e to be certain.

"Did you say you'd seen him?" asked Mr. Merton, regarding Tom
curiously.

"No--yes--that is--well, I'll tell my father about it," stammered
Tom, who concluded that it would be best to say nothing of his
suspicions. "I'll be back right after dinner, Mr. Merton. Please
have the bolts ready for me, if you can."

"I will. Is your father going to use them in a new machine?"

"Yes; dad is always making new machines," answered the youth, as the
most polite way of not giving the proprietor of the shop any
information. "I'll be back right after dinner," he called as he went
out to get on his wheel.

Tom was much puzzled. He felt certain that the man in the post-office
and the one who had questioned Mr. Merton were the same.

"There is something going on, that dad should know about," reflected
Tom. "I must tell him. I don't believe it will be wise to send any
more of his patent work over to Merton. We must do it in the shops
at home, and dad and I will have to keep our eyes open. There may be
spies about seeking to discover something about his new turbine
motor. I'll hurry back with those bolts and tell dad. But first I
must get lunch. I'll go to the restaurant and have a good feed while
I'm at it."

Tom had plenty of spending money, some of which came from a small
patent he had marketed himself. He left his wheel outside the
restaurant, first taking the precaution to chain the wheels, and
then went inside. Tom was hungry and ordered a good meal. He was
about half way through it when some one called his name.

"Hello, Ned!" he answered, looking up to see a youth about his own
age. "Where did you blow in from?"

"Oh, I came over from Shopton this morning," replied Ned Newton,
taking a seat at the table with Tom. The two lads were chums, and in
their younger days had often gone fishing, swimming and hunting
together. Now Ned worked in the Shopton bank, and Tom was so busy
helping his father, so they did not see each other so often.

"On business or pleasure?" asked Tom, putting some more sugar in his
coffee.

"Business. I had to bring some papers over from our bank to the
First National here. But what about you?"

"Oh, I came on dad's account."

"Invented anything new?" asked Ned as he gave his order to the
waitress.

"No, nothing since the egg-beater I was telling you about. But I'm
working on some things."

"Why don't you invent an automobile or an airship?"

"Maybe I will some day, but, s