Part 30 (1/2)

”That's so,” agreed Ned. ”But if they took her across country--”

”A different story,” agreed Tom. ”Come to think of it, maybe we'd better start to-night, Ned. We can make inquiries after dark as well as by daylight and get ready for an early morning hunt.”

”Let's do it, then!” suggested his chum. ”I'm ready. I'll send word that I'll not be home to-night.”

”Good!” cried the young inventor. ”We'll have an old-fas.h.i.+oned hunt after our enemies, Ned!”

”And don't leave me out!” begged Mr. Damon. Hurried preparations were made for the night trip. Tom ordered out one of his speediest, though not largest, automobiles, and told his helper to get the Hawk ready, to have her so she could start at a moment's notice if needed.

”You're not going in her, are you, Tom?” asked Ned.

”I may need her to-morrow for daylight hunting. If the tank's hidden somewhere, I can spot her from above more easily than from the ground.

So if we get any trace of my machine, I can phone in and have the aeroplane brought to me.”

”That's a good idea!”

Inquiry at the shop where the tank had been built and kept disclosed the fact that, in addition to Koku, three of Tom's men had gone in her to help manage the machine under the direction of the man who bore the forged note. That he was one of the plotters not hitherto observed by either Ned or Tom seemed certain.

”And they took Koku and some of the men merely to make it look natural and as if it were all right,” Tom said. ”Naturally that deceived my father, who thought, of course, that I was waiting for the machine.

Well, it was a slick trick, Ned, but we may fool them yet.”

”I hope so, Tom.”

Night had fully fallen when Tom, Ned, and Mr. Damon started away in the touring car.

Out onto the road rolled the automobile. During the little daylight that had remained after his arrival at home and following the discovery of the loss of the tank Tom and Ned had traced it, by the marks of the big steel caterpillar belts, to the main road. It had gone along that some distance, just how far could not be said.

”But by using the searchlight of the auto we can trace her as long as they keep her on the road,” said Tom. ”After that we'll have to trust to luck, and to what inquiries we can make.”

The touring car carried a powerful lamp, and by its gleams it was easy to trace for a time the progress of the ponderous tank. There was no need to make inquiries of persons living along the way, though once or twice Tom did get out to ask, confirming the fact that the big machine had rumbled past in a direction away from the Swift home.

”I had an idea they might have doubled on their tracks for a time, and backed her up just to fool us,” Tom said. ”They might do that, keeping her in the same tracks.”

But this, evidently, had not been done, and the tank was making good speed away from the Swift house. They kept up the search until about midnight, and then a heavy rain began just before they reached a point where several roads branched.

”Luck's with them!” exclaimed Tom. ”This will wash away the marks, and we'll have to go it blind. Might as well put up here for the night,” he added, as they came to a village hotel.

It was evident that little more could be done in the rain and darkness, and there was danger of over-running the trail of the tank if they kept on. So they turned in at the hotel and got what little rest they could in their anxious state of minds.

Tom tried to be cheerful and to look for the best, but it was hard work. The tank was his pet invention, and, moreover, that her secrets should fall into the hands of the enemy and be used for Germany and against the United States eventually, made the young inventor feel that everything was going wrong.

The rain kept up all night, and this would make it correspondingly hard for them to pick up the trail in the morning.

”The only thing we can do is to make inquiries,” decided Tom.

”Fortunately, the tank can't easily be hidden.”

They started off after an early breakfast. The roads were so muddy and wet that traveling was difficult and dangerous for the automobile, and they were disappointed in finding no one who had seen or heard the tank pa.s.s up to a point not far from the hotel where they had stayed overnight. From then on the big machine seemed to have disappeared.