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“Now then, fellows, don’t forget to bring in the winning run!”

“Show Hixley High what we can do!”

And then came a rousing cheer from the Colby Hall cadets, and once more they gave the well-known military academy refrain.

Any ordinary pitcher might have been nervous over the prospect ahead of him; but Dink Wilsey was not one of that caliber, and he faced the next batsman as coolly as he had all of the others. Two balls were called, and then two strikes, and then two more balls, and the batsman walked to first base.

“Hurrah! he’s afraid to give him the kind we chew up.”

“Maybe he’ll let the next man walk, too!” cried another.

But this was not to be. The next cadet up went out on a foul, and the inning came to a sudden end.

“A tie! A tie! The game is a tie!”

“Now for the winning run! Hixley High!”

“That’s the stuff! Larsen to the bat! And, my, won’t he wallop that ball!”

Larsen was the Hixley High center fielder—a tall, sturdy youth with blue eyes and light hair, of Norwegian descent. He came to the plate with a “do-or-die” look on his face. He allowed two balls to pass him, only one of which, however, was called a strike. Then he made a sweep for the next ball, sending it out in a red-hot liner toward Jack.

Many a young ball player would have stepped out of the way with such a red-hot variety of baseball coming his way. But not so Jack Rover. Like a flash his hands went out and he caught the ball firmly, although the impact of the sphere whirled him half way around.

“Gee, look at that!”

“I wouldn’t have caught that ball for a thousand dollars!”

A great shout of approval rang out, and during this Gif hurried over to Jack’s side.

“How about it—did it hurt you any?” he questioned quickly.

“It stung me a little, that’s all,” was Jack’s reply. His hands burnt like fire, but he did not intend to let anybody know it.

“One down! Now for the other two!” came the cry.

“Not much! Here is where we score!”

But alas for the hopes of Hixley High! The next man up went out on strikes, and the fellow to follow knocked a foul which was easily gathered in by the third baseman.

“Now here is where we bring home the bacon!” cried Ned Lowe, one of the Colby Hall fans.

Andy Rover had been burning to distinguish himself, and now his chance came. First to the bat, he made a very neat base hit. Then, however, came an out, and the Colby Hall boys were, for a moment, downcast. But they quickly recovered when the next player made a single and Andy slid around safely to third.

“Now then, a hit! Just a neat little hit!” came the entreating cry.

“Oh, if only they do get it!” murmured Ruth Stevenson. “I wish Jack was at the bat.”

“It’s my cousin Dick!” cried May Powell, and she was right—Spouter Powell was up.

Spouter was not a particularly strong ball player, but he had one feature which was in his favor—he knew how to keep cool, and that helped greatly in this heart-breaking emergency. He waited calmly until two strikes and two balls had been called, and then he struck a low one, sending it just inside the first-base line. It slipped past the baseman, and as Spouter’s feet crossed the bag, Fred Rover slid in safely to the home plate.

“Hurrah! Hurrah! Colby Hall wins!”

Then followed a wild cheering and yelling, in the midst of which the crowds on the bleachers and the grandstand broke forth to mingle with the players on the ball field. Of course, the Hixley High students were much crestfallen, yet they tried to take their defeat in good part.

“Three cheers for Hixley High!” shouted Gif Garrison, and they were given with a will. Then followed a cheer from the high-school students for those of the military academy, and then the crowd started to disperse.

“Oh, boys! some celebration to-night, what?” cried Randy Rover, and in the exuberance of his spirits he turned several handsprings on the grass.

“You bet we’ll celebrate!” exclaimed his cousin Fred.

“Say! we ought to shoot off the old cannon for this,” burst out Andy Rover. He referred to an ancient fieldpiece located on the front lawn of the school.

“Too dangerous,” interposed his cousin Jack. “That old cannon is too rusty, and it would fly into a million pieces.”

“Yes, but we might——”

Boom!

It was a loud explosion coming from a considerable distance. The cadets, as well as all the others gathered on the ball field, looked at each other in surprise.

“What could that have been?” questioned Fred Rover.

“Sounds like a big cannon going off,” answered Walt Baxter.

Boom! Boom!

Two more explosions rent the air, both much louder than the first. The very ground seemed to be shaken by the concussion.

