r. "I've been fairly aching
for a skate ever since that cold snap of two weeks ago."

"We'll have to start up some skating matches if good skating does really
turn up," put in Dick Rover, who had just joined his two brothers in the
gymnasium attached to Putnam Hall. "Don't you remember those matches we
had last year?"

"Certainly, Dick," answered Tom Rover. "Didn't I win one of the silver
medals?"

"Gracious! but what a lot has happened since then," said Sam, who was
the youngest of the trio. "We've gotten rid of nearly all of our
enemies, and old Crabtree is in jail and can't bother Mrs. Stanhope or
Dora any more."

"We didn't get rid of Dan Baxter," remarked Dick. "He gave us the slip
nicely."

"Do you think he'll dare to bother us again, Dick?" questioned Sam
anxiously.

"I hope not, but I'm not certain, Sam. The Baxters are a bad lot, as all
of us know, and as Dan grows older he'll be just as wicked as his
father, and maybe worse."

"What a pity a fellow like Dan can't turn over a new leaf," came from
Tom Rover. "He's bright enough in his way, and would make a first-rate
chap."

"It's not in the blood," went on Dick. "We'll have to keep our eyes
open, that's all. If anything, Dan is probably more angry at us than
ever, for he believes we were the sole means of his father being put in
prison."

"Old Baxter deserved all he got," murmured Sam.

"So he did."

"Well, if Dan Baxter ever bothers me he'll catch it warm," came from
Tom. "I shan't attempt to mince matters with him. Everybody at this
school knows what a bully he was, and they know, too, what a rascal he's
been since he left. So I say, let him beware!" And so bringing the
conversation to an end for the time being, Tom Rover ran across the
gymnasium floor, leaped up and grasped a turning-bar stationed there,
and was soon going through a number of exercises recently taught to him
by the new "gym" teacher.

"Gracious, but Tom is getting to be a regular circus gymnast!" cried
Sam, as he watched his brother in admiration. "Just see what beautiful
turns he is making."

"Humph! that aint so wonderful," came from someone at Sam's elbow, and
turning the youngest Rover found himself close to Billy Tubbs, a short,
stocky youth who had entered Putnam Hall at the opening of the fall
term. Tubbs was a boy of rich parentage, and while he was not
particularly a bully, he considered himself of great importance and
vastly superior to the majority of his assoc