Chapter I. A Game of Baseball - The Rover Boys down East by Edward Stratemeyer
"Hurrah! that's the way to do it!"
"Now, then, Tom, see if you can't bring Dick home!"
"Give him a swift one, Frank! Don't let him hit it!" cried Sam Rover, merrily.
"I'll knock it down into the river!" retorted Tom Rover, as he caught up a bat and walked to the home plate.
"I'm waiting for you, Tom!" sang out Dick Rover, who had just reached second base on a beautiful drive to right field. "Come now, it's time we tied the score."
"Everybody in the game!" yelled Stanley Browne, who was in the coacher's box. "Here is where we do 'em up!"
"Get ready to run, Dick!" came from Songbird Powell. "Tom is going to land it on the other side of the river."
"If he does that I'll walk home," answered Dick, with a grin.
"Now then, here is where Tom misses!" called out Sam, who was behind the bat, and he thumped his fist in his catcher's mitt. "Give him a double-ender curve, Frank."
"Oh, I'll give him a regular corkscrew curl," retorted Frank Holden, who occupied the pitcher's box. "Tom, prepare to die!" And he drew back to pitch the ball.
Eighteen of the students of Brill College were having a game of baseball on the athletic field of that institution of learning. The regular season for baseball was at an end, and the youths had fixed up their nines to suit themselves, with Dick Rover as captain of one side and Frank Holden as captain on the other. On Dick's side were his brother Tom, and a number of their dimms, while Sam was doing the catching for Frank.
It was only a friendly contest and all of the students were in the best of spirits. The main examinations for the term were practically over, and in a few days more the students were to scatter for the summer vacation.
It was the ending of the fourth inning and the score stood 6 to 4 in favor of Frank Holden's nine. If Tom should manage to bring both Dick and himself in it would tie the score. But Tom was not known for his home-run qualities.
Frank Holden made a signal to Sam and then sent in a low, swift ball. Tom made a swing at it. But he was too slow.
"Strike one!" sang out Will Faley, the umpire. "Try it some more, Tom."
Again the ball came in and this time Tom struck at it with all his might.
Crack! The ashen stick met the horsehide and the ball went whizzing off to the right of the home plate, in the direction of a number of students who were crossing the grounds.
"Foul!" sang out the umpire, as the sphere curved through the air.
"You can't get it, Sam!" called out Max Spangler. "It's too far off already!"
"Look out, you fellows!" yelled Frank, from the pitcher's box. "If you don't——"
Before he could finish the crowd walking across the grounds looked up and commenced to scatter, to give Sam a chance to catch the ball, which had gone quite high in the air. But before the young est Rover could reach the sphere down it came—straight on the fancy straw hat of a dudish youth, crushing the article over its wearer's head.
"Whoop! there's a strike for you, Tom!" murmured Dick.
"Do you call that knocking the ball over the river?" demanded Songbird, dryly.
"Here's a case where a straw shows how the ball blows," misquoted Stanley Browne.
"Hi! hi! what do you mean by smashing my hat!" roared Dudd Flockley, the student who had been thus assaulted, "Who did this, I demand to know?"
"I knocked the ball—but I didn't aim for your hat," answered Tom. And as Dudd Flockley held up the damaged hat he could not help but grin.
"You did it on purpose, Tom Rover!" growled the dudish student "You needn't deny it!"
"Nonsense, Dudd!" put in Stanley. "He wanted to make a home run—he wasn't aiming at your hat at all."
"I know better!" answered the other student, bitterly. "Say, Tom Rover, it's up to you to buy me a new hat," he added.
"All right, if that's the way you feel about it," answered Tom, "You get the hat and I'll pay for it. But I didn't smash it on purpose, Dudd."
"That hat cost me five dollars, and I don't know where to get one like it," growled the dudish pupil.
"Oh, I can tell you where to get a hat like that!" piped in a drawling voice. "Try the Melrose English Shop, on Broadway. They have all styles, don't you know."
