Page:The Rover Boys on the Ocean.djvu/121

Rh his hold or relinquish his efforts until the bully had been pushed along the road for a distance of fifty yards.

"Now you dare to come back!" said Dick, shaking his fist at the fellow. "If you come, I'll have you locked up."

"We'll see about it, Dick Rover," snarled Dan Baxter. He paused for an instant. "'He laughs best who laughs last,'" he muttered, and strode off as fast as his long legs would carry him, in the direction of the lake.

When Dick returned to Dora he found that the girl had sunk down on the piazza steps nearly overcome."

"Don't be afraid, Dora; he's gone," he said kindly.

"Oh, Dick, I'm so afraid of him!" she gasped.

"Was he here long before I came up?"

"About ten minutes. He brought a message from Mr. Crabtree, who wants to see me in Cedarville, I told him I wouldn't go—and I won't."

"I shouldn't either, Dora. Perhaps Crabtree only wants to get you away from the house so that he can come here and see your mother."

"I never thought of that."

"Where is your mother now?"

"Lying down with a headache. She is