“To watch on the road for a wagon or an auto, to take us to the nearest town or railroad station.”

“Going to leave those men here, Dick?”

“Not much!  I thought Sam might take dad back to New York, while you and I had it out with Crabtree and the others.”

“Good!  I’m with you!” cried Tom.

Dick posted himself on the highway, and presently saw a covered wagon approaching, drawn by a spirited team.  The driver was a young man, evidently from some nearby town.

“Going to town?” asked Dick, as he stopped the fellow.

“Yes, want a ride?” and the young man smiled.

“I don’t, but another fellow, my brother, and my father, do,” said Dick.  “If you’ll take them, we’ll pay you.”

“All right,” was the answer.  “Come right along.”

“How far is it to the railroad station?” went on Dick.

“About two miles.”

“Will you take ’em over?”

“Sure—­ I’m going there myself.”

Dick hurried back to the barn, and soon Sam and Mr. Rover were in the wagon.  Before Sam left his big brother gave him some instructions in private.  Then the wagon went on through the rain.

“Thank heaven! dad is safe!” murmured Tom, when the wagon had disappeared.  “I hope Sam doesn’t let him out of his sight until those business affairs are settled up.”

“He is going to take him to the Outlook Hotel first,” answered Dick.  “But he is going to do more than that, Tom—­ if it is possible.”

“What?”

“I told him to stop in that town and send some help here—­ a police official, or a constable, or some men.  Crabtree has got to go back to jail, and I think we ought to have Pelter and Japson locked up, too—­ although that may depend upon what father may have to say.”

“Then we can’t do anything until somebody gets here from town,” said Tom, somewhat disappointedly.

“We can watch those rascals and listen to what they are talking about,” returned Dick.

Both boys returned to the barn, to get out of the rain.  Then they sneaked to the cellar of the house and up to the kitchen, and then to a little storeroom next to the dining room.  From the storeroom they could catch much of the conversation coming from the three men in the dining room.

There were some matters Dick and Tom did not understand.  But from what was said they learned that Japson was a distant relative of Josiah Crabtree and the two had been in several shady transactions together.  Crabtree had agreed, if aided in his escape from the Plankville jail, to assist the brokers in making Anderson Rover a prisoner and keeping him such until he signed certain documents and until the time had passed when he could no longer take up the options which were so valuable to the Rovers and their friends.

“Well, I think these documents are all right,” the boys heard Jesse Pelter say, presently.  “Now we can turn them over to Belright Fogg and tell him to go ahead.”