NEWS OF A ROBBERY
With a hand that trembled so he could scarcely hold the receiver of the
telephone, Mr. Swift placed it to his ear.
"Hello! Hello!" he cried into the transmitter. "Yes, this is Mr.
Swift--yes, Garret. What is it?"
Then came a series of clicks, which Tom and Ned listened to. The
inventor spoke again.
"What's that? The same men? Broke in early this evening? Oh, that's
too bad! Of course, I'll come at once."
There followed more meaningless clicks, which Tom wished he could
translate. His father hung up the receiver, turned to him and
exclaimed:
"I've been robbed again!"
"Robbed again! How, dad?"
"By that same rascally gang, Garret thinks. This evening, when he and
Mrs. Baggert were in the house the burglar alarm went off. The
indicator showed that the electrical shop had been entered, and the
engineer hurried there. He saw a light inside and the shadows of
persons on the windows. Before he could reach the shop, however, the
thieves heard him coming and escaped. Oh, Tom, I should never have
come away!"
"But did they take anything, dad? Perhaps Garret frightened them away
before they had a chance to steal any of your things. Did you ask him
that?"
"I didn't need to. He said he made a hasty exanimation before he
called me up, and he is sure a number of my electrical inventions are
missing. Some of them are devices I never have had patented, and if I
lose them I will have no recovery."
"But just what ones are they? Perhaps we can send out a police alarm
to-night."
"Garret couldn't tell that," answered Mr. Swift as he paced to and fro
in the hotel office. "He doesn't know all the tools and machinery I
had in there. But it is certain that some of my most valuable things
have been taken."
"Never mind. Don't worry, dad," and Tom tried to speak soothingly, for
he saw that his father was much excited. "We may be able to get them
back. How does Garret know the same men who stole the turbine model
broke in the shop this evening?"
"He saw them. One was Happy Harry, he is positive. The others he did
not know, but he recognized the tramp from our description of him."
"Then we must tell the police at once."
"Yes, Tom, I wish you would telephone. I'll give you a description of
the things. No, I can't do that either, for I don't know what was
stolen. I must go home at once to find out. It's a good thing the
motor-boat is here. Come, let's start at once. What is my bill here?"
and the inventor turned to the hotel proprietor, who had come into the
office. "I have suffered a severe loss and must leave at once."
"I am very sorry, sir. I'll have it ready for you in a few minutes."
"All right. Tom, is your boat ready for a quick trip?"
"Yes, dad, but I don't like to make it at night with three in. Of
course it might be perfectly safe, but there's a risk, and I don't like
to take it."
"Don't worry about the risk on my account, Tom. I'm not afraid. I
must get home and see of what I have been robbed."
The young inventor was in a quandary. He wanted to do as his father
requested and to aid him all he could, yet he knew that an all-night
trip in the boat down the lake would be dangerous, not only from the
chance of running on an unknown shore or into a hidden rock, but
because Mr. Swift was not physically fitted to stand the journey.
"Come, Tom," exclaimed the aged inventor impatiently, "we must start at
once!"
"Won't morning do as well, dad?"
"No, I must start now. I could not sleep worrying over what has
happened. We will start--"
At that instant there came a low, rumbling peal of thunder. Mr. Swift
started and peered from a window. There came a flash of lightning and
another vibrant report from the storm-charged clouds.
"There is your bill, Mr. Swift," remarked the proprietor, coming up,
"but I would not advise you to start to-night. There is a bad storm in
the west, and it will reach here in a few minutes. Storms on Lake
Carlopa, especially at this open and exposed end, are not to be
despised, I assure you."
"But I must get home!" insisted Tom's father.
The lace curtain over the window blew almost straight out with a sudden
breeze, and a flash of lightning so bright that it reflected even in
the room where the incandescent electrics were glowing made several
others jump. Then came a mighty crash, and with that the flood-gates
of the storm were opened, and the rain came down in torrents. Tom
actually breathed a sigh of relief. The problem was solved for him.
It would be impossible to start to-night, and he was glad of it, much
as he wanted to get on the trail of the thieves.
There was a scurrying on the part of the hotel attendants to close the
windows, and the guests who had been enjoying the air out on the
porches came running in. With a rush, a roar and a muttering, as peal
after peal of thunder sounded, the deluge continued.
"It's a good thing we didn't start," observed Ned.
"I should say so," agreed Tom. "But we'll get off the first thing in
the morning, dad."
Mr. Swift did not reply, but his nervous pacing to and fro in the hotel
office showed how anxious he was to be at home again. There was no
help for it, however, and, after a time, finding that to think of
reaching his house that night was out of the question, the inventor
calmed down somewhat.
The storm continued nearly all night, as Tom could bear witness, for he
did not sleep well, nor did his father. And when he came down to
breakfast in the morning Mr. Swift plainly showed the effects of the
bad news. His face was haggard and drawn and his eyes smarted and
burned from lack of sleep.
"Well, Tom, we must start early," he said nervously. "I am glad it has
cleared off. Is the boat all ready?"
"Yes, and it's a good thing it was under shelter last night or we'd
have to bail it out now, and that would delay us."
An hour later they were under way, having telephoned to the engineer at
the Swift home that they were coming. Garret Jackson reported over the
wire that he had notified the Shopton police of the robbery, but that
little could be done until the inventor arrived to give a description
of the stolen articles.
"And that will do little good, I fear," remarked Tom. "Those fellows
have evidently been planning this for some time and will cover their
tracks well. I'd like to catch them, not only to recover your things,
dad, but to find out the mystery of my boat and why the man took the
tank braces."