ERADICATE SAWS WOOD
The farmer's family, including the son who was a deputy sheriff, was
glad to see Tom. Jed said he had "been on the job" ever since the
mysterious robbery of Tom had taken place, but though he had seen
many red automobiles he had no trace of the three men.
From Dunkirk Tom went back over the route he had taken in going from
Pompville to Centreford, and made some inquiries in the neighborhood
of the church shed, where he had taken shelter. The locality was
sparsely settled, however, and no one could give any clues to the
robbers.
The young inventor next made a trip over the lonely, sandy road,
where he had met with the tramp, Happy Harry. But there were even
fewer houses near that stretch than around the church, so he got no
satisfaction there. Tom spent the night at a country inn, and
resumed his search the next morning, but with no results. The men
had apparently completely disappeared, leaving no traces behind
them.
"I may as well go home," thought Tom, as he was riding his motor-cycle
along a pleasant country road. "Dad may be worried, and perhaps
something has turned up in Shopton that will aid me. If there isn't,
I'm going to start out again in a few days in another direction."
There was no news in Shopton, however. Tom found his father
scarcely able to work, so worried was he over the loss of his most
important invention.
Two weeks passed, the young machinist taking trips of several days'
duration to different points near his home, in the hope of
discovering something. But he was unsuccessful, and, in the
meanwhile, no reassuring word was received from the lawyers in
Washington. Mr. Crawford wrote that no move had yet been made by the
thieves to take out patent papers, and while this, in a sense, was
some aid to Mr. Swift, still he could not proceed on his own account
to protect his new motor. All that could be done was to await the
first movement on the part of the scoundrels.
"I think I'll try a new plan to-morrow, dad," announced Tom one
night, when he and his father had talked over again, for perhaps the
twentieth time, the happenings of the last few weeks.
"What is it, Tom?" asked the inventor.
"Well, I think I'll take a week's trip on my machine. I'll visit all
the small towns around here, but, instead of asking in houses for
news of the tramp or his confederates, I'll go to the police and
constables. I'll ask if they have arrested any tramps recently, and,
if they have, I'll ask them to let me see the 'hobo' prisoners."
"What good will that do?"
"I'll tell you. I have an idea that though the burglar who got in
here may not be a regular tramp, yet he disguises himself like one
at times, and may be known to other tramps. If I can get on the
trail of Happy Harry, as he calls himself, I may locate the other
men. Tramps would be very likely to remember such a peculiar chap as
Happy Harry, and they will tell me where they had last seen him.
Then I will have a starting point."
"Well, that may be a good plan," assented Mr. Swift. "At any rate it
will do no harm to try. A tramp locked up in a country police
station will very likely be willing to talk. Go ahead with that
scheme, Tom, but don't get into any danger. How long will you be
away?"
"I don't know. A week, perhaps; maybe longer. I'll take plenty of
money with me, and stop at country hotels overnight."
Tom lost no time in putting his plan into execution. He packed some
clothes in a grip, which he attached to the rear of his motor-cycle,
and then having said good-by to his father, started off. The first
three days he met with no success. He located several tramps in
country lock-ups, where they had been sent for begging or loitering,
but none of them knew Happy Harry or had ever heard of a tramp
answering his description.
"He ain't one of us, youse can make up your mind to dat," said one
"hobo" whom Tom interviewed. "No real knight of de highway goes
around in a disguise. We leaves dat for de story-book detectives.
I'm de real article, I am, an' I don't know Happy Harry. But, fer
dat matter, any of us is happy enough in de summer time, if we don't
strike a burgh like dis, where dey jugs you fer panhandlin'."
In general, Tom found the tramp willing enough to answer his
questions, though some were sullen, and returned only surly growls
to his inquiries.
"I guess I'll have to give it up and go back home," he decided one
night. But there was a small town, not many miles from Shopton,
which he had not yet visited, and he resolved to try there before
returning. Accordingly, the next morning found him inquiring of the
police authorities in Meadton. But no tramps had been arrested in
the last month, and no one had seen anything of a tramp like Happy
Harry or three mysterious men in an automobile.
Tom was beginning to despair. Riding along a silent road, that
passed through a strip of woods, he was trying to think of some new
line of procedure, when the silence of the highway, that, hitherto,
had resounded only with the muffled explosions of his machine, was
broken by several exclamations.
"Now, Boomerang, yo' might jest as well start now as later," Tom heard
a voice saying--a voice he recognized well. "Yo' hab got t' do dis
yeah wuk, an' dere ain't no gittin' out ob it. Dis yeah wood am got to
be sawed, an' yo' hab got to saw it. But it am jest laik yo' to go
back on yo' ole friend Eradicate in dis yeah fashion. I neber could
tell what yo' were gwine t' do next, an' I cain't now. G'lang, now,
won't yo'? Let's git dis yeah sawmill started."
Tom shut off the power and leaped from his wheel. From the woods at
his left came the protesting "hee-haw" of a mule.
"Boomerang and Eradicate Sampson!" exclaimed the young inventor.
"What can they be doing here?"
He leaned his motor-cycle against the fence and advanced toward
where he had heard the voice of the colored man. In a little
clearing he saw him. Eradicate was presiding over a portable
sawmill, worked by a treadmill, on the incline of which was the
mule, its ears laid back, and an unmistakable expression of anger on
its face.
"Why, Rad, what are you doing?" cried Tom.
"Good land o' massy! Ef it ain't young Mistah Swift!" cried the
darky. "Howdy, Mistah Swift! Howdy! I'm jest tryin' t' saw some
wood, t' make a livin', but Boomerang he doan't seem t' want t'
lib," and with that Eradicate looked reproachfully at the animal.
"What seems to be the trouble, and how did you come to own this
sawmill?" asked Tom.
"I'll tell yo', Mistah Swift, I'll tell yo'," spoke Eradicate. "Sit
right yeah on dis log, an' I'll explanation it to yo'."
"The last time I saw you, you were preparing to go into the grass-cutting
business," went on Tom.
"Yais, sah! Dat's right. So I was. Yo' has got a memory, yo' suah
has. But it am dis yeah way. Grass ain't growin' quick enough, an'
so I traded off dat lawn-moah an' bought dis yeah mill. But now it
won't go, an' I suah am in trouble," and once more Eradicate Sampson
looked indignantly at Boomerang.