By this time Dora was coming downstairs, clad in a wrapper and carrying a lamp in her hand. The first person she met was Tom, who staggered into the hall with his hand to his bruised forehead.

"Oh, Tom, are you hurt?" she shrieked.

"Not much," he answered. "But d.i.c.k--d.i.c.k, where are you?"

"Here, in the conservatory. Crabtree just jumped through the gla.s.s!"

Dora ran into the little apartment, which Mrs. Stanhope had just begun to fill with flowers for the coming winter. Tom came behind her, carrying a poker he had picked up.

"Is he out of sight?" asked Tom.

"Yes, confound the luck," replied his brother. "Which way did he go?"

"I don't know."

"We ought to follow him."

"We will." d.i.c.k turned to Dora. "After we are gone you had better lock up better than ever, and remain on guard until morning."

"I will, d.i.c.k," she answered.

The key to the conservatory door was hanging on a nearby nail, and taking it down they unlocked the door, and the two boys pa.s.sed into the darkness of the night outside.

"Please take care of yourselves!" cried Dora after them, and then turned to quiet her mother, who had come downstairs in a state of excitement bordering on hysteria, for, as old readers know, Mrs.

Stanhope's const.i.tution was a delicate one.

Running into the garden, d.i.c.k made out a dim form in the distance, on the path leading to the lake.

"There he is!" he cried. "Come, Tom, we must catch him, if we can!"

"I am with you," answered Tom. "But take care what you do. He may be in a desperate frame of mind."

"He is desperate. But I am not afraid of him," returned the elder Rover, with determination.

Josiah Crabtree was running with all the speed of his long legs, and the two lads soon found that they had all they could do to keep him in sight.

"Stop!" yelled Tom, at the top of his voice, but to this command the former, teacher paid no attention. If anything, he ran the faster.

"He is bound for the lake," said d.i.c.k. "He must have a boat."

But d.i.c.k was mistaken, for just before the water came into view Josiah Crabtree branched off onto the road leading into Cedarville.

Then of a sudden the shadows of a patch of woods hid him from view.

"He's gone!" came from Tom, as he slackened his speed.

"He didn't turn down to the lake."

"That's so. He must have gone toward Cedarville."

The Rover boys came to a halt and looked about them searchingly.

On one side of the road lay a tilled field, on the other were rocks and trees and bushes. They listened intently, but only the occasional cry of a night bird broke the stillness.

"We are stumped!" groaned d.i.c.k dismally.

"What, you aren't going to give up the hunt already, are you?"

demanded Tom.

"No, but where did he go?"

"Perhaps he went back to the house."

"I don't believe he would dare to do that. Besides, what would he go for?"

"What made him go in the first place?"

"I am sure I don't know. Perhaps he was going to abduct Dora--or Mrs. Stanhope."

"If he was going to do that alone, he would have had his hands full."

The two boys advanced, but with great caution. They peered into the woods and behind some of the larger rocks, but discovered nothing.

"That is the second time we have lost our game to-day," remarked Tom soberly. "First it was Dan Baxter or somebody else, and now it is Josiah Crabtree."

"It must have been Baxter who tried to wreck the stage. He and old Crabtree always did hang together."

"If they are stopping anywhere in Cedarville we ought to put the police on their track."

"I'll do that sure. We can easily hold both on half a dozen charges--if we can catch them."

CHAPTER VI

AN INTERESTING LETTER

But to catch Josiah Crabtree was not easy. The former teacher of Putnam Hall was thoroughly alarmed, and once having taken to the woods, he plunged in deeper and deeper, until to find him would have been almost an impossibility. Indeed, he completely lost himself, and when the boys had left the vicinity he found himself unable to locate the road again, and so had to remain in the cold and damp woods all night, much to his discomfort. He could not keep warm, and sat chattering on a rock until daylight.

Finding it of no use to continue the search, d.i.c.k and Tom retraced their steps to the Stanhope homestead. They found Dora on guard, with every window and door either locked or nailed up. The girl had persuaded her feeble mother to lie down again, but Mrs.

Stanhope was still too excited to rest comfortably.

"Did you catch him?" Dora asked anxiously, after she had admitted them.

"No, he got away in the darkness," answered d.i.c.k.

"It is too bad. What do you suppose he was up to?"

"That is what we would like to find out, Dora. Certainly he was up to no good."