IN THE NICK OF TIME
"Baxter, don't you dare to tar me!" cried Tom, as the bully faced
him.
"Ha! ha! I guess you are pretty well scared now," laughed Baxter.
"Your former show of bravery was all put on."
"If you go ahead you shall suffer the full penalty for the outrage,
mark my words."
"Bah, Tom Rover, you can't frighten me. When I get through with
you I'll warrant that your own mother won't know you."
Tom tried to retreat, but each of the tramps held him by the arm,
so that he could not stir. As his legs were still bound, kicking
was likewise out of the question.
"Let me put a nice big cross on his breast first," said Baxter.
"Here goes!"
He reached out with the brush, but before he could touch Tom an
interruption came as forceful as it was unexpected.
A thick stick came flying through the air, hitting his arm and
sending the tar brush spinning to a distance.
"You rascal, let Tom alone!" came in Dick Rover's voice, and he
rushed in and threw the bully headlong.
"Dick! Sam!" came from Tom joyfully. "Oh, how glad I am that you
have come."
"Wot's dis!" gasped Stumpy Nuggs. "Longback, dare's trouble
ahead!"
"Yes, an' I don't intend ter be in it!" answered the second tramp.
"I reckon we've got about all we want out of dis crowd, anyway!"
And both tramps took to their heels.
Josiah Crabtree stood by, speechless. The interruption had come so
suddenly that he knew not what to do.
As quickly as he could Dan Baxter scrambled to his feet. As he did
so Sam leaped for the tar brush and secured it.
"Let me alone!" roared the bully, and began to back away. But as
he did so his hand went into his hip pocket and he drew a pistol.
"No, you don't!" cried Sam, and knocked the weapon from his hand
with the brush. This action caused the hot tar to leave a heavy
streak over Baxter's face and neck, and he let out a yell that
would have done credit to an Indian on the warpath.
"Wait, I'll get even for this, Sam Rover!" he hissed, and then as
Dick advanced he turned and took to his heels, running as if the
Evil One were after him. Sam followed him, still swinging the
brush, but Dan Baxter was soon lost to sight in the bushes.
Dick now turned to where Josiah Crabtree had been standing. The
former teacher had recovered and was making tracks down the gully
toward the lake. The tramps had disappeared. He leaped to Tom's
side.
"We must bag some of them, Tom," he said, as he whipped out his
knife and set his brother free.
"There goes Crabtree--let us collar him."
Both boys ran as never before, and came upon the former teacher
just as that individual reached the lake shore below the bluff.
Tom made a grab and caught him by the coat tails.
"Let me go!" snarled Crabtree, and aimed a blow at the cadet's
head. But Tom ducked, and the next instant put out his foot and
Crabtree pitched headlong into the lake.
"Help me! I'll be drowned!" spluttered the former teacher, as he
came up with his head covered with mud, for the lake at this point
was less than five feet deep.
"Climb out and you'll be all right," sang out Dick, and feeling the
bottom with his feet, Crabtree looked very sheepish and clambered
slowly up the bank.
As he stood before them, all dripping with water and mud, he looked
the picture of misery.
"Boys, this is a--a--sad way in which to treat your former
teacher," he wailed.
"Don't talk like that, or I'll be tempted to throw you in again,"
exclaimed Tom. "Dick, what will we do with him?"
"Hold him until we hear from Sam."
They looked up the gully and soon espied the youngest Rover
hurrying toward them.
"Where is Baxter?" asked Dick.
"He got away, but not until I had let him have that tar brush right
in the neck," answered Sam. "Hullo, so you have captured old
Crabby, eh? That's good."
"Surely you do not intend to--ahem--keep me a prisoner," remarked
Josiah Crabtree, in a voice which he tried in vain to steady.
"That's just what we do intend to do," answered Dick. "You'll
march right to the Cedarville lock-up with us."
While Dick and Sam guarded the prisoner, Tom ran back for his torn
coat and other garments, and also for the rope. When he returned
Crabtree's hands were bound and the cadets told him to move along.
He was searched, and a pistol was taken from him.
Crabtree went along most unwillingly. Once he refused to budge,
but Dick showed the pistol, and that settled his stubbornness, and
he went along as willingly as a lamb.
On the outskirts of Cedarville the party met Chief Burger and
Detective Trigger.
"So you have one of them, eh?" cried the chief. "Very good, very
good indeed. Turn him over to me and I will take him straight to
headquarters."
