CHAPTER I

The boys at Brill

“Boys, what do you say to a trip in the Dartaway this afternoon?”

“Suits me, Sam,” replied Tom Rover.

“Providing the breeze doesn’t get too strong,” returned Dick Rover, as he put up his hand to feel the air.

“Oh, I don’t think it will blow too much,” went on Sam Rover.  “I don’t mind some air.”

“But no more storms for me!” cried his brother Tom, with a shake of his head.  “That last old corker was enough for me.”

“Where shall we go?” questioned Dick, with a queer little smile creeping around the corners of his mouth.

“Oh, my, just to hear Dick!” cried Tom, with a grin.  “As if he would go anywhere but to Hope Seminary, to call on Dora!”

“And as if you would go anywhere but to call on Nellie, at the same place!” retorted the oldest Rover boy.

“Now, children, children’” came sweetly from Sam.  “You mustn’t quarrel about the dear girls.  I know both of you are as much gone as can be.  But——­”

“And how about Grace, Sam?” said Tom.  “Didn’t I hear you making up some poetry about her yesterday, ’Those limpid eyes and pearly ears, and’——­”

“Rats, Tom!  I don’t make up poetry—­ I leave that to Songbird,” interrupted the youngest Rover boy.  “Just the same, it will be nice to call on the girls.  They’ll be looking for us some day this week.”

“That’s right—­ and maybe we can give them a little ride,” put in Dick Rover.

“Do you remember the ride we gave Dora and Nellie, when we rescued them from Sobber, Crabtree, and the others?” asked Tom.

“Not likely to forget that in a hurry,” answered his big brother.  “By the way, I wonder when the authorities will try those rascals?”

“Not right away, I’m thinking, Dick,” answered Tom.  “The law is rather slow up here in these back counties.”

“Never mind—­ they will get what is coming to them sooner or later,” was Sam’s comment.

“Abduction is rather a serious offense.”

“Right you are,” answered Dick.  “And I’ll be glad to see Crabtree, Sobber, and our other enemies behind the bars.  Then they won’t be able to bother us any more.”

“That will he the end of Sobber’s efforts to annex the Stanhope fortune,” mused Sam.  “How hard he did try to get it away from Mrs. Stanhope and the girls!”

“I shouldn’t have minded that had he used fair methods, Sam,” returned the big brother.  “But when it came to stealing and abducting——­”

“Hello, you fellows!” shouted a voice from behind the Rover boys.  “Plotting mischief?”

“Not just now, Stanley,” answered Dick, as his college chum caught him by the shoulder and swung him around playfully.

“Want to go for a row on the river?” asked Stanley Browne.

“Not just now, Stanley.  I’ve got a lecture to attend, and this afternoon we are going over to Hope in the biplane.”