"Not if you baked them," came from Nellie. "You can have a good breakfast, if you'll be a little more civil to us," resumed Dan Baxter. "We are more civil than you deserve," said Dora. "Do you want to be starved?" At this both girls turned a trifle pale. "Would you dare to starve us?" cried Nellie. "Why not--if you won't be friendly?" asked Lew Flapp. "You've been treating us as if we were dogs." "Yes, and we--" began Dan Baxter, when he chanced to look through the bushes and down the creek. "Great Scott, Flapp!" he yelled. "What's up?" "The game is up! Here comes a tug with the Rovers and a lot of other people on board!" "The Rovers!" faltered Lew Flapp, and for the instant he shivered from head to feet. "Oh, good! good!" cried Nellie. "Help!" she screamed. "Help!" "Help! help!" added Dora. "Help us! This way!" "We are coming!" came back, in Dick's voice, and a moment later the steam tug crashed into the side of the houseboat, and the Rovers and several others leaped on board. "Stand where you are, Lew Flapp!" cried Tom, and rushed for the bully of Putnam Hall. "Stand, I say!" and then he hit Flapp a stunning blow in the ear which bowled the rascal over and over. In the meantime Dan Baxter took to his heels and made for the front of the houseboat. From this point he jumped into the branches of a tree and disappeared from view. "Come on after him!" cried Sam, and away he and Fred went after Baxter, leaving the others to take charge of Flapp, and round up the horse thieves and Sculley. But Dan Baxter knew what capture meant--a long term of imprisonment in the future and, possibly, a good drubbing from the Rovers on the spot--and he therefore redoubled his efforts to escape. "Follow me at your peril!" he sang out, and then they heard him crashing through the bushes. Gradually the sounds grew fainter and fainter. "Where did he go to, Sam?" "I can't say," said Sam. "We'll have to organize a regular party to run him down." It was an easy matter to make Lew Flapp a prisoner. Once captured the former bully of the Hall blubbered like a baby. "It was Dan Baxter led me into it," he groaned. "It was all his doings, not mine." When Loring, Gouch, and Sculley were confronted by the party the intoxicated evil-doers were in no condition to offer any resistance. Roundly did they bewail their luck, but this availed them nothing, and without ceremony they were made prisoners, their hands being tied behind them with stout ropes. "Are you hurt?" asked Dick, of the girls, anxiously. "Not in the least, Dick," answered Dora. "But, oh! how thankful I am that you came as you did!" "And I am thankful too," came from Nellie. "And we are thankful to be on hand," said Tom. And the others said the same. Here let me bring to a close the story of "The Rover Boys on the River." The trip had been full of adventures, but it now looked as if all would end happily.