ir off" with Nellie and Sam was often seen in the company of Grace.
Then came the time when the Rovers did a great service for Mrs.
Stanhope, saving her from the rascality of Josiah Crabtree, a teacher
at Putnam Hall who was trying to get possession of the money Mrs.
Stanhope held in trust for Dora. Crabtree was exposed and then he lost
no time in disappearing.

Not far from Brill College was located another institution of learning,
Hope Seminary, for girls. When the Rovers went to Brill, Dora and her
two cousins went to Hope, so the young folks met as often as before.

A short term at Brill was followed by an unexpected trip down East,
where the lads again fell in with the rascally Crabtree. Then the
youths returned home for a brief vacation and while there became the
owners of a biplane and took several thrilling trips through the air,
and, later on, by means of the same aircraft, managed to save Dora and
Nellie from some rascals who had abducted them.

About this time, Mr. Anderson Rover, who was not well, was having much
trouble with some brokers, who were trying to do him out of much
valuable property. He went to New York and disappeared, and the sons
immediately went in search of him, as related in the volume before
this, entitled "The Rover Boys in New York."

The brokers were Pelter, Japson & Company, and it was not long before
Dick and his brothers discovered that they were in league with Josiah
Crabtree. The plotters were holding Mr. Rover a prisoner, in the hope
that he would sign away certain rights to them. The boys traced the
crowd to a lonely farmhouse, and it was during the happenings which
followed that poor Tom was struck on the head by a wooden footstool,
thrown by Pelter, and knocked unconscious. Josiah Crabtree tried to
escape from a garret window by means of a rope made of a blanket and
this broke and he fell, breaking a leg in two places. He was taken to
a hospital and the doctors there said he would be a cripple for life.

All of the Rovers were much concerned over Tom, and for some time it
looked as if the youth might be seriously injured. But the boy had
grit and pulled himself together, and presently announced himself as
well as ever. But he often got that sharp pain through the head, and
there were times when, for an instant, his mind became a blank.

While Dick was at college he had become formally engaged to Dora, and
now it was decided that, as Mr. Rover was in no physical c