nd
he offered this place to me, and I bought it. That was several years
ago."

"It's nice to own an island like this," observed Fred. "A fellow can
have a regular Robinson Crusoe time of it if he wants to."

"When I bought the island I thought I'd have no difficulty in holding
it," continued Barney Stevenson. "But since that time I have had a whole
lot of trouble. Two men claim that Luke Martinson never had any rights
here--that the old Martinson claim to the island was a false one. They
have tried two or three times to get me off the place, but I've refused
to go."

"Didn't you get a deed to the island?" questioned Jack, who had often
heard his father and his uncles speak about deeds to real estate.

"Certainly, I got a deed! But they claim that the old Martinson deed was
no good. But it is good--and I know it!" grumbled Uncle Barney.

"Who are the men who want to take the island away from you?" questioned
Andy. "Some hunters around here, or lumbermen?"

"Oh no! They are two men from the city--a real estate dealer and a man
who used to be interested in buying and selling property, but who lost
most of his fortune and then went to teaching, or something like that."

"Teaching!" exclaimed Jack, struck by a sudden idea. "What is that man's
name, if I may ask?"

"His name is Asa Lemm, and the name of the other man is Slogwell Brown,"
was the reply of the old lumberman, which filled the Rover boys with
amazement.

CHAPTER XXII

THE FIRST NIGHT ON THE ISLAND

"Asa Lemm and Slogwell Brown!"

"What do you know about that, boys?"

"That's bringing this matter pretty close to us, isn't it?"

"I should say so!"

Such were some of the remarks coming from the Rover boys after Barney
Stevenson had made his astonishing declaration that the father of
Slugger Brown and the ex-teacher of Colby Hall were the two men who were
trying to dispossess him.

"Why, you speak as if you knew those two men!" exclaimed the old
lumberman.

"We certainly know Asa Lemm," answered Jack.

"And we know the son of Slogwell Brown," added Randy.

"Yes, and if Mr. Brown is no better than his son, I wouldn't put it past
him to do something crooked," was Andy's comment.

"Tell me what you know," said Uncle Barney.

Thereupon the four boys related the particulars of the trouble they had
had with Professor Lemm, and of how he had left the military academy.
They also told much about Slugger, and, incidentally, Nappy Martell, and