"Good for William Philander Tubbs!" cried Dick, "He knows the directory on straw hats."
"Huh! Think I'm going all the way to New York for a new hat?" growled Dudd Flockley. "I want one to go home in."
"Maybe I can lend you an old one," suggested Tom, dryly.
"I don't want your old hat," growled Dudd Flockley. "I'll get a new one—and you can foot the bill!" and he turned and walked away, his face full of sourness.
"The same old Flockley," whispered Sam to his brother. "After all we did for him, too!"
"You beware of Dudd," put in Songbird, who was near. "He pretends to be friendly, since you put in a good word for him to the doctor, but, just the same, he has got it in for you."
"Play ball!" called out the umpire; and then the ball was thrown down to Frank Holden, and the game went on. Tom gave one more glance in the direction of Dudd Flockley and saw that the dudish student had stopped in his walk, turned around, and was glaring at him savagely.
To my old readers the lads who have thus far taken a part in this story will need no special introduction. But for the benefit of others who have not read the former volumes in this "Rover Boys Series," let me state that Dick, Tom and Sam Rover were three brothers, who, when at home, lived with their father, Anderson Rover, and their Uncle Randolph and Aunt Martha, on a beautiful farm called Valley Brook.
From the farm, and while their father was in Africa, the three boys had been sent to a military academy, as related in the first volume of this series, called "The Rover Boys at School" At the school they made a large number of friends, and also a few enemies, and had "the best time ever," as Sam expressed it.
A term at school was followed by a trip on the ocean, as set down in the second volume of this series, and then by a journey to Africa, where the boys went to locate their father, who had become a captive of the natives. After that came a trip out West, to locate a mine belonging to the Rovers, and then trips to the Great Lakes, and to the motintains, and then, returning to the school, the lads went into camp with the other cadets.
"I guess we had better settle down now," said Dick. But this was not to be. Not much later they took a long trip on land and sea, and followed this tip by a voyage on the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers on a flatboat. Then came some thrilling adventures on the plains, and a little later found the dauntless boys in Southern waters, where they solved the mystery of a deserted steam yacht.
"The farm for mine!" said Tom, after traveling north from the Gulf, and all of the boys were glad to take it easy for some weeks, and also get ready to graduate from Putnam Hall. They had an idea they were to go directly from the military school to college. But something turned up which made them change their plans.
Through Mr. Rover it was learned that a small fortune belonging to a certain Stanhope estate was missing. It had been secreted on an island of the West Indies, and it was settled that the Rovers and some of their friends should go in quest of it.
The boys were particularly anxious to locate this treasure, and with good reason. While at Putnam Hall they had made the acquaintance of Dora Stanhope and also of Nellie and Grace Laning, Dora's cousins. From the very start Dick was attracted to Dora, and now the pair were practically engaged to be married. Tom had taken a particular liking to Nellie Laning and it must be confessed that Sam was equally smitten with Grace.
It was learned that the treasure had been willed to Mr. Stanhope, and consequently, on his death, it had become part of his estate, which in turn had been willed in part to his wife and Dora, with a small share to Mrs. Laning, his sister.
"We'll get that treasure and make the girls happy," declared Dick, and how the whole crowd set off on the quest has already been told in the thirteenth volume of this series, entitled: "The Rover Boys on Treasure Isle." The treasure was also claimed by two of their enemies, Sid Merrick and his nephew, Tad Sobber, and they did all they could to gain possession of the valuables. But the treasure was at last brought safely to this country, and then it was learned that Sid Merrick had been lost at sea in a hurricane. Tad Sobber was saved, and carried on a passing vessel to England.
"And now for college!" cried all of the Rover boys, and wondered to what institution of learn ing they were to go.
"How would you like to go to Brill?" asked Mr. Rover. "It is a fine place, located in one of our middle-western states, and the head of it, Doctor John Wallington, is an old friend of mine."