“Say, that sounds like a warship!”

“No warships around here,” was the answer.

“Maybe it’s a German Zeppelin!”

“Gee! do you suppose the Germans have come over here to bombard us?”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Several more explosions came now close upon the others, each explosion heavier than those which had gone before. The ground all around seemed to tremble, and those who were still in the grandstand cried out in alarm.

“The grandstand is going down! Everybody jump for his life!”

“Look! Look!” was the sudden cry from Jack Rover, and he pointed to a place on the opposite shore of Clearwater Lake. A dense volume of smoke was rolling skyward. Then came another tremendous explosion, and a mass of wreckage could be seen to be lifted skyward.

“It’s the Hasley ammunition factory going up!” cried Fred Rover. “What an awful thing to happen!”

“That factory is right across the lake from our school!” cried Martha Rover. “I wonder if it will damage that place any?”

“I shouldn’t be surprised,” answered her cousin Andy. And then he added quickly: “I hope Mary will be safe.”

“Oh, oh! do you think Mary is in danger?” cried Ruth Stevenson, who had just joined the others. Mary was Fred Rover’s sister, who had been left behind at the girls’ boarding school because she had been suffering that day with a severe headache, and had said she preferred resting to attending the ball game, even though she loved to be with the others.

“There goes another building!” yelled Andy Rover, as another report rent the air. Then those who were looking down the river and across the lake saw some strange objects being hurled through the sky in the direction of Clearwater Hall.

“If that whole ammunition factory starts to go up, it will certainly mean damage to the boarding school,” declared Jack. “I guess the best we can do is to get down there and see if Mary is safe.”

“That’s just what I say!” declared Fred. “I’m going to get down there just as fast as I can.” And he ran off, to board one of the automobiles headed in that direction.

Now, I know it will not be at all necessary to introduce the Rover boys or their friends to my old readers, but for the benefit of those who have not perused any of my former stories a few words concerning these characters will be necessary. In the first volume, entitled “The Rover Boys at School,” I told how three brothers, Dick, Tom, and Sam Rover, were sent off to Putnam Hall Military Academy, where they made a great number of friends, including a youth named Lawrence Colby. From Putnam Hall the lads went to Brill College, and on leaving that institution of learning went into business in New York City with offices on Wall Street. They organized The Rover Company, of which Dick was now president, Tom secretary and general manager, and Sam treasurer.

While at Putnam Hall the three Rovers had become acquainted with three very charming girls, Dora Stanhope and her two cousins, Nellie and Grace Laning, and when Dick went into business he made Dora Stanhope his lifelong partner. A short time later Tom married Nellie Laning and Sam married Grace.

The three brothers purchased a fine plot of ground on Riverside Drive overlooking the noble Hudson River, and there they built three connecting houses, Dick and his family living in the middle house, with Tom on one side and Sam on the other.

About a year after their marriage Dick and his wife became the proud parents of a little son, who was named John after Mr. Laning. This son was followed by a daughter, called Martha after her great-aunt Martha of Valley Brook Farm, where the older Rovers had spent many of their younger days. Little Jack, as he was commonly called, was a manly lad with many of the qualities which had made his father so well liked and so successful.

It was about this time that Tom and Nellie Rover came to the front with a surprise for all of the others. This was in the shape of a pair of very lively twins, one of whom was named Anderson, after his grandfather, and the other, Randolph, after his great-uncle Randolph of Valley Brook Farm. Andy and Randy, as they were always called, were very active lads, in that particular being a second edition of their father.

About the time Tom’s twins were born Sam and Grace Rover came along with a beautiful little girl, whom they named Mary after Mrs. Laning. Then, a year later, the girl was followed by a sturdy boy, christened Fred after Sam Rover’s old and well-known school chum, Fred Garrison.

Residing so close together, the younger generation of Rover boys, as well as their sisters, were brought up very much like one family. They spent their winters usually in New York City, and during the summer often went out to Valley Brook Farm, where their grandfather, Anderson Rover, still resided with Uncle Randolph and Aunt Martha.

At first the boys and girls had been sent to private schools in the Metropolis; but soon the lads, led by Andy and Randy, showed such a propensity for “cutting loose” that their parents were compelled to hold a consultation.

