“He came to see mamma.”

“I was afraid he would.  What did he say?”

“He came one evening, after supper.  It was dark and stormy, and he drove up in a buggy.  Mamma and I and the servants were home alone, although Nellie had been over in the afternoon.  He rang the bell, and asked for mamma, and the girl ushered him into the parlor.  He asked the girl if we had company, and he said if we had he wouldn’t bother us.”

“Guess he was afraid of being arrested.”

“Perhaps so.  He told the girl he was a friend from New York.  I went down first, and when I saw him I was almost scared to death.  I thought I was looking at a ghost.”

“Naturally, since you thought he had been drowned.  It’s too bad he scared you so, Dora.”

“He said he had come on business, and without waiting began to talk about the treasure we had taken from the isle.  He insisted upon it that the treasure belonged to him, since his uncle, Sid Merrick, was dead.  When my mother came in he demanded that she give him some money and sign some papers.”

“What did your mother do?”

“She refused, of course.  Then he got very wild and talked in a rambling fashion.  Oh, Dick, I am half inclined to think he is crazy!” And Dora shuddered.

“What did he say after your mother refused to do as he wished?”

“He got up and walked around the parlor, waving his hands and crying that we were robbing him, that the treasure was his, and that the Rovers were nothing but thieves.  Then mamma ordered him out of the house and sent the girl to get the man who runs the farm for us.  But before the man came Sobber went away, driving his horse as fast as he could,”

“Have you heard from him since?”

“Yes.  The next day we got an unsigned letter.  In it Sobber said that, by hook or by crook, he intended to get possession of the treasure, and for the Rovers to beware,”

CHAPTER XIII

THE ROWING RACE

Having told so much, Dora went into all the particulars of Tad Sobber’s visit to the Stanhope homestead.  She told of how Sobber had argued, and she said he had affirmed that the Rovers had falsified matters so that the Stanhopes and the Lanings might benefit thereby.

“What he says is absolutely untrue,” said Dick.  “Father went over those papers with care, and so did the lawyers, and the treasure belongs to you and the Lanings, and to nobody else.”

“Don’t you think Sid Merrick fooled Sobber?” asked the girl.

“Perhaps, but I guess Tad was willing to be fooled.  They set their hearts on that money, and now Tad can’t give it up.  In one way I am sorry for him, and if a small amount of cash would satisfy him and set him on his feet, I’d hand it over.  We put Dan Baxter on his feet that way.”

“Oh, but Baxter isn’t Sobber, Dick.  Sobber is wild and wicked.  I was so afraid he would attack mamma and me I hardly knew what to do.  And his eyes rolled so when he talked!”