Then he was jerked backward to the floor.
"Silence!" muttered a voice close to his ear.

"Don't you dare to make a sound!" "What does this mean--" he managed to gasp.
"Silence, I tell you!" was the short answer.

"If you say another word, I will hit you again!" Having no desire to receive a blow that might render him totally unconscious, or, perhaps, take his life, Anderson Rover said no more.
He heard a match struck, and then a bit of a tallow candle was lit and placed on the edge of the kitchen table.
By this dim light the father of the Rover boys saw standing over him a tall man, beardless, and with his head closely cropped.

One glance into that hardened face sufficed to tell him who the unwelcome visitor was.
"Arnold Baxter!" "I see you recognize me," was the harsh reply.

"Not so loud, please, unless you want that crack I promised you." "What brings you here, and at such an hour as this ?" "I find it more convenient to travel during the night than in the daytime." "The police are on your track." "I know that as well you, Rover." "What do you want here ?" "What does any man want when he has been stripped of all his belongings?
I want money." "I have none for you." "Bosh! Do you think I have forgotten how you and your boys swindled me out of my rights to that mine in the far West ?" "We did not swindle you, Baxter.