The Rover Boys at Colby Hall | Page 2

MOVING PICTURE THEATER 157
XVII THE GIRLS FROM CLEARWATER HALL 167
XVIII SLUGGER BROWN IS EXPOSED 178
XIX A SQUALL ON THE LAKE 187
XX IN GREAT PERIL 197
XXI ASSISTANCE REFUSED 206
XXII THE MEETING WITH HIXLEY HIGH 216
XXIII TARGET PRACTICE 226

XXIV THE FUN OF HALLOWE'EN 235
XXV OFF ON A HUNT 245
XXVI FROM ONE TROUBLE TO ANOTHER 254
XXVII ELIAS LACY'S DEMAND 265
XXVIII IN THE GUARDROOM 274
XXIX THE EXPOSURE 284
XXX A FOOTBALL VICTORY--CONCLUSION 296

THE ROVER BOYS AT COLBY HALL
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCING THE YOUNGER ROVERS
"For gracious sake! what's that racket?" exclaimed Dick Rover, as he
threw down the newspaper he was reading and leaped to his feet.
"Sounds to me as if there was a battle royal going on," returned his
younger brother, Sam, who was at a desk in the library of the old
farmhouse, writing a letter.
"It's those boys!" exclaimed Tom Rover, as he tossed aside a copy of a
comic paper which he had been looking over. "I'll wager they're up to
some mischief again."
"Well, if they are your boys, Tom, you mustn't find fault with them,"
answered Sam Rover, with a twinkle in his eye. "If ever there were
chips of the old block, your twins are It with a capital I."
"Humph!" snorted Tom Rover. "I don't think Andy and Randy are
much ahead of your Fred when it comes to playing tricks, and I think

Dick's Jack can hold up his end too."
"Never mind about that just now," broke in Dick Rover, hastily. "Let's
go out and see what those kids are up to."
"All right. But don't be too severe with 'em," pleaded Tom Rover.
"Remember, boys will be boys."
"That's true, Tom. But we've got to take 'em in hand sooner or later,"
remonstrated his brother Sam. "If we don't, they'll grow up the wildest
bunch ever known."
A number of cries of alarm and protest, mingled with fierce cheering,
had reached the house from the garden just beyond the broad veranda.
As the three Rover brothers hurried through the hallway and outside,
the yelling and cheering were renewed. Then, just as Tom Rover
stepped out on the veranda, there was a sudden swish and a stream of
water from a garden hose caught him directly in the left ear.
"Hi! Hi! Stop that!" cried Tom Rover, doing his best to dodge the
stream of water, which suddenly seemed to play all over the piazza.
"What do you mean by wetting me this way?"
"It wasn't my fault, Dad," came from a boy standing on the lawn, both
hands clutching a rubber hose held, also, by another boy of about the
same age. "It was Fred who turned the hose that way."
"Nothing of the sort! It was Randy twisted it that way trying to get it
away from me," cried Fred Rover. "And he isn't going to do it!" and
thereupon ensued a struggle between the two boys which caused the
stream of water to fly over the garden first in one direction and then
another.
In the meanwhile, not far away another stream of water was issuing
from a hose held by two other lads. This, as well as the water from hose
number one, had been directed towards the back of the garden, where
an elderly white man and an equally elderly colored man were trying to
shelter themselves behind a low hedge to keep from becoming

drenched.
"Fo' de lan's' sake, Massa Dick! won't you make dem boys stop?" cried
out the old colored man, when he caught sight of Dick Rover hurrying
out on the lawn. "Dem boys is jest nacherly tryin' to drown old Aleck
Pop, dat's what dey is!"
"They didn't have no call to touch them hoses," came from the elderly
white man. "I tol' 'em they mustn't muss with the water; but they won't
mind nohow!" and thus speaking old Jack Ness held up his hands in
comic despair.
"Why! we didn't know you were behind the hedge," came from one of
the boys holding the second hose. "We thought you were both down at
the barn."
"You can't make believe like that, Andy Rover!" returned the old man
of all work, shaking his head vigorously. "You knowed I was goin' to
trim up this hedge a bit and that Aleck was goin' to help me."
"You boys let up with this nonsense," came sternly from Tom Rover.
He turned to face one of his twins. "Randy, I ought to give you a
thrashing for wetting me like this."
"Don't Fred get half the thrashing?" questioned Randy Rover,
quizzically, for he could readily see that his parent was not as angry as
his words seemed to imply. "I don't like to be