Dave Porter receives a bill for shoes he did not buy. Soon he learns that someone impersonating Dave and buying at many shops without paying the bills. A call from a banker friend alerts Dave that the culprit is nearby and Dave nearly captures him, but the look-alike gets away. Dave's friends, the Basswoods, discover a legacy in miniature oil paintings. Then suddenly, the paintings disappear, along with the swindler.

Book Excerpt: on, Dave," remarked Ben a while later, after they had passed over a long hill lined on either side with tidy farms. "Which road are you going to take--through Hacklebury or around Conover's Hill?" "I haven't made up my mind," answered Dave. He looked at Jessie. "Have you any preference?" "Oh, let us go up around Conover's Hill!" cried Jessie. "That is always such a splendid ride. There is so much of an outlook." "Yes, let us go by way of the hill by all means," added Laura. "It isn't very nice through Hacklebury, past all those woolen mills." "All right, the Conover road it is," answered Dave; and forward they went once more as fast as ever. They soon passed the Crossroads, and then took the long, winding road that led around one side of the hill just mentioned. Here travel since the snow had fallen had evidently been heavy, for the roadway was packed down until it was almost as smooth as glass. Over this surface the spirited grays dashed at an increased rate of speed. Read More

“What is the matter, Dave? You look rather mystified.”“I am mystified, Laura,” replied Dave Porter. “I have a letter here that I can't understand at all.”“Whom is it from?” questioned Laura Porter, as she came closer to her brother, who was ensconced in the largest easy-chair the Wadsworth library contained.“It's from a shopkeeper in Coburntown, Mr. Wecks, the shoe-dealer. He wants to know which pair of shoes I have decided to keep, and asks me kindly to return the pair I don't want.”“Well, what of that, Dave?” continued his sister, as the youth paused with a wrinkle on his forehead. “Can't you make up your mind which pair of shoes you want to keep?”“I certainly can not, seeing that I haven't had any shoes from Wecks's store,” returned Dave, with a faint smile. “I haven't been in his place for nearly a year, and the last time I was there I bought a pair of rubbers and paid for them.”“Oh, then the letter must be meant for somebody else, Dave. Mr. Wecks has got his customers mixed.”“Perhaps so. But in the letter he speaks of the two pairs of shoes I took away with me. That looks as if somebody had gotten two pairs of shoes in my name.”“Well, as we are going out sleighing this afternoon, why don't you drive to Coburntown and drop into his shop and explain matters?” suggested the sister.“I guess that would be best, Laura.” Dave folded up the letter and placed it in his pocket. “How soon will you be ready?”

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Excerpt from Dave Porter and His Double: Or the Disappearance of the Basswood Fortune "Dave Porter and His Double" is a complete story in itself, but forms the twelfth volume in a line issued under the general title of "Dave Porter Series." This series was begun some years ago by the publication of "Dave Porter at Oak Hall," in which my young readers were introduced to a wide-awake American lad at a typical American boarding-school. The publication of this volume was followed by "Dave Porter in the South Seas," to which portion of our globe the lad journeyed to clear up a question concerning his parentage. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Edward L. Stratemeyer (October 4, 1862 - May 10, 1930) was an American publisher and writer of children's fiction. He was one of the most prolific writers in the world, producing in excess of 1,300 books himself, selling in excess of 500 million copies. He also created many well-known fictional book series for juveniles, including The Rover Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, The Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew series, many of which sold millions of copies and are still in publication today. On Stratemeyer's legacy, Fortune wrote: "As oil had its Rockefeller, literature had its Stratemeyer."