By this time the three men were mounting the garret stairs. They had to pass around a pile of furniture to get to where Anderson Rover had been kept a prisoner.
"Quick now!" cried Dick, as the men disappeared from view. He closed the garret door and turned the key in the lock. "Get a chair or two, Tom, so we can wedge the door fast."
Tom understood, and ran into a nearby room, to bring out a square table. The stairway to the garret ran from a right angle of the wall, so that the table could be stood up against the door, with the bottom of the four legs against the wall opposite. Some books chanced to be handy, and the lads were able to place these against the wall under the feet of the table legs, thus wedging the door fast.
"Now I reckon they'll have their own job getting out!" cried Tom, grimly.
"Go to a front window and watch the road," ordered his big brother. "If you see any help coming, call them."
Tom at once departed, to station himself at the window of one of the front bed chambers. By this time a clattering of feet could be heard on the garret stairs.
"He has locked the door on us!" came a cry in Jesse Pelter's voice.
"How did he get free?" asked Japson. "I thought we tied him good."
"He cut the ropes!" cried Josiah Crabtree. "But how he got hold of his knife to do it, I can't guess."
Dick had to smile to himself. Evidently the rascals thought his father had liberated himself and turned the tables on them.