Hall will be free from all such fellows during the next term.
But we -- Hold hard, Sam -- there is another yacht bearing down
upon us!"

Tom Rover leaped to his feet and so did Dick. Tom was right;
another craft, considerably larger than their own, was headed
directly for them.

"Throw her over to starboard!" sang out, Dick Rover. "And be
quick about it -- or we'll have a smashup sure!" And he leaped
to his brother's, assistance, while Tom did the same.

The Rover brothers were three in number -- Dick, the oldest and
most studious; Tom next, is full of fun as an egg is full of
meat, and Sam the youngest.

In a former volume of this series, entitled, "The Rover Boys at
School," I related how the three youths had been sent by their
uncle, Randolph Rover, to Putnam Hall, a military boarding
school, situated upon Cayuga Lake, in New York State.

Whether the three boys were orphans or not was a question that
could not be answered. Their father, Anderson Rover, had been a
geological expert and rich mine owner, and, returning from the
West, had set sail for Africa, with the intention of exploring
the central region of that country in the hope of locating some
valuable gold mines. The boys and their uncle knew that he had
journeyed from the western coast toward the interior with a
number of natives, and that was all they did know, although they
had made numerous inquiries, and hoped for the best. The lads'