Part 26 (1/2)

”That's what you did!” said Mr. Damon. ”But what can we do now?”

”I don't know,” Ned was forced to admit. ”But I should think we'd better go back to the last place where he was seen to pa.s.s in his auto, and try to get on his trail.”

Mr. Damon agreed that this was a wise plan, and, after a casual look around the farmhouse and other buildings on Kanker's place and finding nothing to arouse their suspicions, the two left in Ned's speedy little machine.

”It is mighty queer!” remarked the young bank clerk, as they shot along the country road. ”It isn't like Tom to get caught this way.”

”Maybe he isn't caught,” suggested the other. ”Tom has been in many a tight place and gotten out, as you and I well know. Maybe it will be the same now, though it does look suspicious, that fake message coming from you.”

”Not coming from me, you mean,” corrected Ned. ”Well, we'll do the best we can.”

They proceeded back to where they had last had a trace of Tom in his machine, and there could only confirm what they had learned at first, namely, that the young inventor had departed in the direction of the Kanker farm, after having filled his radiator with water, and chatting with a farmer he knew.

”Then this is where the trail divides,” said Ned, as they went back over the road, coming to a point where the highway branched off. ”If he went this way, he went to Kanker's place, or he would be in the way of going. He isn't there, it seems, and didn't go there.”

”If he took the other road, where would he go?” asked Mr. Damon.

”Any one of a dozen places. I guess we'll have to follow the trail and make all the inquiries we can.”

But from the point where the two roads branched, all trace of Tom Swift was lost. No one had seen him in his machine, though he was known to more than one resident along the highway.

”Well, what are we going to do?” asked Mr. Damon, after they had traveled some distance and had obtained no news.

”Suppose we call up his home,” suggested Ned, as they came to a country store where there was a telephone. ”It may be he has returned. In that case, all our worry has gone for nothing.”

”I don't believe it has,” said Mr. Damon. ”But if we call up and ask if Tom is back it will show we haven't found him, and his father will be more worried than ever.”

”We can ask the telephone girl, and tell her to keep quiet about it,”

decided Ned; and this they did.

But the answer that came back over the wire was discouraging. For Tom had not returned, and there was no word from him. There was an urgent message for him, too, from government officials regarding the tank, the girl reported.

”Well, we've just got to find him--that's all!” declared Ned. ”I guess we'll have to make a regular search of it. I did hope we'd find him out at the Kanker farm. But since he isn't there, nor anywhere about, as far as we can tell, we've got to try some other plan.”

”You mean notify the authorities?”--asked Mr. Damon.

”Hardly that--yet. But I'll get some of Tom's friends who have machines, and we'll start them out on the trail. In that way we can cover a lot of ground.”

Late that afternoon, and far into the night, a number of the friends of Tom and Ned went about the country in automobiles, seeking news of the young inventor. Mr. Swift became very anxious over the non-return of his son, and felt the authorities should be notified; but as all agreed that the local police could not handle the matter and that it would have to be put into the hands of the United States Secret Service, he consented to wait for a while before doing this.

All the next day the search was kept up, and Ned and Mr. Damon were getting discouraged, not to say alarmed, when, most unexpectedly, they received a clew.

They had been traveling around the country on little-frequented roads in the hope that perhaps Tom might have taken one and disabled his machine so that he was unable to proceed.

”Though in that case he could, and would, have sent word,” said Ned.

”Unless he's hurt,” suggested Mr. Damon.