Series" of books, the lads we have just met will need no special
introduction. For the benefit of my new readers, however, let me state
that the Rover boys were three in number, Dick being the oldest,
fun-loving Tom coming next, and Sam being about a year younger still.
When at home they lived with their father, Anderson Rover, and their
Uncle Randolph and Aunt Martha on a beautiful farm called Valley
Brook, in New York State.

Years before, and while their father was in Africa, the three boys had
been sent by their uncle to Putnam Hall Military Academy, as related
in detail in the first volume of this series, called "The Rover Boys
at School." At the Hall they had made a number of friends, including
Songbird Powell and the dudish student, William Philander Tubbs. They
had also made some enemies, who did their best to bring the Rover boys
to grief, but without success.

A term at school had been followed by a short cruise on the ocean, and
then a trip to the jungles of Africa, whither the lads went to find
their father, who had disappeared. Then, during vacation, the boys
took a trip West, and then another trip on the Great Lakes. After that
they went in the mountains, and then came back to Putnam Hall, to go
into camp with their fellow cadets.

This term at Putnam Hall was followed by a long journey on land and
sea, to a far-away island of the Pacific, where the boys and their
friends had to play "Robinson Crusoe" for a while. Then they returned
to this country, and, in a houseboat, sailed down the Ohio and the
Mississippi Rivers. After leaving the Mississippi they took an outing
on the plains, and then went down into southern waters, where, in the
Gulf of Mexico, they solved the mystery of a deserted steam yacht.