They were followed by some of their enemies and the latter did all in their power to cause trouble.
Although the boys had finished at Putnam Hall, their days of learning were not yet over, and soon they set off for Brill College, a high-grade seat of learning located in one of our middle-western states.

They had with them an old school chum named John Powell, usually called "Songbird," because of his habit of making up and reciting so-called poetry, and were presently joined by another old school companion named William Philander Tubbs, a dudish chap who thought more of his dress and the society of ladies than he did of his studies.

Tom loved to play jokes on Tubbs, who was generally too dense to see where the fun came in.
From the college the boys had taken another trip, as related in the fifteenth volume of this series, called "The Rover Boys Down East." There was a mystery about that trip, of which the outside world knew little, but as that trip has something to do with the events which are to follow in this story, I will here give such details as seem necessary.
When the Rover Boys went to Putnam Hall they met three girls, Dora Stanhope and her two cousins, Nellie and Grace Laning.

Dora's mother was a widow, living not far from the school, and it was not long before a warm friendship sprang up between Dick and Dora,--a friendship that grew more and more intimate as the days went by.

Dick thought the world of Dora, and the two were now practically engaged to be married.