Jessie was in danger of being burned to death. Dave rushed to her assistance and beat out the flames, and thus saved her. For this Mr. Wadsworth was very grateful. He made some inquiries concerning Caspar Potts and Dave, and learning that Professor Potts had been one of his former college instructors, he made the old gentleman come and live with him.
“Dave shall go to boarding school and get a good education,” said Mr. Wadsworth. And how Dave went has been told in detail in the first volume of this series, entitled “Dave Porter at Oak Hall.” With Dave went Ben Basswood, his one boy friend in Crumville.
At Oak Hall, a fine seat of learning, located on the Leming River, in one of our eastern states, Dave made a number of warm friends, including Phil Lawrence, the son of a rich shipowner; Roger Morr, whose father was a United States senator; Maurice Hamilton, usually called Shadow, who was noted for his sleep-walking and the stories he loved to tell; Sam Day, known throughout the school as Lazy, why nobody could tell, since Sam at times was unusually active, and a score of others, some of whom have already been introduced. He also made, in those days, one enemy, Gus Plum. But Gus had since reformed, and was now as good a friend as any of the rest.
What troubled Dave most of all in those days was the question of his identity. How he started to find out who he was has been related in my second volume, called “Dave Porter in the South Seas.” There he did not meet his father, as he had hoped, but he did meet his uncle, Dunston Porter, and learned much concerning his father, David Breslow Porter, and also his sister Laura, then traveling in Europe.
When Dave came back to Oak Hall, as related in “Dave Porter’s Return to School,” he met many of his friends and succeeded in making himself more popular than ever. But some lads were jealous of our hero’s success, and two of them, Nick Jasniff and Link Merwell, did what they could to get Dave into trouble, being aided in part by Nat Poole, the son of the miserly money-lender, who had followed Dave to the school. The plots against Dave were exposed, and in sheer fright Nick Jasniff ran away and went to Europe.
Dave had been expecting right along to meet his father and his sister, and when they did not return to this country, and did not send word, he grew anxious, and started out to find them, as related in detail in “Dave Porter in the Far North.” It was in Norway that Dave first saw his parent, a meeting as strange as it was affecting.
After his trip to the Land of the Midnight Sun, our hero returned once again to school, as related in “Dave Porter and His Classmates.” Jasniff had not returned, but Link Merwell was still at hand, and likewise the lordly Nat Poole, and they did what they could to make our hero’s life miserable. In the end Merwell did something that was particularly despicable and this caused Dave to take the law into his own hands and he gave the bully the thrashing that he well deserved. Merwell wanted to retaliate in some manner, but in the midst of his plotting, word of his wrongdoings reached the head of the school and he was ordered to pack up and leave, which he did in great rage.
While Dave was off hunting for his father and his sister, Laura Porter had been visiting her friend, Belle Endicott, at Mr. Endicott’s ranch in the far west. Belle was anxious to meet her girl chum’s newly-found brother, and this led to a visit to the ranch, as told of in “Dave Porter at Star Ranch.” Here Dave again met Link Merwell, and proved that the latter had been aiding some horse-thieves in their wicked work. Mr. Merwell had to settle a heavy bill because of his son’s actions, and then, for a short space of time, Link disappeared.
With the coming of fall, Dave and his chums returned to Oak Hall, as related in the volume preceding this, called “Dave Porter and His Rivals.” As his chief enemies had left the school, he did not anticipate much trouble, yet trouble came in a manner somewhat out of the ordinary. Nat Poole joined a group of students who had come to Oak Hall from another school, and the crowd did what it could to get Dave and his friends off the football eleven. Then, when Dave had once more fought his way to the front, came word that Nick Jasniff and Link Merwell were again “after his scalp,” as Roger expressed it. Jasniff and Merwell were then attending a rival institution of learning known as Rockville Military Academy.
“Be careful, or they’ll play you some dirty trick, Dave,” said Phil, warningly.
“I’ve got my eyes open,” replied Dave.
In a rather unusual manner Dave had become acquainted with a man named Hooker Montgomery, a fake doctor, who traveled around the country selling medicines that he made himself. This man asked Dave to call on him, and when the youth did so he was suddenly seized from behind, made a prisoner, and carried off in a sleigh and then in an automobile. At first he did not know what to make of it, but at last learned that he was being held, for some purpose, by Merwell, Jasniff, Montgomery, and the fourth man, a mere tool. He watched his chance, and, at length, escaped, much to his enemies’ chagrin.
“Have them all arrested,” was the advice of Dave’s chums, but this was not easy, since all of the evil-doers had disappeared. Then, one day, while on a sleigh-ride to a distant town, the boys fell in with Hooker Montgomery. The fake doctor was practically “down and out,” as he himself expressed it, and said he would do anything for Dave, provided he was not prosecuted.
“It was all a plot gotten up by those two, Jasniff and Merwell,” said Hooker Montgomery. “They promised me some money if I would help them, but I never got a cent.” Then he said that Jasniff and Merwell were in town.
“We’ll locate them,” said Dave, but this was not accomplished until later, when the pair of rascals were encountered at a railroad office. Our hero and his chums tried to stop Jasniff and Merwell, but the rascals rushed through a crowd and got aboard a train; and that was the last seen of them for the time being. The boys might have gone after the pair, but they had an important hockey game to play, and when they administered a stinging defeat to Oak Hall’s ancient rival, Rockville Academy, Dave, for the time being, forgot that he had an enemy in the world.
“Two weeks more of the grind, boys!” cried Dave, on the following Monday. “And then home for the holidays.”
“Right you are,” answered Phil. “But, oh, those two weeks!”
On Wednesday one of Dave’s chums celebrated his birthday, and among the presents received was a very fine double-barreled shotgun. This lad immediately wanted to go hunting; and the result was that the boys applied to Doctor Clay for permission to go to Squirrel Island, up the river, on a hunting expedition, the following Saturday. There was just sufficient snow on the ground to make rabbit and squirrel tracking good, and the boys were told that they might remain away all day. Six of them had guns and two had revolvers, and they carried in addition a good-sized hamper of provisions for lunch.
“Now, boys, be careful and don’t shoot yourselves or anybody else,” said Doctor Clay, with a smile, when Dave, Roger, and Phil left the school building. “Don’t fire at anything until you are certain of what it is. Every hunting season somebody is killed through the sheer carelessness of somebody else.”
“We’ll be careful,” answered Dave.
“Do you think you’ll get any game?” And the doctor continued to smile.
“I hope to bring you at least a brace of rabbits or squirrels, Doctor.”
“Well, I wish you luck. And don’t stay too late,” returned the head of the school, and then with a pleasant nod he dismissed them.
Dave, Roger, and Phil were the first at the place of meeting, but they were quickly joined by all the others except Ben.
“I’ll tell you what, Phil,” said the senator’s son, when he had a chance to talk to Phil alone. “Something is wrong with Dave. He isn’t himself at all. Can’t you see it?”
“Of course
