ome farmer's place, I suppose," he murmured. "Well, anything will do.
I can get a place to sleep, and the farmer can testify to it that I
haven't been drinking, as Lew Flapp and his cronies will want to
prove."

A curtain was drawn over the window of the cottage, so that Dick could
not see into the room. The cottage was small, with but a single doors
and on this the youth rapped loudly.

The rapping was followed by a commotion inside of the cottage and Dick
heard two persons leap to their feet.

"Who's there?" demanded a rough voice.

"A stranger," Dick answered. "I have lost my way in the darkness," and
without waiting he tried the door, and finding it unlocked, opened it.

"Dick Rover!"

The cry came from one of the occupants of the room, a tall,
awkward-looking young man, much tanned by exposure, and with a pair of
dark and wicked-looking eyes.

"Great Scott!" gasped Dick, falling back a step. "Am I dreaming or is
this really Dan Baxter?"

"Oh. I'm Dan Baxter right enough," answered the former bully of Putnam
Hall.

"But--but I thought you were still on that island in the Pacific."

"You wanted to see me end my days there, didn't you?" sneered Dan
Baxter.

Dick did not reply, for he was gazing at the other occupant of the
room, a man with a short crop of hair and a short beard.

"And your father, too!" he murmured.

"Come in here," cried Arnold Baxter savagely and caught him by the arm.
"Are you alone?"

"Yes," answered Dick, before he had stopped to think twice.

"Good enough. Come in," and Arnold Baxter continued to hold him.

"He may be fooling us, dad," put in Dan Baxter. "The officers of the
law may be with him."

"Take a look around and see, Dan. I'll keep him here."

"Let me go!" cried Dick, trying to break away.

"Not much, Rover. You'll stay right where you are for the present,"
answered the older Baxter grimly.

Dan had slipped out and he made a thorough search before returning to
the cottage. In the meantime Dick was forced to sit down on a bench in
a corner, while Arnold Baxter stood over him with a stout club.

"This is getting interesting, to say the least," thought Dick. "I wish
I hadn't come anywhere near the cottage."

"Nobody around," announced Dan Baxter, as he came in and closed and
locked the door.

"Good," answered his father. He turned again to Dick. "Now, how comes
it that you are wandering around here, Rover?" he went on.

"I was trying to find my way back to c