do feel that way, it's dead wrong. There's myself, for one, and
I'm sure Mr. Damon--"

"Bless my gasoline tank!" exclaimed Tom, with a laugh, in imitation of
the gentleman Ned Newton had mentioned, "I know that! I'm not worrying
over the loss of any friends."

"And there are Eradicate, and Koku, the giant, just to mention a couple
of others," went on Ned, with a smile.

"That's enough!" exclaimed Tom. "It isn't that, I tell you."

"Well, what is it then? Here I go and get a half-holiday off from the
bank, and just at the busiest time, too, to come and see you, and I
find you in a brown study, looking as blue as indigo, and maybe you're
all yellow inside from a bilious attack, for all I know."

"Quite a combination of colors," admitted Tom. "But it isn't what you
think. It's just that I'm puzzled, Ned."

"Puzzled?" and Ned raised his eyebrows to indicate how surprised he was
that anything should puzzle his friend.

"Yes, genuinely puzzled."

"Has anything gone wrong?" Ned asked. "No one is trying to take any of
your pet inventions away from you, is there?"

"No, not exactly that, though it is about one of my inventions I am
puzzled. I guess I haven't shown you my very latest; have I, Ned?"

"Well, I don't know, Tom. Time was when I could keep track of you and
your inventions, but that was in your early days, when you started with
a motorcycle and were glad enough to have a motorboat. But, since
you've taken to aerial navigation and submarine work, not to mention
one or two other lines of activity, I give up. I don't know where to
look next, Tom, for something new."

"Well, this isn't so very new," went on the young inventor, for Tom
Swift had designed and patented many new machines of the air, earth and
water. "I'm just trying to work out some new problems in aerial
navigation, Ned," he went on.

"I thought there weren't any more," spoke Ned, soberly enough.

"Come, now, none of that!" exclaimed Tom, with a laugh. "Why, the
surface of aerial navigation has only been scratched. The science is
far from being understood, or even made safe, not to say perfected, as
water and land travel have been. There's lots of chance yet."

"And you're working on something new?" asked Ned, as he looked around
the shop where he and Tom were sitting. As the young bank employee had
said, he had come away from the institution that afternoon to have a
little holiday with his chum, but Tom, seated in the midst of his
inventio