Part 15 (2/2)

”Yes; why not?”

”Because soht have seen him come in here, and also remember that we, too, came in this direction”

”What would you do?”

”Take him down the road a way and leave him We can find some shed near a farht until we get far enough away Besides, I don't like to leave hietting chicken-hearted,” said Appleson with a sneer

”However, have your way about it I wonder what has become of Jake Burke? He was to meet us in Centreford, but he did not show up”

”Oh, I shouldn't be surprised if he had trouble in that tra a risk, but he said he had masqueraded as a traood at it Now, Sireed to callto Morse and Appleson

”Oh, so we did I forgot that this lad met us one day, and heard me call you Simpson,” admitted Morse ”Well, Featherton it shall be

But we haven't , and the roads will soon be well traveled We et away, and if we are to take the lad and his machine to so for Burke He can look out after himself Anyhoe have thearound Swift's shop, as he intended to do, waiting for a chance to sneak in after it Appleson, if you and Si Swift, I'll shove his wheel along to the auto, and we can put it and hih the hole in the shed toTo thethe valuable model, which he had detached

”I think this is the ti his black mustache, when he and his companions had reached the car in the field ”We have just ant now”

”Yes, but we had hard enough work getting it,” observed Appleson

”Only by luckthis lad come in here, or ould have had to chase all over for him, and maybe then ould have etting late, and we've got lots to do”

The chauffeur sprang to his seat, Appleson taking his place beside hi car, and with the unconscious form of Tom in the tonneau, beside Morse, who stroked his mustache nervously, the auto started off The storhtly, but Tom could not see it

CHAPTER XV

A VAIN SEARCH

Several hours later To about in the polar regions, and that it was very cold He was trying to reason with hi for the North Pole, still he felt such a keen wind blowing over his scantily-covered body that he shi+vered

He shi+vered so hard, in fact, that he shi+vered himself awake, and when he tried to pierce the darkness that enveloped him he was startled, for a moment, with the idea that perhaps, after all, he had wandered off to some unknown country

For it was quite dark and cold He was in a daze, and there was a curious smell about him--an odor that he tried to recall Then, all at once, it caone an operation, and to deaden his pain chloroform had been used

”I've been chlorofor inventor, and his words sounded strange in his ears ”That's it I'vemy motor-cycle I must have hit my head, for it hurts fearful They picked me up, carried me to a hospital and have operated on ? I wonder what hospital I'm in? Why is it so dark and cold?”

As he asked hiradually cleared from the haze caused by the cowardly blow, and from the chloroform that had been administered by Featherton