him.

"Hi, Flapp, we must leg it!" cried Baxter, in quick alarm.

"Eh?" queried Lew Flapp. "What's wrong now?"

"They are after us!"

"Who?"

"The three Rover Boys. Come on!"

The former bully of Putnam Hall glanced back and saw that Dan Baxter
(and he too had been a bully at the Hall) was right.

"Where shall we go to?" he asked in sudden fright.

"Follow me!" And away went Dan Baxter up the street with Flapp at his
heels. Dick, Tom, and Sam came after them, with a number of strangers
between.

"Do you think we can catch them?" asked Tom.

"We've got to catch them," answered Dick. "If you see a policeman tell
him to come along--that we are after a couple of criminals."

Having passed up one street for a block, Baxter and Flapp made a turn
and pursued their course down a thoroughfare running parallel to the
river.

Here were located a number of factories and mills, with several
tenement houses and low groggeries between.

"They are after us yet," panted Flapp, after running for several
minutes. "Say, I can't keep this up much longer."

"Come in here," was Dan Baxter's quick reply, and he shot into a small
lumber yard attached to a box factory. It was now after six o'clock and
the factory had shut down for the day.

Once in the lumber yard they hurried around several corners, and
presently came to a shed used for drying lumber. From this shed there
was a small door leading into the factory proper.

"I reckon we are safe enough here," said Dan Baxter, as they halted in
the shed and crouched down back of a pile of boards.

"Yes, but we can't stay here forever," replied Lew Flapp.

"We can stay as long as they hang around, Flapp."

In the meantime the Rover Boys reached the entrance to the yard, and
Dick, who had kept the lead, called a halt.

"I am pretty certain they ran in here," he declared.

"Then let us root them out," said Tom. "And the quicker the better."

The others were willing, and they entered the small lumber yard without
hesitation. As there were but three wagonways, each took one, and all
presently reached the entrance to the drying shed.

"See anybody?" questioned Dick.

"No," came from his brothers.

"Neither did I. I see there is a big brick wall around this yard. If
they came in here they must have gone into this shed or into the
factory itself."

"That's it, Dick," said Tom. He pushed open the door to the shed. "I'm
going to investigate."

"So am I," said both of the