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was going on Doctor Wallington arrived, followed by the college janitor and some others, all carrying fire extinguishers.

      “Here, use these!” cried the master of the institution, and the fire extinguishers were soon brought into play. Dick got one and Tom another and with them succeeded in putting out the flames that had reached one end of the cabin.

      All of the men and the boys worked like Trojans, and before long it could be seen that they were getting the best of the conflagration. The smoke was growing thinner and only an occasional spurt of flames showed itself.

      “Hurrah! we’ll have it out soon!” cried Tom, enthusiastically.

      “Yes, and I’ll be mighty glad of it,” muttered the captain of the vessel.

      “I hope you are insured, Captain,” said Dick.

      “I am – but a fire is always a loss, anyhow.”

      “That is true.”

      The boys and the men continued their labors, and inside of half an hour the fire was under control. Some of the men went below to make an examination.

      “It’s mostly around the boilers,” said the engineer. “It’s a great mess.”

      The hands of the Thistle continued to labor and in a short while the last spark of fire was put out. Then a tug was telephoned for to tow the vessel down the river to the town.

      In the meanwhile Dick and Tom rejoined their brother and the girls. The students from Hope, with their teacher, had been invited to make themselves at home in the reception rooms of the college, and word of the disaster to the Thistle had been telephoned to the seminary. Word was also sent to the town, and a large number of persons came out to learn the extent of the disaster.

      “The newspapers will make a spread of this,” was Tom’s comment. “We’d better send word home that everybody is safe.”

      “Yes, do!” cried Nellie. “Mamma will be so worried when she hears about it.”

      “Yes, we must send word at once,” added Dora. “Mamma can’t stand any excitement. She has had more than enough lately.”

      “You mean because of this affair about the fortune, I suppose,” returned Dick. “It was an outrage for Tad Sobber to hold up the money the way he did.”

      “Yes, Dick, but that is not all,” answered Dora. “I was going to tell you of something else the first chance I got.” She looked around, to see if anybody else was listening.

      “About what, Dora?” he questioned, quickly.

      “About old Josiah Crabtree.”

      “Crabtree!” exclaimed the eldest Rover boy in astonishment. “What about him.”

      The person mentioned will be well remembered by my old readers. Josiah Crabtree had once been a teacher at Putnam Hall and had caused the Rover boys a good deal of trouble. When Crabtree had discovered that the widow Stanhope was holding some money in trust for Dora, and also had quite some money of her own, he had done his best to get the widow to marry him. At that time Mrs. Stanhope had been sickly and easily led, and Crabtree had exercised a sort of hypnotic influence over her and all but forced her into a marriage. But his plot had been thwarted by the Rovers, and later on, Josiah Crabtree had been caught doing something that was against the law and had been sent to prison for it.

      “He has been bothering mamma again,” went on Dora.

      “Been bothering your mother! How can that be, since he is in prison?”

      “He is out again. It seems that while he was in prison he acted so well that some folks took pity on him and got up a petition to have him pardoned. Now he is out, and almost the first thing he did was to call on mamma.”

      “What did he have to say?”

      “I don’t know, exactly. But I do know that mamma was greatly frightened, almost as much so as when Tad Sobber called and said he was going to get the fortune.”

      “Did your mother think that Crabtree had reformed?”

      “She wasn’t sure about that. What scared her was the fact that he called at all. She expected never to see him again.”

      “Why didn’t she order him to keep away? That is what she ought to do.”

      “I know it. But you know how mamma is, rather weak and not wanting to make trouble for anybody. She said she wished he wouldn’t call again, and she was greatly upset.”

      “Then it’s a good thing you are going home soon, Dora. You’ll have to stay with her this summer.”

      “Yes, we and the Lanings are going to stay altogether.”

      “I wish we were going off on another trip together, Dora,” said Dick, in a lower voice. “Wasn’t our trip to Treasure Isle great?”

      “Perfectly lovely – in spite of the troubles we had,” answered the girl.

      “That’s the kind of a trip I am going to take again – when we go off on our honeymoon, Dora.”

      “Oh, Dick!” And Dora flushed prettily. “How can you say such things, and in a crowd! Somebody may hear you!”

      “Oh, I only want you to know – ” began Dick, but just then Tom and Sam brushed up with Nellie and Grace, so the sentence was not finished. Dora gave him a meaning look and he held her arm considerably tighter than was necessary.

      “Well, the picnic is off, and they are going to tow the steamer back,” explained Tom.

      “And the young ladies are to be taken back to the seminary in the college carryall and carriages,” added Sam.

      “What a shame!” murmured Tom innocently. “Now they are here I thought they’d stay till we went home.”

      “Tom Rover! what an idea!” shrieked Nellie. “Why, we’ve got to go back for our last examination, and to pack.”

      “Remember, we are to go East on the same train,” warned Dick. “Let me know just when you can start and I’ll arrange for the tickets.”

      “We are to leave Hope on Wednesday,” said Grace.

      “That will suit us,” answered Tom. “We might leave Tuesday afternoon, but it won’t hurt to stay here one night more.”

      “It will give us time to rest up from the last day’s fun,” added Dick.

      “Do you expect any fun on the last day?” questioned Dora.

      “Do we?” cried Tom. “Just you wait and see, that’s all! We’ll turn old Brill inside out and upside down!” he added, with emphasis.

      CHAPTER IV

      WHAT FLOCKLEY HAD TO TELL

      It was not long before the carryall of the college and several carriages were brought into use and in these the girls and their teacher were placed.

      “We’ll see you Sunday!” called out Dick to Dora.

      “Yes, we might as well go to church together,” added Sam; and so it was arranged.

      “But about those messages home?” asked Nellie.

      “We’ll send ’em – don’t you worry,” answered Tom. “We’ll go right down to Ashton now – on our bicycles.” And then the turnouts rolled away, and the students of Brill were left once more to themselves.

      “Well, those girls can be thankful that the fire was no worse,” was Stanley’s comment.

      “I reckon they are thankful,” answered Dick.

      “They were mighty glad we came up with the boats,” said another student. “Some of them thanked us over and over again.”

      “Huh! I don’t think the boats were needed,” muttered Dudd Flockley. “The water isn’t over two feet deep. They could have waded ashore.”

      “The water is four to six feet deep and the bottom out

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