CHAPTER XIV
A STARTLING SCENE
"Dear old dad! Isn't it awful to see him propped up in that chair,unable to leave his room!"
"You are right, Sam. And yet it might be worse--he might be confinedto his bed. I hope we didn't excite him too much."
"He was very much surprised at your determination to give up Brill,and join Dick. I guess he was afraid Dick would have to shoulder thebusiness alone. And by the way, Tom," went on the youngest Rover,earnestly, "somehow it doesn't seem just right to me that I should putall this work off on you and Dick."
"Now, don't let that bother you, Sam. You can go to New York with methis Summer, and then you go back to college, and come out at the headof the class. That will surely please us all."
This conversation took place while the two boys were retiring for thenight. They had not remained very long with their father, fearing toexcite him too much. Aunt Martha had, as usual, had a very fine repastprepared for them, and to this, it is perhaps needless to state, theyouths did full justice.
"It's a grand good thing that we have Aleck Pop with us," went on Sam,referring to the colored man, who, in years gone by, had been a waiterat Putnam Hall, but who was now firmly established as a member of theRover household. "Aunt Martha says he waits on dad, hand and foot;morning, noon and night."
"Well, Aleck ought to be willing to do something for this family inreturn for all we have done for him," answered Tom.
Despite the excitement of the day, the two boys slept soundly. Butthey were up at an early hour, and, after breakfast, took a walkaround the farm in company with their Uncle Randolph, who wished toshow them the various improvements he had made.
"We have a new corncrib and a new root hovel," said their uncle, asthey walked around. "And next week we are going to start on a newpigsty."
"Going to have one of those new up-to-date, clean ones, I suppose?"returned Sam.
"Yes. I do not think that it is at all necessary to keep pigs as dirtyas they are usually kept," returned Uncle Randolph.
"Say, Uncle," put in Tom, with a sudden twinkle in his eye, "are yougoing to sell pork by the yard after this?"
"By the yard?" queried Uncle Randolph, and then a faint smileflickered over his face. "Oh, I see! You mean sausage lengths, eh?"
"Not exactly, although that is one way of selling pork by the yard,"returned Tom. "I was thinking of what happened in our college town.One of the boys went into a butcher's shop, and asked for a yard ofpork, and the butcher handed out three pig's feet."
"Oh, what a rusty joke, Tom!" exclaimed Sam.
"Well, I didn't ask for the yard of pork; it was Dobson who did that,"returned Tom, coolly.
Having inspected the various improvements, the boys returned to thehouse, and then went upstairs for another short talk with theirfather. In the midst of this, the family physician arrived. When hehad waited on the invalid, the boys called the doctor to one side, andasked him to tell them the truth regarding their parent.
"Oh, I think he'll pull through all right," said the doctor. "But as Ihave told your uncle and your aunt, he must be kept quiet. If you talkbusiness to him, or excite him in any way, it is bound to make mattersworse."
"Then we'll keep him just as quiet as possible," returned Tom. "Ifanything unusual occurs in his business, we won't let him knowanything about it."
"That would be best," answered the doctor, gravely; and took hisdeparture.
Several days passed, and by that time the boys felt once more quite athome. Once they went out in the touring car, taking their aunt anduncle along.
"It's too bad we can't take dad," was Sam's comment, "but the doctorsays it won't do. We'll have to leave him in charge of Aleck." Theride proved a most enjoyable one, and the older folks were muchpleased by it.
"What do you say, Tom, if we go down to the river and have a swim?"proposed Sam, the next morning. It was an unusually hot day, and thethought of getting into the cool water of the old swimming holeappealed strongly to the youth.
"Suits me," returned his brother. "We haven't had a swim down theresince last year."
"You young gents want to be careful about that there swimmin' hole,"put in Jack Ness, who had heard the talk.
"Why, what's the matter now, Jack?"
"I dunno, exactly, but I hear some of the fellers sayin' as how thatswimmin' hole wasn't safe no more. I think it's on account of the treeroots a growin' there."
"We'll be on our guard," answered Sam, and a little later the two ladsset off. It was a long walk over the fields and through the patch ofwoods skirting the stream, and on arriving at the old swimming hole,Sam and Tom were glad enough to rest awhile before venturing into thewater. As my old readers know, the stream was a swiftly-flowing one,and the water was rather cool.
"Remember the day we flew over this way in the biplane?" said Tom."That sure was some adventure!"
"Yes, but it wasn't a patch to the adventure we had when the biplanewas wrecked," returned his brother, referring to a happening which hasbeen related in detail in "The Rover Boys in New York."
Having rested awhile, the two boys started to get ready for theirswim. Both had just thrown off their coats, when there came a suddencry from up the river.
"What's that, Tom?" questioned Sam.
"Somebody is calling. Listen!" and then both boys strained their earsfor what might follow.
"There! Stay where you are! Don't move!"
"I can't stay here," said another voice.
"Shall I shoot him now?" put in a heavy bass voice.
"No, wait a minute, I am coming over," said still another voice, andthen there was silence. The Rover boys looked at each other inamazement. What did the talk mean?
"Say, sounds to me as if somebody was in trouble!" exclaimed Sam.
"Perhaps we had better go and see," returned Tom.
"All right, but we don't want to get into trouble ourselves. Thosefellows, whoever they are, or at least one of them, seems to bearmed."
"We'll take a few stones along, Sam, and a couple of sticks, too, ifwe can find them."
Stones were to be had in plenty, and having picked up several of them,and cast their eyes around for a couple of clubs, the lads lost notime in making their way towards the spot from whence the voices hadproceeded. This was at a point where the river made a turn and wasdivided by a long, narrow island into two channels. The island wascovered with brushwood, while the banks of the stream were lined withoverhanging trees.
"Now, I am going to shoot him!" cried one of the voices which the boyshad heard before.
"No, don't do it, just wait a minute!" answered some one else.
"Maybe they have got some poor fellow, and have robbed him," suggestedSam, as he and his brother hurried forward as quickly as the trees andtangled brushwood would permit.
"One thing is certain, that fellow, whoever he is, is in trouble,"returned Tom. "Perhaps we had better yell to those other fellows tostop."
"If we do that, they may shoot the poor chap, and then run away."
"That's so, too! Well, come ahead, let's hurry and see if we can catchsight of them." And then the two boys pushed ahead faster than ever.
Presently the youths came to where there were a number of high rockscovered with trailing vines. As, to avoid these, it would have beennecessary to wade in the stream, and thus get their shoes andstockings wet, they began to scramble over the rocks with all possiblespeed.
"Listen! They are talking again!" exclaimed Sam.
"Grab him! Grab him by the throat!"
"That's all right, Jim, but I don't want the boat to upset," growledanother voice.
"Say, you fellows make me tired!" roared the heavy bass voice. "Do youwant to keep us here all day?"
"What do you know about this gun? Maybe it will explode."
"Say, Sam, I don't know what to make of this!" panted Tom, who wasalmost out of breath from the violence of his exertion.
"Maybe they are tramps, and are holding somebody up. Anyway, it soundsb
ad," returned his brother.
Hauling themselves at last to the top of the rocks, the Rover boyslooked ahead. Down in the swiftly-flowing stream, they saw aflat-bottom boat containing two men. One man, a tall, burlyindividual, had a much smaller fellow by the throat, and was bendinghim backward. Close at hand, on the shore, stood another man, gun inhand, and with the weapon aimed at the burly individual.
"Now then, shoot!" yelled somebody from the shore of the islandopposite, and an instant later the gun went off with a bang. As thereport died away, the burly man in the boat relaxed his hold on theother fellow, threw up his arms, and fell over into the river with aloud splash.