row morning wouldn't do."

"See here, Nappy, is this some sort of trick?" demanded Jack bluntly.
"If it is, I want to tell you right now it won't work."

"It's no trick. How could it be? We are all alone, and we're not armed.
We are doing this solely because Gabe Werner asked us to do it. He
couldn't come himself, not with a broken leg."

"Oh, then he has broken his leg, has he?" said Andy, with something of
sympathy in his voice. "That, of course, is another matter." He turned
to the others. "I'm willing to go and see him if you are."

"All right, let's go," put in Fred.

"We'll go," said Jack, after a few whispered words to Randy. "But you
remember what I said, both of you. If this is a trick we'll see to it
that you get the worst of it."

"You'll find out that it's no trick as soon as you get to the house,"
declared Slugger Brown.

He and Nappy Martell led the way, and soon the whole crowd had left
Columbina behind and were trudging along the muddy road leading to
Derrickville. The way was dark and anything but inviting, and all of
them made slow progress.

"The house is over there in the field," said Slugger presently, as he
came to a halt. "You needn't be afraid, because there are only a very
old man and a woman living there. Gabe Werner has been boarding with
them since he came down here."

"Are you fellows working for Carson Davenport?" questioned Randy.

"We expect to work for him, yes. But nothing has been settled as yet,"
answered Nappy. "He has offered us thirty dollars a week, but we think
we can get more than that elsewhere," he added loftily.

"And what of Werner? Is he going to work with you?"

"That was the idea," answered Slugger. "But I don't know what he'll do
now. He's certainly in bad shape."

"How did he get his leg broken?"

"He didn't tell us a word about it," answered Nappy. "There is something
queer about the whole transaction. But he said he must see all of you
Rovers and do it to-night. What he's got on his mind, I don't know."

The Rovers hardly knew what to do. They were unarmed, and the place
certainly looked like a lonely one. They wondered if it would be
possible for Carson Davenport and his crowd to be at the house waiting
for them.

"You and Slugger go ahead," Jack said. "We'll follow behind. And mark
you, no tricks!"

"There is nothing to be afraid of," Slugger assured him. And then he and
Nappy stalked off in the fast-gathering darkness. They walked up to the
lo