A RASCAL FOILED
“I WENT out,” continued Hankinshaw, affecting not to notice the unbelief
in Tom’s voice, “for a walk——”
“Taking your revolver along,” suggested Tom.
“That’s a habit I got down in Texas. One never knows down in the oil
fields when it is going to come in handy. As I was saying, I went out
for a walk and found myself coming in this direction. I happened to
catch sight of the derrick——”
“Where did you see it from?” asked Tom.
“From the road, of course,” answered Hankinshaw.
“You caught sight of the derrick from the road three hundred feet away
on a night when you couldn’t see anything ten feet ahead of you?”
exclaimed Tom. “But go ahead. You interest me strangely.”
“I don’t mean exactly that I saw it,” said Hankinshaw, in confusion.
“But I’d seen it in the daytime, and being so near it I suppose the
thought of it came into my mind. Just from curiosity, I thought I’d come
over and see what it was like. I didn’t think any one would mind. Didn’t
know there was anything especially secret about it.”
“Didn’t suspect that even when you found the gate was locked, eh?”
queried Tom.
“No,” affirmed Hankinshaw brazenly. “I was turning away when I stumbled
against a ladder that some workman had left in the grass. That put it
into my mind that I could get a squint at the derrick after all, and on
the impulse of the moment I put it up and climbed over the fence.”
“How lucky it was that you just happened to have a flashlight along,”
said Tom. “I suppose carrying flashlights is another habit you got down
in Texas.”
“Yes,” returned Hankinshaw. “You have to travel around a good deal at
night there, and you never know when you may need one. But now I’ve told
you the whole story. I suppose I was trespassing, and I’m sorry now I
did it, seeing the way you look at it. But you’re just making a mountain
out of a molehill.”
“I imagine a burglar might say the same thing,” replied Tom, and his
tone was so like steel that Hankinshaw visibly winced. “Now listen to
me, Hankinshaw. I don’t believe a word of what you’ve been saying. It’s
a falsehood from beginning to end. You deliberately committed a crime
to-night, and you know as well as I do what chance you’d have if you
told a fairy tale like this to a judge or jury. All I’d have to do would
be to telephone to police headquarters and you’d be under lock and key
in a hurry. But I’m not going to do that.”
An expression of immense relief came into the rascal’s face.
“Oh, it’s not out of any consideration for you,” Tom assured him. “It’s
partly because I don’t want any scandal that would worry my father; in
his present feeble state of health. Then, too, I’m too busy just now to
take the time to prosecute you and send you where you belong. But don’t
think for a moment that this ridiculous story of yours has imposed on
me. You came to this plant to-night with one of two purposes in view.”
Hankinshaw started to protest, but Tom cut him short.
“Don’t add any more lies to those you’ve already told,” he said. “You
may have had revenge in mind for what happened the other night down in
the town. You may have thought that you’d be able to cripple the
machinery here and put me to a lot of expense and trouble. That’s one
possibility, and knowing you as I do I wouldn’t put it past you.
“On the other hand, you may have had it in mind to steal some invention
I might be trying out here. You know that invention is my line, and you
may have thought that I had discovered some improvement or new device to
be used in oil digging that you could get hold of and turn to your
profit. That would explain why you were so carefully handling and
examining the tools here when we came upon you.
“One of these two things, perhaps both, was in your mind to-night when
you stole in here like a thief. I don’t know which and I don’t care. But
just let me tell you one thing, Hankinshaw. If I ever catch you hanging
around this place again either by day or night, may heaven have mercy on
you, for I won’t. There’ll be a guard here after this during every one
of the twenty-four hours. He’ll be armed, and he’ll have his orders what
to do to any vermin that may be trying to worm its way into this
enclosure.
“Now, that’ll be about all. Stand up and get out of here and get out
quick. Koku, you go down with him till he reaches the road. Don’t hurt
him, but keep close behind him. Now, Hankinshaw, pick up that revolver
of yours and go. And don’t forget a single word of what I’ve said to
you, for I mean every syllable.”
The baffled miscreant got up, muttering things that he was careful to
say under his breath. Koku, menacing as fate, stood hovering over him.
The giant had not understood much of what had been said, but he knew
that this man was his master’s enemy and nothing would have given him
greater pleasure than to wring the rascal’s neck. Hankinshaw was fully
conscious of this, and he sullenly pocketed the now useless revolver and
moved toward the gate, with Koku stalking close behind him. As he passed
Tom, he favored him with a glance that was malignity itself. Then he
passed out into the darkness.
“Him bad man—so bad man,” grunted the giant, as he came back to Tom’s
side.
“I reckon you are right, Koku,” answered the young inventor. “But we
caught him red-handed, didn’t we?”
“Him like snake in the grass.”
“So he is.”
“Him do harm to Massa Tom. Must watch out.”
“Then you think he is a bad egg, do you?”
“Him worse than many bad eggs!”
“Well, maybe, Koku. We’ll see.”
Tom extinguished the lantern, hung it in its place, locked the gate
carefully and returned to the office. It was now long past midnight, but
he was too wrought up to have any desire to sleep. He sat with his
elbows on the desk and his head in his hands, immersed in thought.
What had been Hankinshaw’s real motive? On reflection, Tom dismissed the
idea that he had intended to cripple the machinery. Much more probable
it seemed to him that the fellow had heard in some way that he was busy
on some new invention, that the machinery had been rigged up for the
purpose of testing it, and that he might make a fortune if he could
steal the idea and have it patented before Tom himself should have time
to do it.
But how could he have heard of it? Tom had been extremely careful to
keep the matter in the circle of a few trusted friends. His father, Ned,
Jackson and Mr. Damon were the only ones that knew of it. The first
three would have been as silent as the grave concerning it. As for Mr.
Damon, although he was impulsive and talkative, he was a keen business
man and knew too well the importance of secrecy in a matter of this kind
to speak of it to anybody, much less to a fellow like Hankinshaw, whom
he disliked and distrusted.
There was but one conclusion. Hankinshaw had acted on a probability. He
could not have been hanging around Shopton so long without having heard
of the marvelous inventive genius of Tom, and he had jumped to the
conclusion that this would have been turned in the direction of oil-well
machinery while he was working to fulfill his contract. He had acted on
the guess, and it was by the merest chance that he had been thwarted. If
Koku had not happened to see that flash of light! Good old Koku!
One thing was certain. Hankinshaw, already an enemy, was now a deadly
one. He would never forget or forgive the humiliation he had suffered
that night. Tom must be on his guard.