The two boys hurried into a woodshed behind the large farmhouse and procured a basket and two tin pails.  With these in hand they set off in the direction of the berry patch, situated along the path that Dick Rover was pursuing, their intention being to head off their brother and see if he had any letters for them.

Of the three Rover boys, Richard, commonly called Dick, was the eldest.  He was sixteen, tall, slender, and had dark eyes and dark hair.  He was a rather quiet boy, one who loved to read and study, although he was not above having a good time now and then, when felt like “breaking loose,” as Tom expressed it.

Next to Richard came Tom, a year younger, as merry a lad as there was ever to be found, full of life and “go,” not above playing all sorts of tricks on people, but with a heart of gold, as even his uncle and aunt felt bound to admit.

Sam was the youngest.  He was but fourteen, but of the same height and general appearance as Tom, and the pair might readily have been taken for twins.  He was not as full of pranks as Tom, but excelled his brothers in many outdoor sports.

The history of the three Rover boys was a curious one.  They were the only children of one Anderson Rover, a gentleman who had been widely known as a mineral expert, gold mine proprietor, and traveler.  Mr. Anderson Rover had gone to California a poor young man and had there made a fortune in the mines.  Returning to the East, he had married and settled down in New York City, and there, the three boys had been born.

An epidemic of fever had taken off Mrs. Rover when Richard was but ten years of age.  The shock had come so suddenly that Anderson Rover was dazed, and for several weeks the man knew not what to do.  “Take all of the money I made in the West, but give me back my wife!” he said broken-heartedly, but this could not be, and soon after he left his three boys in charge of a housekeeper and set off to tour Europe, thinking that a change of scene would prove a benefit.

When he came back he seemed a changed man.  He was restless, and could not remain at home for more than a few weeks at a time.  He placed the boys at a boarding school in New York and returned to the West, where he made another strike in the gold mines; and when he came back once more he was reported to be worth between two and three hundred thousand dollars.

But now a new idea had came into his head.  He had been reading up on Africa, and had reached the conclusion that there must be gold in the great unexplored regions of that country.  He determined to go to Africa, fit out an exploration, and try his luck.

“It will not cost me over ten to twenty thousand dollars,” he said to his brother Randolph.  “And it may make me a millionaire.”

“If you are bound to go, I will not stop you,” had been Randolph Rover’s reply.  “But what of your boys in the meanwhile?”

This was a serious question, for Anderson Rover knew well the risk he was running, knew well that many a white man had gone into the interior of Africa never to return.  At last it was settled that Randolph Rover should become Dick, Tom, and Sam’s temporary guardian.  This accomplished, Anderson Rover set off and that was the last any of his family had ever heard of him.