"Dave!" cried Phil, in astonishment. "Look who they are!"

"Link Merwell and Nick Jasniff!" murmured Dave. "How in the world did
they get here, and what underhanded work are they up to now?"

CHAPTER II

DAVE AND HIS PAST

Dave Porter had good reasons for looking upon Link Merwell and Nick
Jasniff with suspicion. In the past these two unworthies had caused Dave
a good deal of trouble, and when exposed each had vowed that sooner or
later he would "square accounts" with the youth who had gotten the
better of him. Dave had hoped he had seen the last of them, but here
they were, eyeing him closely, each with a face that plainly showed his
envy and his hatred.

To those of you who have read the preceding volumes of this series Dave
Porter and his friends and enemies will need no special introduction.
For the benefit of others let me explain that Dave had once upon a time
been a homeless child, having been found wandering along the railroad
tracks near Crumville. He was placed in the local poorhouse, and later
on bound out to a broken-down college professor named Caspar Potts, who
had taken to farming for his health.

Professor Potts could not make farming pay, and was in danger of being
sold out by Aaron Poole, the father of Nat Poole, already introduced,
when a most unexpected happening changed the whole current of events. In
the town lived Mr. Oliver Wadsworth, a rich manufacturer. He had a young
daughter named Jessie, and one day, when this miss was waiting for an
automobile ride, the gasoline tank of the machine took fire, and Jessie
was in danger of being burned to death when Dave rushed in and rescued
her.

"A boy who will do such a brave deed deserves to be assisted," said Mr.
Wadsworth, and he talked to the boy, and learned that Caspar Potts had
once been one of his own college professors. Arrangements were at once
made for the professor and Dave to move to the Wadsworth mansion, and
then Dave was sent to boarding school, as related in detail in my first
volume, entitled "Dave Porter at Oak Hall." With Dave went Ben Basswood,
his one chum in Crumville.

At the school Dave made a number of friends, including Roger Morr, who
was the son of a United States senator; Phil Lawrence, the offspring of
a wealthy shipowner; Sam Day, usually called Lazy, because of a habit he
had of taking his time, and others whom we shall meet in the near
future.

In those days, Dave's greatest trouble was the cloud over