some things!" he grinned. "I reckon you calculate this chase to last some time."
"We've got enough for several days, anyway — that is, all but water," returned Dick.
"I've got a whole barrel full of that forward, lad."
"Then we are ready to leave. I hope, though, we run the Flyaway down before noon," concluded the elder Rover, as he hopped on board.
Leaving Sam to stow away the stores as he saw fit, Dick and Tom sprang in to assist Martin Harris, and soon the mainsail and jib were set, and they turned away from the dock and began the journey down the Hudson. As soon as they were clear of the other boats, the skipper set his topsail and flying jib, and they bowled along at a merry gait, the wind being very nearly in their favor and neither too strong nor too slack.
"Now I'd like to hear the particulars of this case," remarked Martin Harris, as he proceeded to make himself comfortable at the tiller. "You see, I want to know just what I am doing. I don't want to get into any trouble with the law."
"You won't get into any trouble. Nobody has a right to run off with a girl against her will," replied Dick.
"That's true. But why are they running off with her?"
"I think they have been hired to do it by a man who wants to marry the girl's mother," went on Dick, and related the particulars of what had occurred.
Martin Harris was deeply interested. "I reckon you have the best end of it," he said, when the youth had finished. "And you say this Dan Baxter is a son of the rascal who is suspected of robbing Rush & Wilder?"
"Yes."
"Evidently a hard crowd."
"You are right — and they ought all of them to be in prison," observed Tom. "By the way, have they heard anything of those robbers?"
"The detectives are following up one or two clews. One report was that this Baxter and Girk had gone to some place on Staten Island. But I don't think they know for certain."
CHAPTER XVII
IN WHICH DORA IS CARRIED OFF
Perhaps it will be as well to go back a bit and learn how poor Dora was enticed into leaving home so unexpectedly, to the sorrow of her mother and the anxiety of Dick and her other friends.
Dora was hard at work sweeping out the parlor of the Stanhope cottage when she saw from the window a boy walking up the garden path. The youth was a stranger to her and carried a letter in his hand.
"Is this Mrs. Stanhope's place?" he questioned, as Dora appeared.
"Yes."
"Here's a letter for Miss Dora Stanhope," and he held out the missive.
"Whom is it from?"
"I don't know. A boy down by the lake gave it to me," was the answer, and without further words the lad hurried off, having received instructions that he must not tarry around the place after the delivery of the communication.
Tearing open the letter Dora read it with deep interest.
"What can Dick have to tell me?" she mused. "Can it be something about Mr. Crabtree? It must be."
Dropping her work, she ran upstairs, changed her dress, put on her hat, and started for the boathouse.
It took her but a short while to reach the place, but to her surprise nobody was in sight.
"Can I have made some mistake?" she murmured; when the Falcon hove into view from around a bend in the shore line.
"Is that Miss Stanhope?" shouted a strange man, who seemed to be the sole occupant of the craft.
"Yes, I am Dora Stanhope," answered the girl.
"Dick Rover sent me over from the other side of the lake. He told me if I saw you to take you over to Nelson Point."
Nelson Point was a grove situated directly opposite Cedarville. It was a place much used by excursionists and picnic parties.
"Thank you," said Dora, never suspecting that anything was wrong. "If you'll come in a little closer I will go with you."
The Falcon was brought in, and Dora leaped on board of the yacht.
She had scarcely done so when Mumps and Dan Baxter stepped from the cabin.
"Oh, dear!" she gasped. "Where — where did you come from?"
"Didn't quite expect to see us here, did you?" grinned the former bully of Putnam Hall.
"I did not," answered Dora coldly. "What — where is Dick Rover?"
"Over to Nelson Point."
"Did he send you over here for me?"
"Of course he did," said Mumps.
"I do not believe it. This is some trick!" burst out the girl. "I want you to put me on shore again."
"You can't go ashore now," answered Baxter. "Ease her off, Goss."
"Right you are," answered Bill Goss. "What's the course now?"
"Straight down the lake."
"All right."
"You are not going to take me down the lake!" cried Dora in increased alarm.
"Yes, we are."
"I — I won't go!"
"I don't see how you are to help yourself," responded Baxter roughly.
"Dan Baxter, you are a brute!"
"If you can't say anything better than that, you had better say nothing!" muttered Baxter.
"I will say what I please. You have no right to carry me off in this fashion."
"Well, I took the right."
"You shall be locked up for it."
"You'll have to place me in the law's hands first."
"I don't believe Dick Rover sent that letter at all."
"You can believe what you please."
"You forged his name to it."
"Let us talk about something else."
"You are as bad as your father, and that is saying a good deal," went on the poor girl bitterly.
"See here, don't you dare to speak of my father!" roared the bully in high anger. "My father is as good as anybody. This is only a plot against him — gotten up by the Rovers and his other enemies."
Dan
