.
"How are you going to do it?"
"Oh, we'll do it somehow."
They took the short-cut, but so did Aleck, and consequently all three
soon met.
"Yo' played dat joke--yo' can't go fo' to deny it!" cried the colored man.
"We are not going to deny it, Aleck," said Tom. "But it was no joke.
We did it for your good."
"Huh!"
"We certainly did," put in Sam. "Why, Aleck, we can't bear to think of
your getting married and leaving us."

"Huh!"
"We want you to stay with us," said Tom. "Besides, that widow has a
lot of children and is after your money."
"She ain't got but two chillen. She had moah, but she dun told me all
but two was in de seminary."
"The seminary?" queried Tom. Then a light broke in on him. "You
mean the cemetery."
"Persackly--de place da puts de dead folks."
"Well, they are in the cemetery right enough--but they are a long way
from being dead."
"Wot yo' mean, Tom?"
"We saw her send five of them away this evening--she told 'em to go to
the cemetery and stay there awhile."
"Wot! Yo' is fooling dis chile!"
"It is absolutely true," said Sam. "I am quite sure she has seven
children."
"Huh! If dat's de case dat Thomas nigger can hab her," grumbled Aleck,
and walked on. "But I ain't takin' yo' word fo' dis," he added cautiously.
"I'se gwine to make a few investigations to-morrow."
"Do so--and you'll thank us from the bottom of your heart," answered
Tom; and there the subject was dropped. It may be added here that later
on Aleck discovered that the widow had ten children and was head over
heels in debt, and he was more than glad that the boys had played the
trick on him, and that the other colored man had gained Mrs. Taylor's
hand.
CHAPTER IV

A MIDNIGHT SEARCH
That night was destined to be an eventful one on the Rover farm.
Arriving home, Sam and Tom told of the fun they had had and Dick
laughed heartily. Then all three of the boys went to bed.
About midnight came a loud shouting from the barn, followed by the
report of a shotgun. This was followed by a shriek from Sarah, the cook,
who was afraid that burglars had come to murder her.
"What's that?" questioned Dick, as he hopped out of bed.
"That's Jack Ness' gun," answered Tom. "Something must be wrong at
the barn."
"Chicken thieves again--I'll bet a new hat," said Sam.
By this time Randolph Rover and his wife were up and were lighting a
lamp. Without waiting for them, the boys slipped on some clothing and
their shoes and ran downstairs. Dick took with him a pistol and each of
the others a baseball bat.
"Boys! boys! be careful!" shouted their uncle after them.
"All right," returned Dick, readily.
He was the first outside, but Sam and Tom were close upon his heels.
He heard Jack Ness running to the edge of a cornfield, shouting lustily.
Then came another report of the shotgun.
"What is it, Jack?" shouted Dick. "Who are you shooting at?"
"I'm after two men," was the hired man's reply. "They jest run into the
cornfield."
"Chicken thieves?" queried Tom.
"I guess so--anyway they was prowlin' around the hen house an' the
barn. I called an' asked 'em what they wanted and they ran for dear

life--so I knew they was up to no good."
"They certainly must have been chicken thieves, or worse," was Sam's
comment. "Really, this is getting to be too much," he added. "We ought
to catch them and have them locked up."
"I'm willing to go after them," answered Tom, readily.
"Did you get a good look at the rascals?" asked Dick.
"Not very