a small fortune like this electric
locomotive business; but bless my barbed wire fence! my trouble has
more than a little to do with footpads, too."

He led the way out of the house and to the motor car again. In a minute
he had started his engine, and Tom, jumping in beside him, was borne
away toward his own home.

Chapter V

Barbed Wire Entanglements

"This gets us to your particular trouble, Mr. Damon," Tom Swift said,
while the motor car was rolling along. "You intimated that you had
something to consult me about."

"Bless my windshield! I should say I had," exclaimed the eccentric
gentleman, swinging around a corner at rather a fast clip.

"And has it to do with highwaymen?" asked Tom, much amused.

"Some of the same gentry, Tom," declared Mr. Damon. "I haven't any
peace of my life, I really haven't!"

"Who is troubling you, sir?"

"Why, what nonsense that is, to ask that!" ejaculated the gentleman.
"If I knew who they were I wouldn't ask odds of anybody. I'd go after
them. As it is, I've left my servant with a gun loaded with rock-salt
watching for them now."

"Burglars?" exclaimed Tom, with real interest.

"Chicken-house burglars! That's the kind of burglars they are," growled
Mr. Damon. "Two or three times they have tried to get my prize buff
Orpingtons. Last night they got me out of bed twice fooling around the
chicken house and yard. Other neighbors have lost their hens already. I
don't mean to lose mine. Want you to help me, Tom."

"Is that all that is worrying you, Mr. Damon?" laughed the young fellow.

"Bless my radiator! isn't that enough?"

"I know you set your clock by those buff Orpingtons," agreed Tom.

"That's right. That ten-months cockerel, Blue Ribbon Junior, never
fails to crow at three-thirty-three to the minute. Bless my combs and
spurs; a wonderful bird!"

"But let's see how I can help you regarding the chicken thieves," Tom
said, as they sighted the lights of the Swift house beyond the long
stockade fence that surrounded the Construction Company's premises.

"You know I have a barbed wire entanglement around the whole yard and
hen-house. I don't take any more chances than I can help. Those prize
buff Orpingtons are a great temptation to chicken lovers--both blond
and brunette," and in spite of his anxiety, Mr. Damon could chuckle at
his own joke. "Even your old Eradicate's friend fell for chickens, you
know."

"And Rad promptly cured him of the disease," laughed