CHAPTER VI
SAM ROVER BRINGS NEWS
“Carson Davenport!” exclaimed Fred. “Why, Jack, you must be dreaming!”
“Carson Davenport is in jail. We saw him arrested ourselves,” added Randy.
“And he couldn’t even get bail—dad said so,” put in Andy.
“I don’t care, I’m almost certain that was Carson Davenport in that car,” answered Jack firmly.
As the readers of the volume entitled “The Rover Boys in the Land of Luck” know, Carson Davenport was the oil well promoter whom the boys had met on the border between Texas and Oklahoma. He was an unscrupulous individual who had robbed Jack’s father of some papers supposed to be of great value and later on had done everything he could to harm all of the Rovers. But one plot after another had been exposed, and in the end Carson Davenport had been arrested just at the time he was attempting to leave town with some money belonging to himself and to four of his partners. Two of his partners, Tate and Jackson, had stopped him, and a wordy quarrel had brought on the arrest of the three men. Each was tried for his wrongdoings and sentenced to a term in prison.
“If Davenport is out of the pen, Phil Franklin ought to know something about it,” said Fred. For Phil and his father lived in the oil fields and had had considerable dealings with the rascals mentioned.
“If Davenport is around here we had better keep our eyes open,” came from Randy. “I don’t trust that chap any more than I’d trust a rattlesnake.”
“I guess none of us would,” returned Fred. “Gee! how mad he was when he sunk that twenty thousand dollars he and Tate and Jackson put up, not to say anything about the small fortune contributed by the Martells, the Browns and Mr. Werner.”
As it was now raining harder, the boys hurried to the Hall and then up to their rooms to get ready for the mid-day meal. On Sunday all military exercises were dispensed with. On the stairs they met Phil Franklin and immediately asked him if he had a few minutes to spare.
“Sure,” was Phil’s ready response. “Haven’t got a thing to do until the bell rings for grub.”
“Come on to our rooms while we’re fixing up,” said Jack.
Once in the rooms occupied by the Rovers, the latter acquainted the boy from the oil fields with what had taken place on the road.
“Davenport here? Oh, you must be mistaken!” said Phil. “Why, he’s in prison down in Texas. And so are Tate and Jackson.”
“Then you haven’t heard anything of their being released?” said Jack.
“Not a thing. And I don’t think they have been.”
“Well, perhaps I was mistaken, but I don’t think so,” and the young major shook his head slowly.
Final examinations began on Monday, and the boys were kept busy for several days. Then came a respite of twenty-four hours, for which the Rovers were thankful.
The mail came in at noon, and less than half an hour later Phil Franklin burst in on the Rover boys like a cyclone.
“Here’s news! Just the thing you wanted to know!” he cried out, waving a newspaper clipping. “My father sent it to me in a letter he wrote. It tells all about Davenport, Tate, Jackson and several other prisoners. They are all out on parole.”
“You don’t say!” ejaculated Jack. “Let me see the clipping, Phil.”
His cousins gathered close while Jack read the newspaper clipping aloud. It had been cut from an Oklahoma sheet and told how a number of prisoners in one of the Texas prisons had been placed on parole by the authorities.
“Well, I guess I was right after all and that was Davenport,” said the young major. “Now the question is: What was he doing up here?”
“I’ll answer that by saying you can be sure he was up to no good,” declared Fred.
“I guess you’re right there,” answered Phil. “I wouldn’t trust that rascal a bit further than I could see him. If ever there was a snake in the grass, it was Carson Davenport. Just see how he and his cronies struck down Jack’s father in the room at the hotel and robbed him.”
“Oh, I’m not forgetting it,” answered Jack. “I think it’s an outrage that they let that rascal off so easily.”
“Maybe the prisons are overcrowded and they have to let some of the old prisoners out in order to let the new ones in,” suggested Randy.
“We’ll keep our eyes open,” said Fred, and after Phil Franklin had left he continued: “You know what I think? I think we had better let the girls know of this.”
“You don’t suppose Davenport would bother Mary and Martha, do you?” asked Randy.
“I don’t know what he’d do. A rascal like that is apt to do almost anything.”
“Maybe Davenport just came up this way on business, or something like that,” suggested Andy lightly. “He’s got to do something for a living, you know. He sunk about all the money he could rake and scrape up in those oil wells that went dry.”
“I think Fred is right, and we had better let the girls know,” decided Jack thoughtfully. “Of course, we don’t want to alarm them too much; but it’s better to warn them so they can keep their eyes open if Davenport does show up.”
“We can’t telephone—it might scare ’em stiff,” said Fred. “Let’s get permission to go over there this evening. We can get Hicks to run us over in a car.”
So it was arranged, and the boys spent half an hour with the Rover girls and with Ruth Stevenson and May Powell.
“Who ever heard of such a thing!” exclaimed Martha. “Whatever do you suppose the man is up to, Jack?”
“There is no telling. But we want you to be careful when you go out. You don’t want to fall in with such a bad egg as Davenport.”
