CHAPTER I THE ROVER BOYS AND THEIR FRIENDS "The houseboat is gone!" "Tom, what do you mean?" "I mean just what I say, Sam. The houseboat is gone—vanished, missing, disappeared, drifted away, stolen!" ejaculated Tom Rover, excitedly. "Tom, don't go on in such a crazy fashion. Do you mean to say the houseboat isn't where we left it?" "It is not,—and it is nowhere in sight on the river," returned TomRover. "Come, we must tell Dick... more...

CHAPTER 1 "Emergency air lock open!" The tall, broad-shouldered officer, wearing the magnificent black-and-gold uniform of the Solar Guard, spoke into a small microphone and waited for an acknowledgment. It came almost immediately. "Cadet Corbett ready for testing," a voice crackled thinly over the loud-speaker. "Very well. Proceed." Seated in front of the scanner screen on the control deck of the rocket cruiser Polaris, Captain Steve Strong... more...

Chapter 1. A large party were assembled in the drawing room of Greendale, Sir John Greendale's picturesque old mansion house. It was early in September. The men had returned from shooting, and the guests were gathered in the drawing room; in the pleasant half hour of dusk when the lamps have not yet been lighted, though it is already too dark to read. The conversation was general, and from the latest news from India had drifted into the subject... more...

A STRANGE MESSAGE Uproarious laughter from the girls with the wild flowers arousedCora. Rob Roland was gone. Had she fainted? Was that roaring in her ears just awakened nerves? "Cora! Oh, Cora! We had the most darling time," Bess wasbubbling. "You should have been along. Such a dear old farmer.He showed us the queerest tables. And he had the nicest son.Cora - What is the matter?" "Oh," lisped Ray, "another Co-Ed message over the telephone."... more...

CHAPTER I A SPARK PUTS THREE BOYS AND A BOAT ON THE JUMP “Ho, ho, ho—hum!” grumbled Hank Butts, vainly trying to stifle a prodigious yawn. “This may be what Mr. Seaton calls a vacation on full pay, but I’d rather work.” “It is fearfully dull, loafing around, in this fashion, on a lonely island, yet in plain sight of the sea that we long to rove over,” nodded Captain Tom Halstead of the motor... more...

CHAPTER I THE "SPLENDID" WAR CANOE "It's the wreck of one of the grandest enterprises ever conceived by the human mind!" complained Colonel W.P. Grundy, in a voice broken with emotion. A group of small boys grinned, though they offered no audible comment. "Such defeats often—-usually, in fact—-come to those who try to educate the masses and bring popular intelligence to a higher level," was the colonel's declaration, as he wiped... more...

A Castaway Crew. A boat upon the open sea—no land in sight! It is an open boat, the size and form showing it to be the pinnace of a merchant-ship. It is a tropical sea, with a fiery sun overhead, slowly coursing through a sky of brilliant azure. The boat has neither sail nor mast. There are oars, but no one is using them. They lie athwart the tholes, their blades dipping in the water, with no hand upon the grasp. And yet the boat is... more...

CHAPTER I THE UNEXPECTED VISITOR A great barking of dogs broke the silence of the sleepy summer afternoon. Elinor Pomeroy laid down her knitting and slowly walked around the house. The barking of the three big dogs had been on a joyous tone. A young man was racing up the long front drive, the dogs leaping and bounding around him. "Three rousing cheers, old dear," he cried. "Three cheers! I have won out!" "Do you really mean it, Lester?" she... more...

CHAPTER I TRYING OUT THE NEW BIPLANE "I tell you, Elephant, it's the Bird boys, and nobody else!" "But they had a monoplane last summer, Larry; and you can see for yourself it's a biplane out yonder over the lake. So that's why I thought it must be Percy Carberry and his crony, Sandy Hollingshead." "Shucks! stir up your think-box, Elephant. Get a move on your mind, and look back. Don't you remember Percy lost his old biplane when he took that... more...

CHAPTER 1 "Stand to, you rocket wash!" A harsh, bull-throated roar thundered over the platform of the monorail station at Space Academy and suddenly the lively chatter and laughter of more than a hundred boys was stilled. Tumbling out of the gleaming monorail cars, they froze to quick attention, their eyes turned to the main exit ramp. They saw a short, squat, heavily built man, wearing the scarlet uniform of the enlisted Solar Guard, staring... more...