"I—I—will—er——" stammered the former teacher of Putnam Hall. He did not know how to proceed.
"Ah, don't you get scared!" came in a low voice from inside the toolroom. "You know what the Rovers are."
"It must be Tad Sobber!" cried Tom. "Sobber, if you are in there why don't you show yourself? Are you scared?"
"Of course he is scared," put in Sam.
"I'm not scared!" roared the bullying voice of the youth who had claimed the fortune from Treasure Isle. "I am not scared and you know it."
"So you are really there, Sobber," put in Dick. "I thought as much. Well, you heard what I said to Crabtree. It applies to you as well."
"Bah, Dick Rover, you can't scare me!" returned Tad Sobber savagely. "Just now you think you are on top. But wait, that's all. That treasure belongs to me and I mean to have it. And I mean to square up for the way you have treated me, too."
"Are you two going to settle down here?" asked Sam, just for something to say.
"That is none of your business," answered Josiah Crabtree. "Now I want you to leave."
"Sobber, what has become of Jerry Koswell and Bart Larkspur?" asked Dick, wishing to know something of those former good-for-nothing students of Brill College.