w to reach him by telephone, or
with a telegram," remarked Dick.

"Well, we can't reach him, so we'll have to be patient until he
returns," answered Sam. "By the way, I wonder if his going away had
anything to do with what those men were up to?"

"It might be so," returned Dick, slowly. "Both happenings are queer, to
say the least."

"I wish I knew what father has in mind to do," came from Tom. "I hope
we take some kind of a trip. I don't want to stick on the farm all
summer."

With nothing to do, the next two days passed slowly. The boys went
fishing and swimming, and they also did some shooting at a target which
they set up behind the barn, and whiled away some time at boxing and in
gymnastic exercises. Dick also spent an hour in penning a long letter
to Dora Stanhope, who, as my old readers are well aware, was his
dearest girl friend. Dora and her mother lived not far from Putnam
Hall, and Dick and his brothers had become acquainted with her and her
two cousins, Nellie and Grace Laning, when they had first gone to
school. The Rover boys had on several occasions saved Mrs. Stanhope
from serious trouble, and for this the widow was very grateful. She and
her daughter had gone with them on the houseboat trip down the Ohio and
the Mississippi, and Mrs. Laning and Nellie and Grace had likewise
accompanied the party. It may be added here that Tom and Sam thought
Nellie and Grace two of the nicest girls in the whole world, which
indeed they were.

On Saturday morning the boys were contemplating a bicycle ride when
Sam, who chanced to look toward the road, set up a shout:

"Here comes father!"

All gazed in the direction and saw Mr. Rover coming toward them in a
rig he had hired at the depot. They ran to meet their parent and were
soon shaking him by the hand. They saw that he looked travel-worn and
tired.

"I have been on the go ever since I left Putnam Hall," said Anderson
Rover. "It was a most unexpected trip. I will tell you all about it as
soon as I have rested a bit and had something to eat."

"We have something to tell, too," answered Dick. "But that can keep
until later."

Inside of an hour Mr. Rover had been served with a good, hot breakfast
and then he declared that he felt like a new man. He invited the whole
family into the sitting room for a conference of importance.

"I told you lads I had something on my mind," he said. "I did not want
to speak of it while at the graduation exercises at the schoo