"Who"s there?" he called sharply, for, more than once unscrupulous men had endeavored to sneak into the Swift shops to steal ideas of inventions; if not the actual apparatus itself.
"It"s me--Ned Newton," was the cheerful reply.
"Oh, h.e.l.lo, Ned! I was wondering what had become of you," responded Tom. "Where have you been lately?"
"Oh, working overtime."
"What"s the occasion?"
"We"re trying out a new system to increase the bank business."
"What"s the matter? Aren"t you folks getting business enough, after the big deposits we made of the bullion from the wreck?"
"Oh, it"s not that. But haven"t you heard the news? There is talk of starting a rival bank in Shopton, and that may make us hustle to hold what business we have, to say nothing of getting new customers."
"A new bank, eh? Who"s going to start it?"
"Andy Foger"s father, I hear. You know he was a director in our bank, but he got out last week."
"What for?"
"Well, he had some difficulty with Mr. Pendergast, the president. I fancy you had something to do with it, too."
"I?" Tom was plainly surprised.
"Yes, you know you and Mr. Damon and Mr. Sharp captured the bank robbers, and got back most of the money."
"I guess I do remember it! I wish you could have seen the gang when we raided them from the clouds, in our airship!"
"Well, you know Andy Foger hoped to collect the five thousand dollars reward for telling the police that you were the thief, and of course he got fooled, for you got the reward. Mr. Foger expected his son would collect the money, and when Andy got left, it made him sore. He"s had a grudge against Mr. Pendergast, and all the other bank officials ever since, and now he"s going to start a rival bank. So that"s why I said it was partly due to you."
"Oh, I see. I thought at first you meant that it was on account of something that happened the other day."
"What was that?"
"Andy, Sam and Pete got the contents of a bottle of stove blacking,"
and Tom related the occurrence, at which Ned laughed heartily.
"I wouldn"t be surprised though," added Ned, "to learn that Mr. Foger started the new bank more for revenge than anything else."
"So that"s the reason you"ve been working late, eh?" went on Tom.
"Getting ready for compet.i.tion. Do you think a new bank will hurt the one you"re with?"
"Well, it might," admitted Ned. "It"s bound to make a change, anyhow, and now that I have a good position I don"t want to lose it. I take more of an interest in the inst.i.tution now that I"m a.s.sistant cashier, than I did when I was a clerk. So, naturally, I"m a little worried."
"Say, don"t let it worry you," begged Tom, earnestly.
"Why not?"
"Because I know my father and Mr. Damon will stick to the old bank.
They won"t have anything to do with the one Andy Foger"s father starts.
Don"t you worry."
"Well, that will help some," declared Ned. "They are both heavy depositors, and if they stick to the old bank we can stand it even if some of our smaller customers desert us."
"That"s the way to talk," went on the young inventor. "Let Foger start his bank. It won"t hurt yours."
"What are you making now?" asked Ned, a little later, looking with interest at the machinery over which Tom was bending, and to which he was making adjustments.
"New electric automobile. I want to beat Andy Foger"s car worse than I did on my motor-cycle, and I also want to win a prize," and the lad proceeded to relate the incidents leading up to his construction of the storage battery.
Tom and Ned were in the shop until long past midnight, and then the bank employee, with a look at his watch, exclaimed:
"Great Scott! I ought to be home."
"I"ll run you over in Mr. Damon"s car," proposed Tom. "He left it here the other day, while he and his wife went off on a trip, and he said I could use it whenever I wanted to."
"Good!" cried Ned.
The two lads came from Tom"s particular workshop. As the young inventor closed the door he started suddenly, as he snapped shut the lock.
"What"s the matter?" asked Ned quickly.
"I thought I heard a noise," replied Tom.
They both listened. There was a slight rustling in some bushes near the shop.
"It"s a dog or a cat," declared Ned.
Tom took several cautious steps forward. Then he gave a spring, and made a grab for some one or something.
"Here! You let me be!" yelled a protesting voice.
"I will when I find out what you mean by sneaking around here,"
retorted Tom, as he came back toward Ned, dragging with him a lad. "It wasn"t a dog or a cat, Ned," spoke the young inventor. "It"s Sam Snedecker," and so it proved.
"You let me alone!" demanded Andy Foger"s crony. "I ain"t done nothin"
to you," he whined.
"Here, Ned, you hold him a minute, while I make an investigation,"
called Tom, handing his prisoner over to his chum. "Maybe Pete or Andy are around."
"No, they ain"t. I came alone," said Sam quickly, but Tom, not heeding, opened the shop, and, after turning on the electric lights, procured a lantern. He began a search of the shrubbery around the shop, while Ned held to the struggling Sam.
CHAPTER V