“You boys had better be careful yourselves,” broke in Mary. “I guess that man would rather do something to you than to us. From all accounts, he hates you and Uncle Dick like poison.”
“Oh, Jack, do be careful!” said Ruth, when the boys were ready to depart. “Why, for all you know, that rascal might try to shoot you!”
“You be careful, too, Fred,” came from May Powell. “Perhaps the fellow will try to rob you, just to get square for what he lost in the oil fields.”
The girls were also deep in their examinations, and as they had still some writing and studying to do the boys did not remain as long as they might otherwise have done. Returning to Colby Hall, they tried to dismiss Carson Davenport from their minds and pitch into the work that still remained to be done on their compositions.
So far Jack and Fred had done very well and each felt certain that up to that point he had scored at least ninety-five per cent. The twins were not so fortunate, but as Andy expressed it, “they hoped they hit the ninety mark, anyway.”
“Latin is what gets me,” groaned Andy. “Whoever wanted to invent such a beastly language, anyway? Why couldn’t they talk United States and be done with it?”
“It’s mathematics that’s my bugbear,” said his twin. “The fellow who got up square root and cube root in that science ought to be hung.”
“Just wait until I get through with these books,” went on Andy. “If they won’t make the most dandy bonfire you ever saw, then I’ll miss my guess.”
The one humble boy around Colby Hall those days was Henry Stowell. Following the incident connected with the explosion of the cannon the sneak had not appeared for several days in the classrooms. When he did show up he had little to say and he did his best to avoid the Rovers.
“I guess he’s learned one lesson, all right enough,” was Randy’s comment.
“Gee, but putting those stones in the cannon was a serious piece of business,” declared Fred. “Why, some of the cadets might have been killed!”
At the end of the week came a surprise for the boys. Sam Rover had had to take a business trip to a city not far from Haven Point, and drove over in his automobile, first to call on the girls and then to visit his son and his nephews.
“Uncle Sam!” cried Jack, who was the first to greet him. “This sure is a surprise! I’m awfully glad to see you!” and he shook hands warmly.
“Thought I’d drop in and see how you’re making out with your final examinations,” said Sam Rover. “Is everything going along all right?”
“We hope so,” answered the young major. “Some of the questions are pretty stiff though, I can tell you that!”
“Well, nothing that’s worth while in life is very easy,” answered Fred’s father, and then the others came up and there was a general rejoicing all around. The boys took the older Rover into the Hall, where he was greeted by his old chum, Colonel Colby.
“It always seems like a touch of old times when you or Dick or Tom come around,” said Colonel Colby to Sam Rover, when they were left alone for a few minutes. “It’s a pity we can’t get together oftener.”
“How are the boys making out? I hope they’re putting their minds down to their studies.”
“They’re doing very well, especially Fred and Jack,” answered the master of the Hall. “It seems to be a little more difficult for the twins. They take so much after Tom,” and Colonel Colby showed a twinkle in his eyes.
“Yes, they’re chips of the old block—no question about that,” answered Fred’s father.
Colonel Colby was on the point of mentioning the exploded cannon, but suddenly thought better of it.
“Perhaps the boys will have something to tell you, Sam,” he said, on parting for the time being. “If they haven’t, just ask me about it. I want to give them a chance to speak first if they care to do so.”
It was not a pleasant thing to broach, yet the twins thought they must make a clean breast of it, so when Sam Rover had accompanied the boys to their rooms Andy and Randy spoke not only about the exploded cannon, but also of the loss of the silver trophy.
“Gracious! you lads are certainly getting into hot water,” was Sam Rover’s comment. “To lose the trophy was bad enough, but to have that cannon explode——” He ended with a shake of his head. “You’ve got to be more careful. It won’t do to kill anybody.”
“We’d like to get another cannon for Colonel Colby,” said Randy. “Do you suppose Uncle Dick and you and dad could manage it?”
“Perhaps. We can see about that later. I’m glad you told me about this.”
“Did Colonel Colby say anything about it?” asked Jack.
“Not a word.”
“Isn’t he all to the mustard!” exclaimed Andy. “Gosh, Uncle Sam, he must have been a fine fellow for a school chum!”
“He was, Andy—a real prince of good fellows.” Sam Rover paused for a moment. “Now then, I’ve got something to tell you,” he went on. “I hope it won’t interfere with your examination tests,” he added. “But it’s something that must be told. I haven’t said anything to the girls about it, but you boys had better know it.”
“What is that?” the lads questioned in concert.
“That rascal, Carson Davenport, is at liberty along with his pals, Jackson and Tate.”
“We know that already.”
“Yes, so the girls told me this morning,” came from Sam Rover. “But there is something more to tell than that—something the girls know nothing about.”
“What is that?” questioned Jack.
“Davenport paid a secret visit to your father last week,” was the reply. “He demanded fifty thousand dollars, and said if it wasn’t forthcoming he would make the Rovers suffer as they had never suffered before.”