t up very much like one big family. The winters were
spent in New York City, while during the summer the young folks were
generally bundled off to Valley Brook Farm, where their grandfather,
Anderson Rover, still resided with his brother Randolph and wife
Martha.

At first both the girls and the boys had been sent to private schools in
the metropolis. But the boys showed such a propensity for "cutting up,"
as Dick Rover expressed it, that the fathers were compelled to hold a
consultation.

"The best thing we can do is to send them to some strict boarding
school," was Dick Rover's comment, and in this the brothers agreed.

Some time before, their old school chum, Lawrence Colby, who had since
become a colonel in the state militia, had opened a military academy,
which he called Colby Hall. The place was gaining an enviable reputation
as a first-class institution of learning, being modeled after Putnam
Hall, which, in its day, had been run somewhat on the lines of West
Point.

"We'll send them to Colby Hall," had been the decision of the older
Rovers, and to that place Jack, Andy and Randy, and Fred had gone, as
related in detail in the volume entitled "The Rover Boys at Colby Hall."

The military school presided over by Colonel Colby was located about
half a mile from the town of Haven Point, on Clearwater Lake, a
beautiful sheet of water about two miles long and half a mile wide. At
the head of the lake was the Rick Rack River, running down from the
hills and woods beyond. The school consisted of a large stone building
shaped somewhat in the form of a cross, the upper portion facing the
river. It was three stories in height, and contained, not only the
classrooms and the mess hall, but also the dormitories and private rooms
for the scholars. To one side was a brick building, which at one time
had been a private dwelling, but which was now occupied by Colonel Colby
and his family and some of the professors. On the opposite side was a
new and up-to-date gymnasium. Down at the water's edge were a number of
small buildings used as boathouses and bathhouses. Behind the Hall were
a stable and a barn, and also a garage; and still further back there
were a large vegetable garden and numerous farm fields.

On their arrival at Colby Hall, the Rover boys had found several of
their friends awaiting them. One of these was Dick Powell, the son of
Songbird Powell, a former schoolmate of their fathers, a fellow who was
usually ca