But, come, I am anxious to get home.
Here are the trunk checks," and Dick passed the brasses over.
In a moment more the three boys had entered the carriage, along with Jack Ness.

Tom insisted on driving, and away they went at a spanking gait, over Swift River, through the little village of Dexter's Corners, and then out on the road that led to Valley Brook farm.
As my old readers know, the Rover boys were three in number, as already introduced.

They were the sons of Anderson Rover, a well-to-do gentleman, who was now living in retirement at Valley Brook, in company with his brother Randolph, and the latter's wife, Martha.
While Anderson Rover had been on a hunt for gold in the heart of Africa, the three boys had been sent by their Uncle Randolph to a military academy known as Putnam Hall.

Here they made many friends and also a few enemies, the worst of the latter being Dan Baxter, a bully who wanted his way in everything.

Baxter was the offspring of a family of low reputation, and his father, Arnold Baxter, was now in prison for various misdeeds.
The first term at school had been followed by an exciting chase on the ocean, after which the boys had gone with their uncle to the jungles of Africa, in a search after Anderson Rover.