“It’s the Hasley ammunition factory going up!” cried Fred Rover. “What an awful thing to happen!”
“That factory is right across the lake from our school!” cried Martha Rover. “I wonder if it will damage that place any?”
“I shouldn’t be surprised,” answered her cousin Andy. And then he added quickly: “I hope Mary will be safe.”
“Oh, oh! do you think Mary is in danger?” cried Ruth Stevenson, who had just joined the others. Mary was Fred Rover’s sister, who had been left behind at the girls’ boarding school because she had been suffering that day with a severe headache, and had said she preferred resting to attending the ball game, even though she loved to be with the others.
“There goes another building!” yelled Andy Rover, as another report rent the air. Then those who were looking down the river and across the lake saw some strange objects being hurled through the sky in the direction of Clearwater Hall.
“If that whole ammunition factory starts to go up, it will certainly mean damage to the boarding school,” declared Jack. “I guess the best we can do is to get down there and see if Mary is safe.”
“That’s just what I say!” declared Fred. “I’m going to get down there just as fast as I can.” And he ran off, to board one of the automobiles headed in that direction.
Now, I know it will not be at all necessary to introduce the Rover boys or their friends to my old readers, but for the benefit of those who have not perused any of my former stories a few words concerning these characters will be necessary. In the first volume, entitled “The Rover Boys at School,” I told how three brothers, Dick, Tom, and Sam Rover, were sent off to Putnam Hall Military Academy, where they made a great number of friends, including a youth named Lawrence Colby. From Putnam Hall the lads went to Brill College, and on leaving that institution of learning went into business in New York City with offices on Wall Street. They organized The Rover Company, of which Dick was now president, Tom secretary and general manager, and Sam treasurer.
While at Putnam Hall the three Rovers had become acquainted with three very charming girls, Dora Stanhope and her two cousins, Nellie and Grace Laning, and when Dick went into business he made Dora Stanhope his lifelong partner. A short time later Tom married Nellie Laning and Sam married Grace.
The three brothers purchased a fine plot of ground on Riverside Drive overlooking the noble Hudson River, and there they built three connecting houses, Dick and his family living in the middle house, with Tom on one side and Sam on the other.