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“Gee, we’ve done it now!”

“The snowball knocked Professor Duke over!”

“Hi! Stop that! What do you mean? Who did that?” came in smothered tones from Snopper Duke, who now sat on one of the lower steps of the stairs, holding both hands over the spot where the big snowball had struck him.

“Gosh! it struck him, all right,” whispered Gif Garrison.

“Yes. And it went across the hallway into Colonel Colby’s office!” gasped Andy, who had scrambled to his feet and given a glance downward.

“Skip for it!” put in his twin brother quickly. “We mustn’t be caught at this.”

The warning was not needed, for all of the cadets were already scrambling through the corridor and away from the stairs as rapidly as possible. They came to a halt in front of Room 18, that which Jack occupied.

“Skip inside and pretend to be reading or studying,” said the oldest of the Rover boys.

“I think we had better go to our own rooms,” said Gif to Phil and Spouter. “And remember, mum is the word,” he added for the benefit of the others.

“There’ll be some fun sooner or later, believe me,” remarked Fred. “Andy, why did you push that snowball downstairs on top of old Duke?”

“I didn’t do it on purpose. I slipped,” was the answer. “But come before they start to investigate.” And then he slipped into Jack’s room, followed by his cousins.

And here let me pause for a moment to tell something about the Rover boys and how it was that they came to be at Colby Hall. My old readers will not need this introduction, and, therefore, I shall not feel hurt if they skip my words on the subject.

In the first volume of this line, entitled “The Rover Boys at School,” I introduced three brothers, Dick, Tom, and Sam Rover, and told how they were sent to Putnam Hall Military Academy where they made a number of chums, including a cadet named Lawrence Colby.

Passing through Putnam Hall successfully, the three brothers next attended Brill College, and then went into business in New York City, where they organized The Rover Company, with offices on Wall Street.

During their school days the Rover brothers had fallen in with three very nice girls, Dora Stanhope and her cousins, Nellie and Grace Laning. The three young couples became married and settled down in connecting houses on Riverside Drive, New York City.

About a year following their marriage Dick and his wife Dora became the parents of a son, who was named John, and this son was followed by a daughter Martha. The boy Jack, as he was usually called, was a sturdy youth with many of the independent qualities which had made his father so successful.

Shortly after the birth of Jack, Tom Rover and his wife Nellie came forward with a great surprise in the form of a pair of lively twin boys, one of whom was named Anderson and the other Randolph. Andy and Randy, as they were invariably called, were exceedingly active lads, in that particular being a second edition of their fun-loving father, Tom.

About the time Tom’s twins came upon the scene, Sam Rover and his wife Grace became the parents of a little girl, called Mary. Then, a year later, the girl was followed by a boy who was christened Fred.

Residing side by side, the younger generation of Rover boys, as well as their sisters, were brought up very much as one large family. At first they were sent to private schools in the Metropolis, but the boys, led by Andy and Randy, showed such an aptitude for fun and horseplay that their parents were compelled to hold a consultation.

“We’ll have to send those kids to some strict boarding school – some military academy,” said Dick Rover.

“I guess that’s right,” his brother Tom had answered. “Although how my wife is going to get along without having the twins around is more than I know.”

At that time Lawrence Colby, the Rovers’ former Putnam Hall chum, was at the head of a military academy called Colby Hall. To this institution Jack, Fred, and the twins were sent. And what they did upon their arrival there is told in detail in the first volume of my second series, entitled “The Rover Boys at Colby Hall.”

The military school was located about half a mile from the town of Haven Point on Clearwater Lake. At the head of the lake was the Rick Rack River, running down from the hills and forests beyond. The school consisted of a large stone building facing the river, and close by was a smaller building occupied by Colonel Colby and his family and some of the professors, and at a short distance were a gymnasium, a boathouse, and likewise bathing pavilions.

On arriving at Colby Hall the younger Rovers found several of their friends awaiting them, including Dick Powell, usually called Spouter because of his occasional desire to make long speeches, and Gifford Garrison. Spouter and Gif were the sons of Songbird Powell and Fred Garrison, men who in their boyhood days had been close chums of the older Rovers while at Putnam Hall. The Rovers made a number of other friends, and, likewise, a few enemies, many of whom will be heard of later.

As mentioned, Colby Hall was located about half a mile beyond Haven Point, and on the opposite side of the town was Clearwater Hall, a boarding school for girls. During a panic in a motion picture house the Rover boys became acquainted with several girls from Clearwater Hall, including Ruth Stevenson, May Powell, Alice Strobell, and Annie Larkins. They discovered 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, and one day, while out hunting, the Rover boys did the old man a great service. For this he invited them to spend some winter holidays with him, which they did, as related in another volume, called “The Rover Boys on Snowshoe Island.”

