n, and in a
few minutes disappeared from sight.

CHAPTER XXX

GOOD-BYE TO PUTNAM HALL

Leaving John Pike in charge of the others, the three Rover boys set off
after Sobber and Merrick. They followed the trail for awhile with ease,
for the fugitives were dripping wet from their involuntary bath.

"We have one advantage," said Dick, as they ran along. "Being wet they
will attract attention, and we'll be able to follow them up that way."

About a quarter of a mile was covered when they heard a crashing in the
brushwood not far ahead of them. Then came a yell of pain from both
Merrick and Tad Sobber.

"Ouch! I'm being stung to death!"

"Get off of me! Oh! oh! oh!"

"They are hornets, Tad! Run, or they'll be after us!"

"I--I can't run! Oh! one stung me in the eye!" screamed Tad Sobber.

Then the Rover boys heard the man and the boy plunge on, Tad screaming
with pain at every step.

"Wait! we can't go that way!" cried Tom, who had no desire to tumble
into the hornets' nest as the others had probably done. "Let's go
around!" And he leaped to the left.

As they progressed they heard Tad Sobber still crying wildly, and they
heard Sid Merrick urging him to run faster.

"I'm stung, too--in about a dozen places!" said the bond thief. "But we
mustn't be captured."

"Oh, it is awful!" groaned Tad. "I can hardly bear the pain!" And he
went on, clutching his uncle by the arm. Both were indeed in a sorry
plight.

But coming out on a road, fortune favored them. They met a colored man
running a touring car. He was alone and they quickly hired him to take
them to the nearest town.

"We fell into the lake by accident," said Sid Merrick. "We want to get
where we can change our clothing."

"And get something for these hornet stings," added Tad Sobber. "If I
don't get something soon I'll go crazy from pain."

As the three Rover boys ran towards the roadway Dick saw a big, flat
pocketbook lying on the ground. He darted for it and picked it up.

"Merrick must have dropped this," he said. "It's wet, and here is a dead
hornet stuck fast to it. Guess the hornets made him forget that he had
it."

Slipping the pocketbook into his pocket, Dick ran out on the roadway and
looked up and down. But Merrick and Sobber were gone, and what had
become of them the boys did not learn until the next day, and then it
was too late.

"What's in that pocketbook?" asked Sam, after the hunt had come to an
end for the time being.