ortlake.

"Where can they be going?" wondered Roy, as old man Harding favored them
with a scowl in passing, and then both cars resumed their normal speed.

"I noticed that this is a private road leading only to that farm,"
rejoined Peggy; "the right-of-way ends there."

"Then that must be their destination, for there are no other houses on
this road."

"Looks that way," assented Roy. "Queer, isn't it?"

"Very," responded Peggy. For some inexplicable reason, as the girl spoke,
a chill ran through her. She felt a dull sense of foreboding. But the
next minute she shook it off. After all, why shouldn't Mr. Harding and
Mortlake be driving to the farm? Mr. Harding's financial dealings
comprised mortgages in every part of the island. It was quite probable
that the farmer was in some way involved in the old man's nets. Possibly
that was the reason of all that money being stored in the wall safe.

Refusing courteously an invitation extended by Miss Prescott to spend the
night at the homestead, Lieut. Bradbury was driven to the station by Roy,
after they had dropped Peggy, and just managed to make a New York train.

"I shall be back to-morrow," he said, "and have a look at Mortlake's
machines. Of course, the government wants to give everybody a fair field
and no favors."

"Oh, of course," assented Roy, pondering in his own mind what sort of a
machine this mysterious Mortlake craft was.

Suddenly there flashed across his mind a thought that had not occurred to
him hitherto. The _Golden Butterfly_ had been left under the shed at the
farm. What was there to prevent Harding and Mortlake from examining it and
acquainting themselves with the intricacies of the self-starting mechanism
and the automatic balancing device?

There was no question that the farm must have been their destination. Roy
blamed himself bitterly for not foreseeing this. He had half a mind to
return to the farm and bring the aeroplane home himself. But it was
growing dark, and a distant rumble seemed to presage the return of the
afternoon's storm.

"Anyhow," the boy thought, and the thought consoled him, "all those
devices are covered by patents, and even if they wanted to, they could not
steal them. And yet--and yet----"

But the storm came up sharper than ever that evening, and even had he
wished to, Roy would have found it impossible to handle the aeroplane
alone in the heavy wind that came now in puffs and now in a steady gale.
So Roy put his tires