Part 12 (1/2)
”What's going on here?” he demanded of the Rover boys. ”Why are you not at work, as I ordered?”
”I have made an important discovery,” answered d.i.c.k. ”Is this your pa.s.senger, Captain Blossom?”
”He is. What of him?”
”He is a thief and ran away from San Francisco to escape the police.”
”It's a falsehood!” roared Dan Baxter. ”They have made a mistake. I am a respectable man just out of college, and my father, Doctor L.
Z. Brown, is a well-known physician of Los Angeles. I am traveling to Australia for my health.”
”His real name is Daniel Baxter and his father is now in prison,”
said Tom. ”He robbed us of our money and some diamonds while we were stopping at a hotel in San Francisco. The detectives followed him up, but he slipped them by taking pa.s.sage on your s.h.i.+p.”
”I tell you my name is Brown--Robert Brown!” stormed Baxter. ”This is some plot hatched up against me. Who are these fellows, anyway?”
he went on, turning to the captain.
”They came from the steamer we ran into,” answered Captain Blossom.
”I never saw them before.”
At this moment Dora touched the captain on the shoulder.
”Please, captain,” she said, ”I knew Dan Baxter quite well and I am sure this young man is the same person.”
”It aint so. I tell you, captain, it is a plot.”
”What kind of a plot could it be?” asked Captain Blossom. He scarcely knew what to say.
”I don't know. Perhaps they want to get hold of my money,” went on Baxter, struck by a sudden idea.
”That's right, we do want to get hold of the money!” cried Sam. ”For it belongs to us--at least two hundred and seventy-five dollars of it--not counting what he may have got on the diamonds and the cuff b.u.t.tons.”
”You shan't touch my money!” screamed Baxter.
”Captain, he ought to be placed under arrest,” said d.i.c.k.
Dora had gone back to the cabin and now she returned in great haste with Nellie and Grace.
”To be sure, that is Dan Baxter,” said Nellie.
”There can be no mistake,” put in Grace, ”We all know him only too well.”
”You see, Captain Blossom, that we are six to one,” said Tom. ”And you will surely believe the ladies.”
”How is you all happen to know him so well?” demanded the captain curiously.
”We know him because we all went to school together,” answered d.i.c.k.
”These young ladies lived in the vicinity of the school. We had trouble with Baxter at school and later on out West, and ever since that time he has been trying to injure us. We met him in San Francisco in the hotel lobby and at night he went to our room, cut open a traveling bag and unlocked our trunks and robbed us of two hundred and seventy-five dollars in cash, some diamond studs, a pair of cuff b.u.t.tons, and some clothing.”