"Well, you know where it is then," retorted Tom quickly.
Under the restraining influence of the gun the men made no resistance.
While Mr. Sharp covered them, Tom towed their boat toward sh.o.r.e. Then, while the young inventor held the gun, the balloonist tied the hands and feet of the thieves in a most scientific manner, for what he did not know about ropes and knots was not worth putting into a book.
"Now, I guess they"ll stay quiet for a while," remarked Mr. Sharp as he surveyed the crestfallen criminals. "I"ll remain on guard here, Tom, while you go notify the nearest constable and we"ll take them to jail.
We bagged the whole lot as neatly as could be desired."
"No, you didn"t get all of us!" exclaimed Happy Harry, and there was a savage anger in his tones.
"Keep quiet!" urged Morse.
"No, I"ll not keep quiet! It"s a shame that we have to take our medicine while that trimmer, Tod Boreck, goes free. He ought to have been with us, and he would be, only he"s trying to get away with that sparkler!"
"Keep quiet," again urged Morse.
Tom was all attention. He had caught the word "sparkler," and he at once a.s.sociated it with the occasion he had heard the men use it before. He felt that he was on the track of solving the mystery connected with his boat.
He looked at the men. They were the same four who had been involved in the former theft--Appleson, Featherton, Morse and Burke. Were there five of them? He recalled the man who had been caught tampering with his boat--the man who had tried to bid on the ARROW at the auction.
Where was he?
"Boreck didn"t get what he was after," resumed Happy Harry, "and I"m going to spoil his game for him. Say, kid," he went on to Tom, "look in the front part of your boat--where the gasoline tank is."
Tom felt his heart beating fast. At last he felt that he would solve the puzzle. He opened the forward compartment. To his disappointment it seemed as usual. Morse and the others were making a vain effort to silence Happy Harry.
"I don"t see anything here," said Tom.
"No, because it"s hidden in one of those blocks of wood you use for a brace," continued the man. "Which one it is, Boreck didn"t know, so he pulled out two or three, only to be fooled each time. You must have shifted them, kid, from the way they were when we had the boat."
"I did," answered the young inventor, recollecting how he had taken out some of the braces and inserted new ones, then painted the interior of the compartment. "What is in the braces, anyhow?"
"The sparkler--a big diamond--in a hollow place in the wood, kid!"
exclaimed Happy Harry, blurting out the words. "I"m not going to let Tod Boreck get away with it while we stay in jail."
"Take out all the braces that haven"t been moved and have a look,"
suggested Mr. Sharp. Tom only had to remove two, those farthest back, for all the others had, at one time or another, been changed or taken away by the thief.
One of the blocks did not seem to have anything unusual about it, but at the sight of the other Tom could not repress a cry. It was the one that seemed to have had a hole bored in it and then plugged up again.
He remembered his father noticing it on the occasion of overhauling the boat.
"The sparkler"s in there," said the tramp as he saw the brace. "Boreck was after it several times, but he never pulled out the right one."
With his knife Tom dug out the putty that covered the round hole in the block. No sooner had he done so than there rolled out into his hand a white object. It was something done up in tissue paper, and as he removed the wrapper, there was a flash in the sunlight and a large, beautiful diamond was revealed. The mystery had been solved.
CHAPTER XXV
WINNING A RACE
"Where did this diamond come from?" demanded Mr. Sharp of the quartette of criminals.
"That"s for us to know and you to find out," sneered Happy Harry. "I don"t care as long as that trimmer Boreck didn"t get it. He tried to do us out of our share."
"Well, I guess the police will make you tell," went on the balloonist.
"Go for the constable, Tom."
Leaving his friend to guard the ugly men, who for a time at least were beyond the possibility of doing harm, Tom hurried off through the woods to the nearest village. There he found an officer and the gang was soon lodged in jail. The diamond was turned over to the authorities, who said they would soon locate the owner.
Nor were they long in doing it, for it appeared the gem was part of a large jewel robbery that had taken place some time before in a distant city. The Happy Harry gang, as the men came to be called, were implicated in it, though they got only a small share of the plunder.
Search was made for Tod Boreck and he was captured about a week after his companions. Seeing that their game was up, the men made a partial confession, telling where Mr. Swift"s goods had been secreted, and the inventor"s valuable tools, papers and machinery were recovered, no damage having been done to them.
It developed that after the diamond theft, and when the gang still had possession of Mr. Hastings" boat, Boreck, sometimes called Murdock by his cronies, unknown to them, had secreted the jewel in one of the braces under the gasoline tank. He expected to get it out secretly, but the capture of the gang and the sale of the boat prevented this.
Then he tried to buy the craft to take out the diamond, but Tom overbid him. It was Boreck who found Andy"s bunch of keys and used one to open the compartment lock when Tom surprised him. The man did manage to remove some of the blocks, thinking he had the one with the diamond in it, but the fact of Tom changing them, and painting the compartment deceived him. The gang hoped to get some valuables from Mr. Swift"s shops, and, to a certain extent, succeeded after hanging around for several nights and following him to Sandport, but Tom eventually proved too much for them. Even stealing the Arrow, which was taken to aid the gang in robbing Mr. Swift, did not succeed, and Boreck"s plan then to get possession of the diamond fell through.
It was thought that the gang would get long terms in prison, but one night, during a violent storm, they escaped from the local jail and that was the last seen of them for some time.
A few days after the capture as Tom was in the boathouse making some minor repairs to the motor he heard a voice calling:
"Mistah Swift, am yo" about?"
"h.e.l.lo, Rad, is that you?" he inquired, recognizing the voice of the colored owner of the mule Boomerang.
"Yais, sa, dat"s me. I got a lettah fo" yo". I were pa.s.sin" de post-office an" de clerk asted me to brung it to yo" "case as how it"s marked "hurry," an" he said he hadn"t seen yo" to-day."
"That"s right. I"ve been so busy I haven"t had time to go for the mail," and Tom took the letter, giving Eradicate ten cents for his trouble.
"Ha, that"s good!" exclaimed Tom as he read it.
"Hab some one done gone an" left yo" a fortune, Mistah Swift?" asked the negro.
"No, but it"s almost as good. It"s an invitation to take part in the motor-boat races next week. I"d forgotten all about them. I must get ready."
"Good land! Dat"s all de risin" generation t"inks about now," observed Eradicate, "racin" an" goin" fast. Mah ole mule Boomerang am good enough fo" me," and, shaking his head in a woeful manner, Eradicate went on his way.
Tom told Mr. Sharp and his father of the proposed races of the Lanton Motor-boat Club, and, as it was required that two persons be in a craft the size of the ARROW, the young inventor arranged for the balloonist to accompany him. Our hero spent the next few days in tuning up his motor and in getting the ARROW ready for the contest.
The races took place on that side of Lake Carlopa near where Mr.
Hastings lived, and he was one of the officials of the club. There were several cla.s.ses, graded according to the horsepower of the motors, and Tom found himself in a cla.s.s with Andy Foger.
"Here"s where I beat you," boasted the red-haired youth exultantly, though his manner toward Tom was more temperate than usual. Andy had learned a lesson.
"Well, if you can beat me I"ll give you credit for it," answered Tom.
The first race was for high-powered craft, and in this Mr. Hastings"
new CARLOPA won. Then came the trial of the small boats, and Tom was pleased to note that Miss Nestor was on hand in the tiny DOT.
"Good luck!" he called to her as he was adjusting his timer, for his turn would come soon. "Remember what I told you about the spark," for he had given her a few lessons.