me!" exclaimed Tad Sobber, and with a sudden
movement he twisted himself free from Tom's grasp. "You follow me and
you'll get the worst of it!" he added, and darted across the park at
top speed.

Tom made after the bully, but as luck would have it a nurse girl with
a baby carriage got between them and before Tom could clear himself of
the carriage Sobber was a good distance away. He turned to the
eastward, down a side street where a large building was in the course
of erection. He looked back and then skipped into the unfinished
building.

"He shan't catch me," he muttered to himself, and ran to the rear of
the building, amid piles of bricks and concrete blocks. A number of
workmen were present, but nobody noticed him.

Reaching the building Tom peered inside, but saw nothing of the bully.
He was about to go in when a warning cry reached him from overhead.

"Get back there, unless you want to be hurt!"

Tom looked up and saw a workman in the act of throwing down a mass of
rubbish, broken bricks, sticks and old mortar. He leaped back and the
stuff descended in front of him and raised a cloud of dust.

"What do you want here, young man?" demanded the superintendent of the
building as he came forward.

"I am after a boy who just ran in here."

"Nobody here that I saw."

"He just came in."

"We don't allow skylarking around here. You make yourself scarce," and
the superintendent waved Tom away.

"I want to have that fellow arrested--that is why he ran away from
me."

"Oh, that's a different thing. Go find him, if you can."

The superintendent stepped aside and Tom entered the building. But the
delay had cost him dear, for in the meanwhile Tad Sobber had made good
his escape by running back to the next street. Tom looked around for
over quarter of an hour and then gave up the chase.

"It's too bad, but it can't be helped," he mused. "I may as well go
back to the park and wait for Dick and Sam. I hope they caught that
Cuffer."

While Tom was talking to Sobber the other Rover boys had followed
Cuffer to the elevated railroad station. A train was just coming in
and Cuffer bounded up the steps two at a time, with the boys not far
behind.

"Stop that man!" cried Dick, to the crowd coming from the train. But
before anybody would or could act, Cuffer had slipped past the man at
the ticket box and was trying to board one of the cars. Dick essayed
to follow, but the ticket box guard stopped him.

"Not to fast,