"What, you would shoot me!" cried the former teacher, in terror.

"Why not? Didn't you try to take my life in Africa?"

"I repeat, you are mistaken."

"I am not mistaken, and can prove my assertion by half a dozen
persons."

"I have not been near Africa."

"I won't argue the point with you. Do you surrender or not?"

"Yes, I will surrender," replied Josiah Crabtree meekly.

Yet he did not mean what he said, and as Dick came closer he gave
the lad a violent shove backward, which made the elder Rover boy
sit down in an easy chair rather suddenly. Then he darted into a
small conservatory attached to the sitting room.

"Stop!" panted Dick, catching his breath.

"Tom, he is running away!"

Crash! jingle! jingle! jingle! Josiah Crabtree had tried the door
to the conservatory and finding it locked and the key gone, had
smashed out some of the glass and leaped through the opening thus
afforded.