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

“Who were you thinking of?” asked Tom.

“Old Josiah Crabtree. He is out of prison, you know, and he heard I was stopping here, and he came to see me.”

CHAPTER XVII

DAN BAXTER’S REVELATION

The announcement that Josiah Crabtree had come to see Dan Baxter filled the Rover boys with interest.

“Did he have much to say?” asked Dick.

“He had a great deal to say,” answered Dan. He looked around at several who had entered the reading room “Come up to my room and I’ll tell you all about it.”

“We will – after we have notified the clerk where we will be,” said Dick. “We are waiting for a message from our father.”

The boys engaged their rooms and had their dress-suit cases taken up. A few minutes later the whole crowd entered the apartment Dan Baxter occupied. They noticed that it was well-kept and that on the bureau rested a photograph of Dan’s father.

“How is he, Dan?” asked Dick, motioning to the picture.

“Fairly well. He is getting old, you know.”

“When you see him next, give him our regards.”

“I will,” answered Dan, and then he motioned the Rovers to seats and sank down on the edge of the bed with something of a sigh. In spite of his success as a commercial traveler Dan could not help but think of his own past and of his father’s past. How his father might have prospered, even as the Rovers had prospered, had he followed the path of fairness and honor! He had reformed now, but this reform had come too late in life to enable him to make another start in the business world. Dan was supporting him, and father and son were glad enough to have the Rovers drop their many just causes of complaint against them.

“I can tell you I was much surprised to see Josiah Crabtree,” said Dan, after a pause. “I ask him how he happened to be out of prison, and he said he was let go because of his good behavior.”

“That would make me laugh,” interrupted Tom. “Think of old Crabtree on his good behavior!”

“He said he had been following me up for nearly a week,” pursued Dan, and then he paused and his face grew red.

“Following you up?” cried Sam. “What for?”

“Well – er – I might as well make a clean breast of it, fellows – although I hope you will keep it to yourselves. You’ll remember how thick Crabtree and I once were?”

“Yes,” answered all of the Rovers in a low tone. They could realize how painful the remembrance of it must be to Dan, now.

“Well, he had an idea that I was the same old Dan and ready for new schemes for making money. He had a scheme, and he wanted me to help him work it.”

“What was it?” asked Dick.

“Well, you’ll remember that he was always crazy after Mrs. Stanhope.”

“He was crazy after her money, and Dora’s money.”

“Exactly. Well, he wanted me to help him in a scheme against Mrs. Stanhope – the same old scheme he tried years ago. He wanted to get her in his power and force her to marry him.”

“What! Marry that jailbird!” cried Dick, and his eyes flashed fire. “What a father-in-law Josiah Crabtree would make!”

“That’s it, Dick. He talked around the bush a good deal at first, and I led him on, wanting to know what he had up his sleeve. He talked about his affinity and all that, and said that Mrs. Stanhope really wanted to marry him – that she had said so a score of times – ”

“The scoundrel! He tried to hypnotize her!”

“I know all that as well as you do, Dick. Well, he said she wanted to marry him, but that her daughter wouldn’t let her, being influenced by you and the Lanings. He wanted me to aid him in getting Mrs. Stanhope away from Cedarville, and he said that as soon as they were married he would give me five thousand dollars for helping him to get her.”

“Dan!”

“It is true, every word of it. I pumped him all I could, just to get the details of his plot. But he wouldn’t give me the details – in fact, I don’t think he had the details worked out. When, at last, I flatly refused to assist him he went off the maddest man you ever saw. He warned me not to say a word to anybody, stating that if I did, he would put the police on my track on some old charge. But I made up my mind that I would write to you, and I’d write to Mr. Laning, too – he being Mrs. Stanhope’s near relative.”

“Where did he go to?” asked Sam.

“I didn’t see him the next day, until late in the evening. Then I was over to Grapeton, to see a jeweler there, and when I was coming away an automobile passed me driven by a fellow in a regular chauffeur’s costume. On the back seat was Crabtree and a fellow who used to go to Putnam Hall – the fellow who tried to do the Stanhopes out of that fortune in court, Tad Sobber.”

“Sobber and Crabtree!” burst out Dick. “They surely must be together in this deal!”

“It certainly looks like it,” added Tom.

“I guess Crabtree is bound to have a part of the fortune, even if he can’t marry Mrs. Stanhope,” said Sam.

“Is Sobber after that fortune again?” questioned the young commercial traveler.

“We are afraid he already has it in his possession,” answered Dick. “Now that you have been kind enough to tell your story, Dan, we’ll tell ours.” And he related the particulars of what had brought them away from the camp at the lake.

“I guess they are both after that fortune,” said Dan, after listening to the recital. “It seems to me it all fits in. Sobber wanted to get hold of that cash. He couldn’t do it by force, so he had to use cunning. He is not an overly-brilliant fellow, I take it, so he had to get somebody to aid him. In some manner he fell in with Josiah Crabtree. He knew that Crabtree was as smart as he was unprincipled. The two fixed up the plot to get the fortune – and got it.”

“I hope they haven’t got Mrs. Stanhope, too,” murmured Dick.

“I think Crabtree would rather have the money than have the lady,” said Dan.

“Well, we’ll know all about the case tomorrow,” said Sam. “I am dead tired now and am going to bed,” he added, looking at his watch.

“What time is it?”

“Quarter to twelve.”

“Gracious, Dan, I didn’t think we were keeping you up so late!” cried the eldest Rover boy.

“Oh, that’s all right, Dick. I’m glad you came – it saved me the trouble of sending that letter.”

“You can go to bed,” went on Dick, to his brothers. “I’ll stay up a bit longer and see if any message comes from dad.”

The Rovers left Dan Baxter’s apartment, and Sam and Tom retired, both worn out from their day’s exertions. Dick went below, to interview the hotel clerk.

“No message yet, sir,” said that individual. “If any comes in I will call you.”

Dick was about to turn away, when the telephone bell rang. He waited while the clerk listened for a moment.

“Yes, he’s here now,” he heard the clerk say. “Wait a moment.” The clerk turned to Dick. “There’s your party now. I’ll switch you into the booth yonder.”