e livery stable in some time now. Dat's why I know
dere ain't no livery on dis wagon. Yo'll 'scuse me, but yo' am
slightly mistaken."

"All right," rejoined Tom with a laugh, not thinking it worth while
to explain what he meant by the lever force of the brake rod. "Let
it go at that. Livery or no livery, your brake will work now. I
guess you're all right. Now don't forget to come around and do some
whitewashing," and seeing that the colored man was able to mount to
the seat and start off Boomerang, who seemed to have deep-rooted
objections about moving, Tom wheeled his motor-cycle back to the
road.

Eradicate Sampson drove his wagon a short distance and then suddenly
applied the brake. It stopped short, and the mule looked around as
if surprised.

"It suah do work, Mistah Swift!" called the darky to Tom, who was
waiting the result of his little repair job. "It suah do work!"

"I'm glad of it."

"Mah golly! But yo' am suttinly a conjure-man when it comes t'
fixin' wagons! Did yo' eber work fer a blacksmith?"

"No, not exactly. Well, good-by, Eradicate. I'll look for you some
day next week."

With that Tom leaped on his machine and speeded off ahead of the
colored man and his rig. As he passed the load of fence posts the
youth heard Eradicate remark in awestricken tones:

"Mah golly! He suttinly go laik de wind! An' t' t'ink dat I were hit
by dat monstrousness machine, an' not hurted! Mah golly! T'ings am
suttinly happenin'! G'lang, Boomerang!"

"This machine has more possibilities in it than I suspected," mused
Tom. "But one thing I've got to change, and that is the gasolene and
spark controls. I don't like them the way they are. I want a better
leverage, just as Eradicate needed on his wagon. I'll fix them, too,
when I get home."

He rode for several hours, until he thought it was about dinner
time, and then, heading the machine toward home, he put on all the
speed possible, soon arriving where his father was at work in the
shop.

"Well, how goes it?" asked Mr. Swift with a smile as he looked at
the flushed face of his son.

"Fine, dad! I scooted along in great shape. Had an adventure, too."

"You didn't meet any more of those men, did you? The men who are
trying to get my invention?" asked Mr. Swift apprehensively.

"No, indeed, dad. I simply had a little run-in with a chap named
Eradicate Andrew Jackson Abraham Lincoln Sampson, otherwise known as
Rad Sampson, and I engaged him to do some whitewashi