CHAPTER XXI. 

A PAIR OF PRISONERS. 

It is high time that we return to Tom and Sam, and learn how the two Rover boys were faring in their unequal contest with Dan Baxter and his followers. 

As we know, it was Baxter himself who attacked Sam, while big Bill Harney threw Tom to the ground. Jasper Grinder went to Baxter's assistance, while Lemuel Husty ran to aid Harney. 

"Let go of him!" cried Sam, and managed to hit Baxter a glancing blow on the cheek. 

"I'll not let go yet," answered Baxter, and bore the youngest Rover to the earth. Over and over they rolled in the snow, until Grinder caught Sam by the legs and held him still. 

"That's right, Grinder, hold him!" panted Dan Baxter. "Don't let him get up!" 

But Sam was not yet subdued, and getting one foot clear at last, he kicked Jasper Grinder in the ear. 

"Oh! oh! my ear!" screamed the former teacher. "He has kicked my ear off. You scamp, take that!" And letting out with his foot, he gave Sam a vigorous kick on the side. At the same time Baxter struck the boy in the head with a stick he had been carrying, and then Sam suddenly lost consciousness. 

In the meantime Tom was having a similar struggle with Harney and Husty. But the boy, though strong, was no match for the two men, and they soon pinned him to the ground and held him there as in a vise, while he was nearly choked by the big guide, who had clutched him by the throat. 
Who else joined in to attack Sam?
At the same time Baxter struck the boy in the head