business?" growled the man. He was evidently
a rough customer and not pleased at being thus surprised.

"I don't know; perhaps," answered Dick, drawing closer. "Don't let him
get away," he whispered to his brothers.

The boys made a rush forward, raising their sticks as they did so, and
before the man could think of retreating they had him surrounded.

"Say, look here, what does this mean?" demanded the fellow, trying to
put on a bold front, although he was much disturbed.

"You'll find out what it means before we are done with you," cried Tom,
hotly. "More than likely it means state's prison for you."

"State's prison!" The man shrank back. "Why--er--I haven't done anything
wrong."

"Oh, of course not!" returned Dick, sarcastically. "Abducting two young
ladies isn't wrong I suppose!"

"I didn't abduct anybody," growled the man. "Somebody hired my car,
that's all I know. Now the job is done, and I'm going about my
business."

"Not just yet," said Dick, quietly but firmly. "Tell me, what have they
done with the two young ladies?"

"That ain't my business," commenced the chauffeur, savagely. "You let me
go, or I'll----Oh!"

He stopped short and let out a yell of pain and fright. He had tried to
push Dick out of his path. The oldest Rover boy had dropped the lantern
and struck out fairly and squarely with his fist, and the blow had
landed on the man's jaw, nearly taking him from his feet.

"Now behave yourself and come along!" cried Dick, and caught the man by
the arm. "Don't let him escape!" he cried, to his brothers. "Use your
sticks, and your pistols, too, if it is necessary."

The boys closed in, and the sight of the sticks and the pistols
frightened the chauffeur greatly. He saw that he was trapped, and that
resistance might put him in a worse hole.

"I didn't do it!" he whined, as the boys hurried him back towards the
automobile. "I was hired for a certain job, that's all. The men said
they had a right to carry the young ladies off--that one of 'em was the
old man's stepdaughter, and that both of 'em had run away from a girls'
school and wouldn't learn their lessons."

"And you mean to tell me that you believe such stuff!" snorted Tom.

"Well, that's what they told me," answered the man doggedly. "They hired
the car first without telling me what sort of a job it was. Then they
told me they wouldn't give me a cent if I didn't do what I was told to
do. I'm a poor man, and----"

"You tell it well, b