nly a man stepped out from the bushes near the
road and held her up."

"Held her up!" they gasped, and Caroline added sharply:

"Do you mean she was robbed?"

"Yes," answered Nellie, still panting and with eyes wide with excitement
"And from what she said, I'm sure it was the 'Codfish.'"

At that minute the skaters sped down upon them, Teddy and Billie winning
triumphantly by about a yard. Caroline skated over to them, calling her
story as she went. It was a minute or two before she could make them
understand.

"You say one of the teachers was robbed?" asked Ferd.

Then Caroline told the story all over again, while Nellie shouted to
them from the shore--for Nellie had on no skates and did not dare
venture out on the ice without them. Before she had finished the boys
were tearing wildly for the bank with the girls close behind them.

There they sat down and tore their skates off, asking questions all the
while.

"Did you say it was just the other side of the gate?" Chet asked. "Say,
if we hurry, fellows, we may have a chance to find him. Who would ever
have thought of that old Codfish turning up again?"

"Don't talk--work," cried Teddy, getting rid of his skates and stamping
his numbed feet to get the blood back into them. "We missed that fellow
once before, and we're not going to miss him again if we can help it.
Ready, fellows?"

"You bet!" Ferd and Chet cried, and the three were off on a run, the
first of the boys to start. Behind them the girls were still fumbling
with numbed fingers at their skates.

CHAPTER XX

CHET PLAYS THE HERO

The boys stopped at the gate of Three Towers Hall, not knowing just what
to do next. All they knew was that Miss Race had been held up and robbed
only a few hundred feet from the gate and that the robber had
disappeared in the bushes at the left-hand side of the road.

"We'll have to spread out," Teddy said in an excited voice. "Probably
the fellow doesn't expect to be followed, because he thinks there are
only women and girls around Three Towers and he's probably around near
here somewhere counting over his loot.

"There are five of us," he went on quickly, noticing that two more boys
had come up from the lake on a run. "And if we go in the woods one at a
time and circle about we ought to find the thief."

"Don't you think we'd better get Miss Race?" asked Chet eagerly. "She'd
be able to show us just where the fellow disappeared, and everything."

"But it w