lomew's
visit to Shopton and to the young inventor and his father was of such
importance that he would do well through his henchmen to learn the
particulars of the interview.

Tom remembered Mr. Bartholomew's mention of a name like Andy O'Malley.
This was probably the man who had done all that he could, and that
promptly, to set about the discovery of Mr. Bartholomew's reason for
visiting the Swifts.

Without doubt the man had slunk about the Swift house and had peered
into one of the library windows while the interview was proceeding. He
had observed Tom making notes on the scratch pad and judged correctly
that those notes dealt with the subject under discussion between the
visitor from the West and the Swifts.

He had likewise seen Tom thrust the paper into his wallet and the
wallet into his inside vest pocket. Instead of dogging Mr.
Bartholomew's footsteps after that gentleman left the Swift house, the
man had waited for the appearance of Tom. When he was sure that the
young fellow was preparing to walk out, and the direction he was to
stroll, the thug had run ahead and ensconced himself in the archway on
this dark block.

All these things were plain enough. The notes Tom had taken regarding
the offer Mr. Bartholomew had made for the development of the electric
locomotive might, under some circumstances, be very important. At
least, the highwayman evidently thought them such. But Tom had another
thought about that.

One thing the young inventor was convinced about, as he strode briskly
away from the scene of the hold-up: There was going to be trouble. It
had already begun.

Chapter III

Tom Swift's Friends

Tom was still walking swiftly when he arrived in sight of Mary Nestor's
home. He was so filled with excitement both because of the hold-up and
the new scheme that Mr. Richard Bartholomew had brought to him from the
West, that he could keep neither to himself. He just had to tell Mary!

Mary Nestor was a very pretty girl, and Tom thought she was just about
right in every particular. Although he had been about a good deal for a
young fellow and had seen girls everywhere, none of them came up to
Mary. None of them held Tom's interest for a minute but this girl whom
he had been around with for years and whom he had always confided in.

As for the girl herself, she considered Tom Swift the very nicest young
man she had ever seen. He was her beau-ideal of what a young man should
be. And she entered