There was a great rush on the streets, owing to a small fire in the vicinity. Dick stopped for a minute to watch a fire engine at work on a corner, and as he did so, somebody tapped him on the shoulder.
"Dick Rover! of all people!" came the exclamation. "What are you doing in Brooklyn?"
Dick turned quickly, to find himself confronted by a tall, heavy-set youth, dressed in a business suit.
"Dan Baxter!" he cried. "How are you?" and he shook hands.
As my old readers well know, Dan Baxter was an old acquaintance of the Rover boys. When at Putnam Hall he had been a great bully, and had tried more than once to get the best of our heroes. But he had been foiled, and then he had drifted to the West and South, and there the Rovers had found him, away from home and practically penniless. They had set him on his feet, and he had gotten a position as a traveling salesman, and now he counted the Rovers his best friends, and was willing to do anything for them.
"Oh, I'm pretty well," answered Dan Baxter, with a grin. "My job agrees with me."
"What are you doing, Dan?"
