iots I ever met!" came from Tom. "He believes in
meeting trouble three-quarters of the way, doesn't he?"

"I think Jasper Grinder must have stuffed him full of stories about
us," said Dick. "That's the way that rascally teacher expects to get
square on Captain Putnam--by ruining the reputation of the school."

"Oh, it's mostly Lew Flapp's fault," put in a pupil who had been at the
Hall for some time. "The very first day Flapp arrived he had a row with
little Tommy Browne, and knocked Tommy down, and a few days after that
he had a fight with Jack Raymond, and was pounding Jack good when Mr.
Strong came up and made them run off in different directions. He's a
good deal of the same kind of a bully that Dan Baxter was."

"If that's the case, he had better keep his distance," said Dick
determinedly. "I don't want any quarrels, but I despise a bully
thoroughly."

"So do I."

"I wonder if this Flipflap ever heard of Dan Baxter," put in Tom. "If
he has he ought to profit by the example."

"Hullo, Tom's got a new name for Flapp," said one of the boys.

"Isn't his name Flipflap?" questioned Tom innocently. "Or is it
Flapjack?"

"It will be Flopdown, if he ever gets into a fight with Dick," said
Larry, and then followed a general laugh.

"I really don't want any more fights," said Dick, when he could be
heard. "I came back to Putnam Hall to dig in and learn something. I've
had enough adventures to last a lifetime. If the others will only leave
me alone I'll leave them alone."

"But if they won't leave you alone, Dick?" asked George Granbury.

"Then they had better look out for themselves, that's all," was the
reply of the eldest Rover.

CHAPTER IX

SETTLING DOWN TO STUDY

Dick meant what he said concerning coming back to Putnam Hall for the
sake of learning something. He felt that he had lost too much time from
school already to lose more, and he pitched in with a vigor that was
indeed surprising.

"I don't see how you can do it," said Tom one day. "I can't, to save my
life." Yet Tom was by no means a poor scholar, and if he did not stand
at the head of his class he was not far from it. Sam was also doing his
best, and all of this gratified Captain Putnam exceedingly.

"It shows they can work as well as play," was what the captain told
himself, and he wrote Anderson Rover a long letter, in which he praised
the boys for their efforts.

The boys fell into their places at the academy with a naturalness t