The Rover Boys Down East: or, The Struggle for the Stanhope Fortune

Dick looked ahead. Mr. Sanderson’s farm wagon had just started to cross the tracks. He was sawing on the reins and the horse was acting in a strange manner, not knowing what to make of it. He turned part way around and faced the locomotive.

“G’lang!” sang out the old farmer. “Consarn ye! What’s the matter of ye, Franky?”

“Oh, Dick, he’ll be killed!” burst out Sam, in horror.

“Looks as if the horse wanted to climb over the engine,” came from Tom.

“It’s all right,” answered the elder Rover boy in a whisper. “The engineer sees him and won’t start the train. Mr. Sanderson is doing it on purpose.”

“On purpose?” came from Sam and Tom, and then of a sudden they understood, and both had to turn away to hide the grins that broke out on their faces.

“Go ahead!” cried the conductor, and then he saw the trouble and ran forward to watch proceedings.

From the antics of the horse in front of the locomotive, the Rover boys turned their attention to the carriage that was approaching. As it came closer they saw Dora and Nellie waving their hands frantically.

“Wait! Wait for us!” cried out Dora, and as the carriage came to a stop she leaped out, followed by Nellie and the other girl students.

“Just in time!” sang out Dick, loudly. “Come on, here is our car!”

“Oh, what made you so late?” asked Grace. “We have been worried to death about you.”

“One of the girls forgot her pocketbook and we had to drive back for it,” explained Nellie. “Oh, we thought sure we would miss the train, when we saw it stop. We were so far off.”

“I’ll explain why you caught it later on,” whispered Dick. “Now excuse me a moment,” and he ran towards the locomotive.

A crowd had commenced to collect, and several folks were offering Mr. Sanderson advice. But though he seemed to try his best, his horse and wagon remained in front of the train.

“Here, let me aid you, Mr. Sanderson,” cried Dick, and gave the farmer the wink. “It’s all right,” he added, in a whisper. “I’m your friend for life after this.”

“Glad to be of service,” answered the old farmer, in an equally low tone. “G’lang, Franky!” he roared suddenly, and touched the horse with his whip. At once the animal turned partly around and ran off the tracks and down the country road as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

“Confound that fool nag!” muttered the conductor of the train, as he consulted his watch. “Here we’ve lost six minutes more. Tom, can you make it up?”

“I can try,” answered the engineer.

“All right! Let her go!” And Dick and the other passengers who had gone forward hopped on the train in a hurry, and the conductor followed. The train official did not suspect that the “blockading” had been done purposely, and Dick did not enlighten him.

The Rovers had secured seats for the girls and themselves in one of the parlor cars, and all were together. As the train rolled onward Dick related the particulars of the trick that had been played with the aid of Mr. Sanderson.

“Oh, Dick, how could you think of such a thing?” cried Dora.

“Oh, it just popped into my mind,” he answered. “And Mr. Sanderson acted his part to perfection. Aren’t you glad we did something to hold the train?”

“Indeed yes!”

“Would you have gone on without us?” asked Nellie.

“Not a step!” answered Tom, and spoke the words so quickly and earnestly that everybody in the party laughed.

“I didn’t want to miss this train for two reasons,” went on Dick. “In the first place, we’d lose our parlor-car seats, and in the second place, we’d have to wait four hours for another train, and that nothing but a slow accommodation.”

“Well, I shouldn’t mind a slow train – while we have such good company,” observed Sam, and for this remark Grace gave him a warm look of appreciation.

“Have you had any further news from home?” asked Dick, of Dora, a little later.

“I got a letter from mamma yesterday. She says Professor Crabtree called again. But she had the maid go to the door, and she refused to see him.”

“That’s good. Did he say anything to the maid?”

“She says he went away looking very angry and muttering something about making mamma see him. Mamma watched him from an upper window and she wrote that he hung around the garden about half an hour before he went away.”

“The rascal! You had better get Mr. Laning to look into this for you. If he bothers you any more he ought to be locked up.”

“Just what I think. But mamma is too timid to go to the police, or anything like that.”

“I wish I was there when old Crabtree called – I’d give him a piece of my mind!”

“Oh, Dick, maybe he would want to – to – shoot you, or something!”

“No, Josiah Crabtree isn’t that kind. He belongs to the snake-in-the-grass variety of rascals. But perhaps he won’t come again – now that your mother has refused to see him.”

“I wish I could be sure of it,” sighed the girl.

“What have you done about the fortune, Dora?”

“Mamma has everything in the vault of a safe deposit company in Ithaca. We don’t know just what to do – thinking Tad Sobber may tie the money up again in the courts.”

“I don’t see how he can do that – unless he brings up some new evidence to prove that the fortune belongs to Sid Merrick’s estate.”

“Uncle John thought it might be best to buy Tad Sobber off – just to end the matter. But Sobber wanted too much.”

“I’d not give him a cent – he doesn’t deserve it – after the way he treated you, and us. I don’t believe Sid Merrick ever had a right to one dollar of the fortune.”

“I believe that, too.”

“I suppose Crabtree came around because he heard that you had more money than ever. Gracious, Dora, some day you’ll be real rich in your own name!”

“Well, won’t you like it,” she demanded brightly.

“I’ll not complain. But I’d take you just as quickly if you were poor,” added Dick earnestly.

“Would you, Dick?”

“Do you doubt me?”

“No, Dick, I don’t. I know you don’t want me for my money,” and Dora leaned forward to let her hand rest for a moment on his shoulder.

“I’ve got a little money of my own,” he went on, after a pause, in which they looked straight into each other’s eyes.