Part 2 (1/2)

”Why don't they swi too swiftly for them”

”Help! Help!” cainning to exhaust him

”Save me! Save e

”Save me! Don't let ht of the cadets, who had by this time come as close to them as the rocks on the bank permitted The man waved his arm frantically toward them

”Can't you swim?” yelled Jack, toof the water

”I'ht fast too”

”Both of my feet are fast!” screamed the boy ”Oh, please help us! Don't leave us here to be drowned!”

”It's a couple of logs of wood that are holding us,” went on the man in a hoarser tone than ever ”They are ja tree If you can only start the tree, et out of here”

Both thewater up to their ar element would fly over them in a spray that hid theroaned Fred ”Can't we do so,” answered Jack ”We can't leave the to do?” de the tree that has drifted up alongside them,” came from Randy ”Do you think we can do it, Jack?”

”I don't know But we can have a try at it, anyway And if we can't push the tree,the up the river as he spoke, and at a distance saw a series of rocks jutting out for a considerable distance into the strea out on those rocks and then trust to luck to get over to the other side,” he said ”We can't get at that fallen tree froht, I'ether they made their way out on the rocks mentioned and the others slowly and cautiously followed

I knoill not be necessary to introduce the Rover boys to my old readers But for the benefit of those who are nowthem for the first time a feords of introduction will not come amiss

In my first volume, entitled ”The Rover Boys at School,” I related how three brothers, dick, Tom and Sam Rover, were sent to Putnareat nu a cadet nah Putnae, and then joined their father in business in New York City, with offices on Wall Street They organized The Rover Coeneral er, and Sam treasurer The three youths werehouses on Riverside Drive, overlooking the Hudson River

About a year after their e dick and his wife became the parents of a son, as na

This son was followed by a daughter, nareat-aunt Martha of Valley Brook Farm The boy Jack, as he was commonly called, was a sturdy youth with many of the qualities which had made his father so successful

It was around this time that Toreat surprise This was in the nature of a pair of lively twins, one of as narandfather, and the other Randolph, after his great-uncle Randolph of Valley Brook Farm

Andy and Randy, as they were always called, were exceedingly active lads, in that particular being a second edition of their father, Tom

About the time Tom's tere born Sairl, who

Then, a year later, the girl was followed by a boy, as christened Fred after Sa so close together, the younger generation of Rover boys, as well as the sisters, were brought up very h all were at first sent to private schools in the Metropolis But soon the boys, led by Andy and Randy, showed such a propensity for ”cutting loose” that their parents were compelled to hold a consultation

”We'll have to send the school--some military academy,” said dick Rover