at does this mean--" he managed to gasp.

"Silence, I tell you!" was the short answer. "If you say another word,
I will hit you again!"

Having no desire to receive a blow that might render him totally
unconscious, or, perhaps, take his life, Anderson Rover said no more.
He heard a match struck, and then a bit of a tallow candle was lit and
placed on the edge of the kitchen table.

By this dim light the father of the Rover boys saw standing over him a
tall man, beardless, and with his head closely cropped. One glance into
that hardened face sufficed to tell him who the unwelcome visitor was.

"Arnold Baxter!"

"I see you recognize me," was the harsh reply. "Not so loud, please,
unless you want that crack I promised you."

"What brings you here, and at such an hour as this?"

"I find it more convenient to travel during the night than in the
daytime."

"The police are on your track."

"I know that as well you, Rover."

"What do you want here?"

"What does any man want when he has been stripped of all his
belongings? I want money."

"I have none for you."

"Bosh! Do you think I have forgotten how you and your boys swindled me
out of my rights to that mine in the far West?"

"We did not swindle you, Baxter. The claim was lawfully mine."

"I can't stop to argue the question, and I don't want you to talk so
loud, remember that. No, don't try to get up," went on the midnight
visitor, as Anderson Rover attempted to rise. "Stay just where you
are."

He was feeling in his pocket, and now he brought forth a strip of
cloth, with a knot tied in the middle.

It was a gag, and he started to place it in Anderson Rover's mouth,
when the latter leaped up and began to struggle with all the force he
could command.

"Stop, I tell you!" cried Arnold Baxter softly.

"Stop!" And then, catching up his club once more, he dealt Anderson
Rover another blow, this time directly across the temple. The gentleman
wavered for an instant, gave a deep groan, and fell like a log to the
floor.

CHAPTER IV

A USELESS PURSUIT

Half an hour later Tom awoke with a start. For the moment he could not
tell what had aroused him. Then he remembered hearing the slam of a
door or a window sash.

"Must have been the storm," he told himself, and was about to turn over
and go to sleep when he heard a gun-shot from the direction of the
barn.

"Something is wrong, that's certain!" he cried. "Sam, wake up!"

"What's the row, Tom?"