"The girls are coming next Wednesday," said Dick. "I hope we can get down to the depot when they arrive."
"Don't forget poor Tom, Dick,"
"Yes. Isn't it too bad?"
"Nellie will cry her eyes out if he is sent away."
"Oh, we've got to fix that up somehow."
Having read the letters carefully, the boys went to one of the stores to make some purchases, and then drifted down to the depot. A train was coming in, but they did not expect to see anybody they knew. As a well-dressed young man, carrying a suit case, alighted, both gave an exclamation:
"Dan Baxter!"
The individual they mentioned will need no introduction to my old readers. During their days at Putnam Hall the Rover boys had had in Dan Baxter and his father enemies who had done their best to ruin them. The elder Baxter had repented after Dick had done him a great service, but Dan had kept up his animosity until the Rovers imagined he would be their enemy for life. But at last Dan, driven to desperation by the actions of those with whom he was associating, had also repented, and it was the Rovers who had set him on his feet again. They had loaned him money, and he had gotten a position as a traveling salesman for a large wholesale house. How he was faring they did not know, since they had not seen or heard of him for a long time.
"Hello! You here?" cried Dan Baxter, and dropped his suit case on the depot platform. "Thought you were at the college."
"Came down for an airing," answered Dick. He held out his hand. "How goes it with you, Dan?"