Page:Dave Porter on Cave Island.djvu/22



" you and ruin you!" cried Roger, in amazement.

"That is what it looks like," answered Dave. "I can account for their actions in no other way."

"Tell us just what is going on," urged Phil. "You know you can trust us to keep it a secret."

"I will tell you everything," answered Dave. "But first let us skate up a little faster, so that the others won't catch a word of what is said." And with that he struck out more rapidly than ever, and his two chums did likewise.

To those who have read the former volumes of this series, Dave Porter will need no introduction. For the benefit of others let me state that my hero had had a varied career, starting when he was but a child of a few years. At that time he had been found wandering along the railroad tracks near the town of Crumville. As nobody claimed him, he was placed in a local poorhouse and later bound out to a broken-down college professor, Caspar Potts, who had taken up farming for his health.