“Oh, Josiah Crabtree!” cried Nelly.  “Why, don’t you know he is trying to court our Aunt Lucy?”

“Your Aunt Lucy?  Who is she?”

“Dora Stanhope’s mother.  Dora’s father is dead, you know.”

“Great Caesar!” burst from Tom; “I hope Dora never gets him for a stepfather!”

“So do all of us, Tom; but I’m afraid he has made quite an impression on Aunt Lucy.  She is rich; and my own idea is that Josiah Crabtree is after her money.”

“He’s none too good for it,” was Tom’s blunt comment.

The girls and the lad chatted together for half an hour, and then all retired for the balance of the night.

“They’re awfully sweet,” thought the boy, “these two, and Dora too.”

He slept soundly, and did not arise until after seven.  On coming below he found a hot breakfast awaiting him, to which it is perhaps needless to state he did full justice.

While he was talking to the girls, and finishing up at the same time, Mr. Laning came in.

“Thought I would tell you that Captain Putnam just drove down the Hall road on his way to the school,” he announced.

“Then I’ll get back at once,” said Tom, and bade the various members of the family good-by.  Hope we meet again soon,” he whispered to the girls, and this made both blush.

Mr. Laning would have driven the lad to the academy, but Tom declined the offer and set off on foot.  It did not take him long to cover the distance, and he entered the grounds as unconcernedly as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

“Hullo!” cried several cadets as they noticed him.  “Where did you come from?  Mr. Crabtree has been looking all over for you.”

“I don’t wish to see him.  I wish to see Captain Putnam?  Where is he?”

“Gracious, but you’re a cool one!” remarked one of the cadets.  “The captain is in his office, I think.”

“Will you please show me to the place?”

“Certainly.”

The office was a finely furnished apartment just off the main classroom.  Tom knocked on the door.

“Come in,” said a cheery voice, and the boy calmly entered to find himself confronted not only by Captain Putnam, but likewise by Josiah Crabtree.

“Ah!  Here is the young reprobate now!” cried Crabtree, as rushing up, he grasped Tom by the arm.

“You will kindly let go of my arm, Mr. Crabtree,” said Tom steadily.

“You shan’t run away again!”

“That’s true —­ now Captain Putnam is here.”

“So this is Thomas Rover,” said Captain Victor Putnam, with something like a twinkle in his clear eyes.  “Rover, I have heard a rather serious report about you and your brother Richard.”

“What kind of a report, if I may ask, sir?”

“Mr. Crabtree says you have been impudent to him, and that when he locked you in the guardroom for breaking the rules you attacked him and knocked him down.”