Part 4 (1/2)
”No, Sam, I'll soon be O. K.”
”Jumping lobsters! But this beats all!” went on the youngest Rover. ”I don't know if I had better tell you or not.” And he looked around, to see if anybody but his brothers was present. The grown folks had left the room.
”Tell us what?” demanded Tom, who quickly saw that Sam had something on his mind.
”Tell you the news.”
”What news?” asked d.i.c.k.
”Maybe you can't stand it, d.i.c.k. It will keep till to-morrow.”
”See here, Sam, I'm not a baby,” retorted the oldest Rover boy. ”If you've got anything worth telling tell it.”
”But it may make your head ache worse, d.i.c.k.”
”No, it won't. Now, what's the news? Out with it.”
Instead of answering at once, Sam Rover walked over to the door and closed it carefully.
”No use of worrying the others about it,” he half whispered.
”But what is it?” demanded Tom, and now he showed that he was as impatient as was d.i.c.k.
”I got a letter from Grace Laning,” went on Sam, slowly, and turned a bit red. ”She told me a piece of news that is bound to upset you, d.i.c.k.”
”Is it about the Stanhopes--about Dora?” questioned d.i.c.k, half rising from the couch on which he rested.
”Yes,--and about some others, too. But don't get excited. Nothing very bad has happened, yet.”
”What did happen, Sam? Hurry up and tell us,--don't keep us in suspense!” cried d.i.c.k.
”Well; then, if you want it in a few words, here goes. Grace was visiting the Stanhopes a few days ago and she and Dora went to Ithaca to do some shopping. While in that town, coming along the street leading to the boat landing, they almost ran into Tad Sobber and old Josiah Crabtree.”
”What! Those rascals in that town--so near to the Stanhope home!”
exclaimed d.i.c.k. ”And after what has happened! We must have them arrested!”
”I don't think you can do it, d.i.c.k--not from what Grace says in her letter.”
”What does she say?”
”She says she and Dora were very much frightened, especially when they discovered that both Sobber and old Crabtree had been drinking freely.
The two got right in front of the girls and commenced to threaten them and threaten us. n.o.body else was near, and the girls didn't know what to do. But at last they got away and ran for the boat, and what became of Sobber and old Crabtree they don't know.”
”What did the rascals say to them?” questioned Tom, who could see that his brother had not told all of his tale.
”They said that they were going to square up with Dora and with Mrs.
Stanhope, and said they would square up with us, too, and in a way we little expected. Grace wrote that Sobber pulled a big roll of bank bills out of his pocket and flourished it in her face. 'Do you see that?' he asked. 'Well, I can get more where that came from, and I am going to use that and more, too, just to get even with the Rovers. I'm getting my trap set for them, and when they fall into it they'll wish they had never been born! I'll blow them and their whole family sky-high, that's what I'll do.'”