“We’ll have to do as Uncle Randolph did with us,” said Dick Rover. “We’ll have to send them to some strict boarding school—some military academy.” And to this the others had agreed.

Some time previous their old school chum, Lawrence Colby, who had since become a colonel in the state militia, had opened a military academy, called Colby Hall.

“We’ll send them to that place,” was the decision of the older Rovers. “Lawrence Colby is just the fellow to make them behave themselves, and as we are such good friends he will be sure to give them extra attention.”

So the boys were sent off to this school, as related in detail in the first volume of my second series, entitled “The Rover Boys at Colby Hall.” This military school was located about half a mile from the town of Haven Point on Clearwater Lake, a beautiful sheet of water about two miles long and nearly half a mile wide. At the head of the lake was the Rick Rack River, running down from the hills and woods beyond.

The school consisted of a large stone building, facing the river at a point not far from where the stream emptied into the lake. It was a three-storied structure, and contained the classrooms and a mess hall and also the dormitories and private rooms for the scholars. Close by was a smaller brick building, occupied by Colonel Colby and his family and some of the professors.

On the opposite side was an up-to-date gymnasium, while at the water’s edge were a number of small buildings used as boathouses and bathing pavilions. Behind the hall were a stable and barn, and also a garage, and further back were a large garden and several farm fields and a great athletic field where the boys played baseball in the spring and football in the fall.

On arriving at Colby Hall the young Rovers had found several of their friends awaiting them, one of these being Dick Powell, the son of Songbird Powell, a former schoolmate of their fathers. Dick was always called Spouter because of his fondness for long speeches. Another was Gifford, the son of Fred Garrison, after whom Fred Rover had been named. There was also Walter Baxter, a son of Dan Baxter, who years before had been an enemy of the older Rovers, but who had now reformed and was doing very well.

Before coming to Colby Hall, Jack Rover had had a quarrel in New York City with a tall, dudish youth, named Napoleon Martell. Nappy Martell, as he was called by his cronies, was a cadet at the military academy, and he and his crony, an overgrown bully named Slugger Brown, did what they could to make trouble for the Rovers. But one of their underhanded transactions was exposed, and they were sent away from the academy for the time being.

As mentioned, Colby Hall was located about half a mile beyond Haven Point. On the opposite side of the town was located Clearwater Hall, a boarding school for girls. During a panic in a moving-picture theater Jack and his cousins became acquainted with a number of these girls, including Ruth Stevenson, May Powell, Alice Strobell, and Annie Larkins. They found out that May was Spouter Powell’s cousin, and the whole crowd of young people soon became friends. Later on Mary and Martha Rover became pupils at the girls’ school.

Ruth Stevenson had an old uncle Barney, who in times past had had a bitter quarrel with Ruth’s parents. The Rover boys once went out hunting, and on this occasion saved the old man’s life, as related in “The Rover Boys on Snowshoe Island.” For this the old man was exceedingly grateful, and as a result he invited them to spend their winter holidays on Snowshoe Island, a place which he said he owned and of which he was very proud.

The boys traveled to this island and had many adventures while hunting and otherwise. They found out that the father of Slogwell Brown, always called Slugger by his comrades, was laying claim to the island. This man, backed up by Asa Lemm, a discharged teacher of Colby Hall, and backed up likewise by his son Slugger and Nappy Martell, did all he could to take possession of the property. But the Rover boys exposed the plot, and held the rascals at bay, and in the end old Barney Stevenson’s claim to the land was made safe. During the time on the island Slugger Brown and Nappy Martell had stolen a tin box containing some valuable papers from the old man, and for this they had at first been threatened with arrest, but had been allowed to go when Slugger’s father gave up his claim to the place.

“You think you’re smart, don’t you?” Slugger Brown had grumbled to Jack when he was ready to depart from Snowshoe Island. “You just wait, Jack Rover! I’m not going to forget you and your cousins in a hurry!”

“And I won’t forget you either,” Nappy Martell had added. “We’ll get even with you when you least expect it.”

But for quite a while now none of the Rovers had seen or heard anything more of Slugger Brown and Nappy Martell. But they were destined to hear more from these two unworthies, and in a most unusual fashion.

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