Page:The Rover Boys on the Ocean.djvu/126

112 me, eh?" cried Baxter, and before Sam could say a word, he was hurled flat and the bully came down on top of him.

Sam fought bravely, but was no match for the big fellow, who began to hammer him unmercifully. Realizing how matters were turning, the youngest Rover began to cry for help.

"You shut up!" stormed Dan Baxter. "Shut up, or I'll give it to you worse than ever!"

But Sam had no intention of taking such a drubbing quietly, and he yelled louder than ever. His cries reached Tom, who had dropped behind to allow his brother to catch up.

"Something is wrong," he muttered, and hanging the fish on a bush, he ran back at the top of his speed.

Dan Baxter heard him coming and tried to get away, but as Tom called out, Sam's courage rose, and he grabbed the bully by the foot and held him.

"Let go!" roared Dan Baxter, but Sam would not, and in a second more Tom was at hand and hit the bully such a stinging blow in the face that Baxter went down in a heap.

A rough-and-tumble scrimmage ensued, and it must be said that the bully got by far the worst of it. Tom hit him again and again, and Sam also, and when at last he staggered to his feet