"You must be careful that he doesn't get away," said Dick.
"Just so, lad; I will be. No one ever escaped from me, not much!
Come on, sir!" And he caught Josiah Crabtree by the arm.
"This is awful!" groaned the former teacher. "And right here in
Cedarville, too, where everybody knows me!"
"You should have thought of those things before, Mr. Crabtree,"
said Dick, his heart softening a little, now that he saw the man
was beginning to break down.
"What will my friends, and the profession at large, say?" and
Crabtree shook his head bitterly.
"You have only yourself to blame," put in Tom. He had not
forgotten how Crabtree had threatened him but a short while before.
Suddenly the former teacher's last drop of courage seemed to desert
him and, deadly pale, he sank on his knees.
"Spare me, boys, spare me! For the sake of my family and my
friends, spare me!" he moaned.
"I didn't know you had a family," put in Sam.
"My relatives--my poor, dear, distant relatives," replied Crabtree,
hardly aware of what he was saying. "Spare me for their sakes, and
I will reward you well."
"The law must take its course, Mr. Crabtree," said Dick. He turned
to Chief Burger. "Take him, and Tom can go with you, to make the
charge for us and for Mrs. Stanhope. I think Detective Trigger had
better come with Sam and me to hunt for Dan Baxter."
So it was arranged, and soon Crabtree was walking into Cedarville
with the chief of police on one side of him and Tom on the other.
The sight of a man being placed under arrest was an unusual one,
and soon a crowd began to follow the three.
"It's Mr. Crabtree that used to teach at Putnam Hall," said one.
"My, but ain't he a sight."
"Must have tried to get away by jumping into the lake," suggested
another.
"What's he arrested for?" asked a third.
Nobody in the crowd knew, and consequently all followed to the
police headquarters.
Here Chief Burger, who also acted as justice of police, took down
Tom's charge against the former teacher.
"Breaking in and trying to steal," said Tom.
"It's not so!" cried Crabtree. "Boy, this is--ahem--infamous! I
never stole a thing in my life!"
"We will prove it when your trial comes off," answered Tom coolly.
"Let us--ahem--try to patch this thing up," went on Josiah
Crabtree. "Chief, will you kindly send for Mrs. Stanhope? I am
certain she will not allow this charge to stand against me."
"See here, you shan't try any of your games on that lady!"
exclaimed Tom. "I know the peculiar influence you exert over her,
and I feel bound to protect her."
"She is not my enemy, as you are. I know she will clear me."
"Not much. If she won't testify against you, her daughter Dora
will, and so will I and my brothers, and some other folks, too."
"I demand to see my accusers!" stormed Crabtree, trying to put on
a bold front.
"All right, Dick and Sam will be here after awhile. And then, if
you wish, we'll air all of your doings since the time Captain
Putnam discharged you."
At the last words the former teacher winced and turned pale, for he
knew his record would not bear investigating.
"You are a bad boy, Tom Rover--leave me!" he muttered, and turned
his back on the cadet. A few minutes later, as he could not
furnish bail, he was led to a cell and locked up.
As soon as Crabtree was disposed of, Tom left the jail to find his
brothers. This was no easy matter, and it was not until well along
in the afternoon that he discovered Dick, Sam, and Detective
Trigger down by the lake shore nearly a mile from Cedarville.
"Any luck?" he asked.
"Not a bit," replied Dick. "He has given us the slip nicely."
The hunt continued until nightfall, and was kept up all of the next
day. But it proved of no avail. Dan Baxter had left the vicinity
of the lake entirely, and the Rover boys were destined not to see
him again for many days to come.
The arrest of Josiah Crabtree had occurred on Friday. On Monday
came a letter from Mr. Anderson Rover, stating that Alexander Pop
would arrive in Cedarville on Tuesday and might remain at Mrs.
Stanhope's cottage as long as the lady and the boys wished.
"I wish Aleck to be near you," wrote Mr. Rover. "It alarms me
greatly to hear of the trouble that you are having. It seems to me
that our family are bound to be in hot water all the time. I
cannot understand Arnold Baxter. As he is in prison at Albany I do
not see how he can trouble me, at least for the next few years.
"I have looked up that mining property in Colorado very carefully,
and shall go out there as soon as the coming winter is at an end.
Perhaps I will take one or all of you with me, but that will depend
upon how good you do at your studies this winter. I shan't take
anybody along that can't show a good report."