The boys had heard that Dora, Grace and Nel lie were going to an institution known as Hope Seminary, not far from the town of Ashton. As soon as they learned that Brill College was situated less than two miles from Hope they decided without hesitation to go to the institution their parent had mentioned.
"We'll be near the girls, and we ought to have lots of good times," said Tom.
"It will be our own fault if we don't," Dick had answered.
How the brothers went to Brill has already been related in the volume entitled "The Rover Boys at College." At Brill, as at Putnam Hall, they quickly made a number of friends, not the least of whom were Stanley Browne, Max Spangler, a German student, and Allen Charter, the leading senior. They also had with them their former school chums, John Powell, better known as Songbird because of his cleverness in writing and reciting doggerel, and William Philander Tubbe, a student whose entire spare time was spent in buying things to wear of the latest fashions, and in seeking the society of his young lady friends.
At Brill the Rovers soon came into contact with the dudish pupil, Dudd Flockley, and also with two bullies, Jerry Koswell and Bart Larkspur. Led by Koswell, who was a thoroughly bad egg, the three tried their best to make trouble for the Rovers, and finally succeeded. But the rascals overreached themselves, and when they were exposed Koswell and Larkspur became so frightened that they ran away from Brill and refused to return. Dudd Flockley remained, and he pleaded so earnestly to be forgiven that the Rovers finally decided to drop the case against him, and spoke a good word for him to the head of the college, and he was allowed to continue at Brill.
"I guess Flockley has learned his lesson," said Dick. But it looked as if he might be mistaken, for Flockley, as soon as he felt himself secure at Brill, acted in anything but a grateful manner. Yet he was not as assertive as he had been, for he missed the companionship and support of his former cronies.
With the fortune in their possession, and Sid Merrick dead, the Stanhopes and Lanings had felt secure of their wealth. But, returning from England, Tad Sobber had gone to a shyster lawyer, and put in a claim, and the lawyer had obtained a court injunction, restraining anybody from touching a dollar of the money. This depressed the girls greatly, and made them, for a time, leave Hope. But in the end, the injunction was dissolved, and the Stanhopes and Lanings were told that they could do as they pleased with the fortune.
"That's the best news yet!" Dick had said, on hearing it. "I guess that will put a spoke in Tad Sobber's wheel."
"It will take one out, you mean," returned Tom, with a sly grin. "Wonder what Tad will do next?"
"He can't do anything," had come from Sam. "He is knocked out clean and clear. I always said he had no right to the fortune. That claim of Sid Merrick's was a fake pure and simple."
"I believe you," Dick answered. "Just the same, I feel, somehow, that Tad won't give up even yet."
"But what can he do?" his two brothers had asked.
"I don't know—but he'll try to do something; see if he doesn't."
A few days later had come in some particulars of the case. After the injunction had been dissolved Tad Sobber and his lawyer had gotten into a big row and Sobber had ended by blackening the legal gentleman's left eye. Then Sobber had mysteriously disappeared, but the next day he had sent a rambling letter to Mrs. Stanhope, stating that, even if thrown out of court, he considered that the fortune from Treasure Isle belonged to him, and, sooner or later, he meant to gain possession of it.
"We'll have to watch out for Tad Sobber," had been Dick's comment, on learning the news. "He is growing desperate, and there is no telling what he will do next."
"He's the same old sneak he was at Putnam Hall," declared Tom.
"This will scare Mrs. Stanhope, and Mrs. Laning, too," had been Sam's comment.
"And the girls," his oldest brother had added. "I wish we could round Tad Sobber up, and put him where he couldn't worry them any more."
"Maybe he'll drop out of sight," said Tom. But this was not to be. Tad Sobber was to cause a great deal of trouble, as we shall learn in the near future. The young rascal had convinced himself that the Stanhope fortune belonged to him, and he meant to leave no stone unturned to get possession of it.