On this island the boys met two of their former enemies, Nappy Martell and Slugger Brown, as well as Asa Lemm, a discharged teacher of Colby Hall. The Rovers exposed a plot against old Uncle Barney and caused the hunter’s enemies to leave Snowshoe Island in disgust.

Some of the boys hoped they had seen the last of Nappy and Slugger, but Jack was doubtful; and how those two unworthies turned up again to cause more trouble is related in the book entitled “The Rover Boys Under Canvas.”

This was at the time of the annual encampment, and at an election of officers Jack was made captain of Company C and Fred made first lieutenant.

While the Rover boys were at Colby Hall the great war in Europe opened. When the call for army volunteers came Dick Rover and his brother Sam lost no time in enlisting, and as soon as he could get away Tom Rover followed; and the three fathers of the boys went into the trenches in Europe to do their duty for Uncle Sam.

During the following winter at Colby Hall Gif Garrison received a letter from an uncle, stating that he and his chums might use a bungalow up in the woods. Gif at once invited the Rover boys and Spouter to become his guests, and what a glorious time the lads had is related in a volume entitled “The Rover Boys on a Hunt.”

The return of the older Rovers from Europe at the conclusion of the great war in which they had served gallantly brought something of a surprise. Dick Rover had saved the life of a man from Texas, and in return had been given the deed to some property located between Texas and Oklahoma and said to be in a region containing oil. He decided to go to Texas and Oklahoma to investigate, and the four boys begged to go along. How they went to the oil fields and what stirring adventures they had there are related in detail in the volume preceding this, called “The Rover Boys in the Land of Luck.”

Here they fell in again with Nappy Martell, Slugger Brown, and another good-for-nothing lad named Gabe Werner, and also with a man named Carson Davenport, who did his best to do Dick Rover great harm. Davenport and some of his cohorts were finally placed under arrest. As a result of this Gabe Werner’s father took hold of some wells that were being sunk by the Davenport crowd. But in the end he and the Martells and the Browns lost a great deal of their money, so that they were left almost penniless.

“It’s a terrible blow for those three families,” said Dick Rover, when this occurred. “It will make Mr. Werner quite a poor man.”

“Well, I don’t particularly wish them any hard luck,” remarked Andy. “Just the same, I guess Nappy, Slugger, and Gabe got what was coming to them.”

Before going down to Texas and Oklahoma the Rover boys, while along the Rick Rack River during a violent storm, had succeeded in rescuing a man and his son who were caught between some rocks and a drifting tree in the middle of the swiftly flowing stream.

The man, John Franklin, was exceedingly thankful for what had been done for him, and so was his son Philip. It developed later that the Franklins owned a tract of land in Texas. And when it was discovered that the tract inherited by Dick Rover from the soldier in France was practically worthless, Jack’s father made an arrangement to work the Franklin place on shares. Two oil wells were bored, and both of these paid handsomely, making the Rovers richer than ever and also placing a substantial amount in the bank to John Franklin’s account.

“Do you know I can scarcely believe it’s true,” Phil Franklin had said to the Rover boys. “Why, my father will have more money than he ever dreamed of.”

“We’re as glad as you are, Phil,” Jack had answered. “Glad on your account as well as our own. Now maybe you can go to Colby Hall with us.”

“Say, that would be immense!” Phil had returned with pleasure. And that fall he had joined the crowd at the military academy and soon made for himself a host of friends.

“Gee, I never thought going to school could be so nice,” declared Phil Franklin to the Rover boys one day. “I always considered going to school a hardship. But this is bang-up in every way.”

“I guess you haven’t made any enemies yet, Phil,” remarked Fred. “Don’t forget that Nappy Martell, Slugger Brown, and Gabe Werner all hailed from here.”

“I’ve met only one fellow that I don’t like,” returned Phil Franklin. “That’s a fellow who came in the day I did, a big, tall, lanky chap named Lester Bangs.”

“Oh, you mean Brassy Bangs,” broke in Randy. “I know that fellow only too well. I had quite a set-to with him one day in the gym.”

“For a new cadet he’s certainly pretty forward,” answered Jack. “I’m glad he isn’t a member of my company. If he was I think I’d have to call him down more than once.”

“I guess Colby Hall is bound to have its bullies,” Andy had remarked on hearing this. “No sooner do we get rid of one group than another appears. They seem to grow like weeds.”

During the fall there had been the usual football season at the military academy, and the boys had acquitted themselves quite creditably, winning seven games out of twelve. Then had come the brief Christmas holidays. And following this the lads had settled down once more into the grind, resolved to do their best at their lessons. But, of course, they were only boys, and they had to have their fun, and occasionally the fun went a little too far and brought forth rather disastrous results, as we have just seen.