The Rover Boys on the Farm; or, Last Days at Putnam Hall
"Mr. Derringham, don't you remember me?" asked Jack Ness. "I used to buy
herbs and watercress from you. I'd like to speak to you for a minute."
"Who are you?"
"I am Jack Ness, the man who works over on the Rover farm."
"The Rover farm!" muttered a voice in the cabin. "Don't let them in!
Don't you do it!"
"I am sure that is Dangler!" cried Tom, whose ears were on the alert.
"If he is really there we have him cornered!"
"Yes, and he shan't get away from us again," added Dick.
"If he tries it we can halt him with a dose of buckshot," put in Sam.
After that there was a pause, the boys not knowing exactly how to
proceed. Tom pressed on the door, but it refused to give way.
"I tell you I want you to leave!" cried the old man, after some more
whispering in the cabin. "If you don't go away I'll get my gun."
"There are four of us and all armed," answered Dick. "So you had better
not do any shooting. But you have got to open that door. We will do you
no harm."
"What do you want in here?"
"We want to see who is in there with you?" answered Tom, boldly.
"Don't you know that I am alone?"
"You are not alone," said Sam.
"Well, I know best," was the hesitating answer. "If I was sure you
wouldn't hurt me I'd let you in."
"We will not harm you in the least," answered Dick.
There was a moving around in the cabin and what seemed to be the
dropping of a door. Then old Derringham came forward again.
"You are sure you won't rob me if I open the door?" he asked.
"We mean you no harm--if you will do what is right," said Tom.
Then the door was thrown open and the Rover boys and Jack Ness were
confronted by a man at least seventy years of age. He had snow-white
hair and a snowy beard that reached to his waist.
The boys and the hired man went hastily into the cabin and looked
around. Nobody but Derringham was in sight. Dick looked at the floor
under the table and saw something which looked like a trap door.
"He must have gone into the cellar," said he to the others, and made a
movement forward.
"Stop, do not touch that table!" cried the old man, in alarm.
"Mr. Derringham, listen to me," said the eldest Rover boy firmly. "We
are after a criminal--a man who for years robbed the railroad company of
valuable freight. We know he is somewhere around your place. If you
shield this criminal, or aid him in getting away, you will be guilty of
a crime."
At this strong assertion the old man began to tremble, and he looked
from one to another of those before him in alarm.
"I--I Bill Dangler said it was not true--that it was a plot against
him," he murmured.
"It is true, and there is no plot against him, excepting to make him pay
the penalty of his crimes," put in Tom. "If you have hidden him you had
better give him up."
"I know you," said old Derringham, turning to Jack Ness. "You used to
pay me good prices for what you bought of me. Can I trust you?" he went
on, pleadingly.
"Certainly you can, and you can trust these boys, too," was the hired
man's reply. "If you want to keep out of trouble you had better help us
all you can."
By this time Dick had the table shoved to one side. Under the bottom of
one of the legs he found a small iron ring, connecting with the door in
the floor. He pulled on this and the door came up, showing a small
cellar below, used chiefly by the old man for the storage of winter
vegetables and the roots he gathered.
"Dangler, you might as well come up!" called out Dick. "It won't do you
any good to try to hide."
"What do you want of me?" came in a sullen voice from below.
"You know very well what we want."
"I haven't done anything."
"You can tell that to the police, after you are locked up. Come up."
Slowly and with downcast face Bill Dangler crawled from the small cellar
and pulled himself up to the floor of the cabin. He gazed reproachfully
at the old man, who was again trembling.
"I'll fix you for going back on me," he muttered.
"They say you are a thief," answered the old man. "If you are, I want
nothing more to do with you. I am poor, but I am honest--everybody who
knows me knows that."
"He shall not harm you," put in Tom. "He'll soon be behind the bars."
A glance at the party of four, with their shotguns, convinced the
freight thief that escape was out of the question.
"I suppose I'll have to give up," he growled. "But I ain't as guilty as
you may think I am."
"You are guilty enough," said Sam.
"I didn't plan those freight robberies."
"Who did then?" questioned Tom.
"Merrick and Pike. I don't mind telling on them, for they have gone back
on me."
"Is Merrick the head of the gang?" asked Dick.
"Yes."
"Where is he now?"
"If I tell will you let me go?"
"I can't do that, Dangler."
"Well, I don't care anyway. Merrick hasn't treated me right, and he
ought to suffer. He has a hangout a few miles from the city of Ithaca,
if you know where that is."
"Yes, on Lake Cayuga."
"That's it."
"You say a few miles from the city," pursued Sam. "What do you mean by
that?"
"He and some of his friends, Pike among them, have a meeting place along
the lake. It's an old house, unpainted, and with very narrow windows, so
I've been told. You find that house and likely you'll find Merrick and
Pike."
"I thought those chaps were from the city?" said Sam.
"They are, but every once in a while they find it convenient to
disappear, and then they go to that place on Lake Cayuga. It's an old
homestead that used to belong to Merrick's sister."
"We ought to be able to find that place," said Tom to his brothers.
"Especially if it was a homestead."
"Was the sister's name Merrick, too, or was she married?" asked Sam.
"She was a widow, so I was told. When she died she left her son in
charge of Merrick--but I don't believe he ever looked after the boy very
much."
"What was her name?" asked Dick.
