“You —­ you saucy minx!” he snarled and leaping around the table caught her by the wrist again.  “I’ll tame you before I am done with you, mark my words!  If you dare to talk to your mother again —­ Hullo, who is this?”

“Dick Rover!” cried Dora in amazement and in delight.

For Dick had suddenly thrown up the window sash, which was unlocked, and leaped straight into the sitting room.

“Let her go, Josiah Crabtree!” ordered the young cadet.  “Don’t you dare to strike her, or I’ll knock you flat!”

“One of the Rover boys!” muttered the ex-teacher.  “What business have you here at this hour of the evening?  Have you run away from the Hall?”

“Since you have been discharged, I do not feel called upon to answer your question,” answered Dick.  “But you must let Dora alone, or there will be a broken head around here, I can tell you that!”

At Dick’s plain words Josiah Crabtree greatly paled.  He had dropped the girl’s wrist and now he fell back several steps.

“I was not harming the girl, only trying to reason with her.”

“Oh, I know you well enough.  I’ve heard you were the most pigheaded teacher they ever had at Putnam Hall,” rejoined Dick warmly.  “I shall take pains to let Mrs. Stanhope know what they think of you, too.”

“Was he discharged?” asked Dom.  “He told mamma that he had left of his own accord.”

“He was discharged,” answered Dick, who had got word through Peleg Snuggers.

“It is not true!” stormed Josiah Crabtree.  “This is a —­ a plot to injure me in the eyes of Mrs. Stanhope, and you shall pay dearly for it, boy!” and he shook his fist in Dick’s face.

“Don’t do that again, Mr. Crabtree, or we may have a set-to right here —­ begging Dora’s pardon,” answered Dick, his eyes flashing fire.

“That’s all right —­ don’t give in an inch to him, Dick,” whispered Dora.  “I hate him —­ oh, more than words can tell!” and she caught the youth’s arm.

“I am not afraid of you, boy!” was the short return, but now the ex-teacher turned to the hallway.  “I was on the point of leaving, and now I will go, Dora.  But I will be back in a day or two,” and he strode from, the room.  A moment later he had secured his hat and overcoat and taken his departure.

“Oh, what a dreadful man!” sobbed Dora, when he was gone.  “Dick Rover, what shall I do?” and she looked at him pleadingly.

“It’s a puzzle to me, Dora —­ worse than an example in cube root in algebra!” He smiled sadly.  “But if I was you I’d hold out and never let him marry my mother.”

“Oh, I will never consent to that —­ never!  But he may marry her anyway.”

“If he does, you can apply to the courts for another guardian —­ if Crabtree doesn’t treat you fairly.”

“But I do not wish to separate from my mother.”

“Well, the only thing to do is to keep fighting him off.  In the meantime I’ll try to get some folks who know Crabtree well to tell your mother just what a mean, crabbed fellow he is.  Undoubtedly he is after the money your father left.”