text: The narrator then introduces the three inseparable Dover brothers: athletic oldest brother Tom (on a tandem bicycle with a perpetual wheelie), middle child Dick (on a self-propelled penny-farthing whose pedals are too far away for Dick to reach), and portly, curly-haired youngest brother Larry (on a tricycle). "A gay outing at the park has been planned by the merry trio, and they are off to fetch 'their' fiancée, dainty Dora Standpipe, at Miss Cheddar's Female Academy, close by."
  The Boys are called upon to rescue Dora when she is kidnapped by the nefarious stock villain Dan Backslide. "The former sneak of Roquefort Hall, coward, bully, cad, and thief, and arch-enemy of the Dover Boys," his feelings for Dora are summed up in his comment, "How I love her! … (father's money!)" Backslide then steals a conveniently placed, unoccupied runabout (after loudly declaring his intention to do so, claiming that "No one will ever know!"), which he uses to kidnap an oblivious Dora while she and the Dover Boys are playing hide-and-seek, spiriting her away to a remote mountain lodge. However, Backslide soon discovers that, despite appearances, Dora is anything but dainty; she proceeds to administer a sound thrashing to the villain, all the while acting the damsel in distress—crying for help and pounding on the door (with the locks on her side) and on Backslide—until he is himself crying out for help from Tom, Dick, and Larry.