"Sobber--Mary Ann Sobber."
"Sobber!" ejaculated the three Rover boys.
"That's it."
"Did you ever hear the son's name?" asked Dick.
"I don't remember--yes, I do. Merrick had a letter from him once. The
boy's name was Tad Sobber. He was at a boarding school somewhere."
CHAPTER XXV
CHRISTMAS AT THE FARM
"What do you think of that?"
"Isn't that the greatest ever!"
"Well, I'm sorry for Tad."
Such were the exclamations from the three Rover boys after listening to
Bill Dangler's declaration that the lad who had run away from Putnam
Hall was the nephew of Merrick.
"Are you certain of this?" asked Dick.
"Certainly I am. But why are you so interested in Merrick's sister and
her son?"
"I will tell you," answered Tom. "Tad Sobber used to go to school with
us, but he ran away a short while ago and we haven't heard from him
since."
"Phew! so that's it! Maybe he's with his uncle."
"Like as not. I wonder if he knows his uncle is a thief?"
"I don't know anything about that. Sid Merrick is a sly one and can put
on the most innocent front you ever saw."
"What do you know about Pike?"
"Oh, John Pike is only a tool, same as I was."
After that Bill Dangler seemed anxious to relieve his mind, and he
related many of the particulars of the freight robberies. He said that
all had been planned by Sid Merrick, and that two other men were
implicated besides himself and Pike and named the men. He said that
Merrick had sold the stolen stuff in various large cities.
"Did he divide with the others?" asked Dick.
"He was supposed to do it, but I don't think any of us ever got our full
share."
Old Derringham listened to the thief's recital with keen interest. But
presently he rushed forward and caught Bill Dangler by the arm.
"I want you to go!" he cried, almost fiercely. "I want no thief under my
roof!"
"He shall go, and at once," declared Dick. "It is getting late, and it
is a long tramp to Oak Run."
"He owes me a dollar for keeping him several days," went on the old man.
"Then he had better pay you," said Tom.
Dangler wanted to demur, but in the end he paid for his board, and then
the whole party left, the old man gazing after them curiously. That he
had been entirely innocent in the affair there could not be the
slightest doubt.
"Now, Dangler, it won't do you any good to try to get away," said Dick,
as they tramped along through the snow. "We are four to one and armed."
"I won't try to run away," was the dogged answer.
"If you give the authorities all the help you can, perhaps, when it
comes to a trial, they will be a little easy on you," put in Tom.
"I hope so. I was coaxed into this. I used to be an honest man,"
responded the freight thief.
"Well, before you die, you'll learn that 'honesty is the best policy,'"
observed Sam.
"I've learned that already. I've lost all my old friends, and I can't
show myself anywhere any more."
The crowd had to tramp a good mile and a half before they reached a
farmhouse where they could procure a team and a sleigh big enough to
take all of them to Oak Run. Then they set off at a fast pace and at
about supper time reached the Rover farm.
Those at the farm were much astonished at the "game brought in," as
Anderson Rover declared. The boys waited long enough to get a meal, and
gave the prisoner something to eat, and then they set off for Oak Run
with their father and Dangler. Here the freight thief was placed in the
custody of the local constable, who locked the man up in the garret of
his own home.
That night and the next day the telegraph and telephone were kept busy,
and some officers of the law from Ithaca visited the old Sobber
homestead. They found the place deserted and no trace of Merrick, Pike
or Tad Sobber was to be found.
"It is too bad," declared Dick, when the news came in. "I thought sure
we'd round up the rascals."
From the authorities the boys learned one thing--that the Sobber
homestead was on the same road that ran past the Stanhope cottage.
"That may account for Merrick coming and looking in the window that
night," said Dick. "Maybe he was traveling past and wanted to see what
was going on."
"More than likely he was looking for a chance to rob the place," was
Tom's grim comment.
On Christmas day the boys received a number of valuable presents and
gave everybody presents in return. There was a grand family dinner, such
as only their aunt Martha could prepare, and it is needless to say that
all did full justice to the spread. After dinner the lads went out
snowballing and got Aleck Pop and Jack Ness to do the same. The boys
snowballed the colored man and Jack Ness so vigorously that the pair had
to run for the barn.
"My sakes alibe, boys!" cried Aleck Pop, after he had received a
snowball in the ear. "Yo' dun work yo' snowballs lik da was comin' from
a Gatling gun!"
During the week between Christmas and New Year, Bill Dangler was removed
to the county jail, there to await the action of the grand jury. In the
meantime the authorities continued the hunt for Merrick, Pike and the
others, but without success.
"I'd really like to know what has become of Tad Sobber," remarked Dick.
"It is a pity if he is dependent upon such a fellow as Merrick for his
support."
"Perhaps his mother left him money," said Tom.
At last came the day when the boys returned to Putnam Hall. On the train
they fell in with Larry Colby and George Granbury, and told of what they
had learned.
"I heard from Nick Pell yesterday," said Larry. "He is getting better
gradually, but it will be some time before he is himself again."
"Does he still blame Tad Sobber?"
"Yes, and he says he will never have anything to do with Sobber again."
"Nobody can blame him for that," said Sam.
"I don't believe Sobber will ever return to Putnam Hall," came from Tom.
"Especially when he finds out that we know he is the nephew of such a