y too soon to suit me," spoke Tom, "and I hope he
takes Andy with him."

"Your father isn't going to have any business dealings with Mr.
Foger then?"

"I guess not. Dad doesn't trust him. But say, Ned, what do you say
to a little trip in my sky racer? I want to go over to Waterford and
see Mr. Damon. We can talk about our trip, and he was going to get
some big maps of Central Mexico to study. Will you come?"

"I will this afternoon. I've got to go to the bank now."

"All right, I'll wait for you. In the meanwhile I'll be tuning up
the motor. It didn't run just right the other night."

The two chums separated, Ned to go downtown to the bank, while Tom
hastened to the shed where he kept his speedy little air craft.
Meanwhile Eradicate went on whitewashing the fence, pausing every
now and then to chuckle at the memory of Andy Foger.

Tom found that some minor adjustments had to be made to the motor,
and they took him a couple of hours to complete. It was nearly noon
when he finished, and leaving the sky racer in the open space in
front of the shed, he went in the house to wash up, for his face and
hands were begrimed with dirt and oil.

"But the machine's in good shape," he said to the housekeeper when
she objected to his appearance, "and Ned and I will have a speedy
spin this afternoon."

"Oh, you reckless boys! Risking your lives in those aeroplanes!"
exclaimed Mrs. Baggert.

"Why, they're safer than street cars!" declared Tom with a laugh.
"Just think how often street cars collide, and you never heard of an
aeroplane doing that."

"No, but think what happens when they fall."

"That's it!" cried Tom gaily, "when they fall you don't have time to
think. But is dinner ready? I'm hungry."

"Never saw you when you weren't." commented the housekeeper
laughing. "Yes, you can sit right down. We won't wait for your
father. He said he'd be late as he wants to find something about his
gyroscope. I never did any such people as inventors for spoiling
their meals," she added as the put dinner on the tab's.

Mr. Swift came in before his son had finished.

"Was Andy Foger here to see me again?" he asked.

"No, why do you ask?" inquired Tom quickly.

"I just saw him out by the aeroplane shed, and--"

Tom jumped up without another word, and hurried to where his sky
racer rested on its bicycle wheels.

He breathed more easily when he saw that Andy was not in sight, and
a hurried inspection of the aeroplane did not d