git in mah way!"
and he glared indignantly at the big man.

"That's all right, Rad," consoled Tom. "You did your best. Now we'll
all get to bed. I don't believe he'll come back." Nor did he.

Tom and Ned were up at the first sign of daylight, for they wanted to
go to the steel works, some miles away, in time to see the cannon taken
out of the mould, and preparations made for boring the rifle channels.
They found the manager, anxiously waiting for them.

"Some of my men are as interested in this as you are," he said to the
young inventor. "A number of them declare that the cast will be a
failure, while some think it will be a success."

"I think it will be all right, if my plans were followed," said Tom.
"However, we'll see. By the way, what became of that German who made
such a disturbance the day we cast the core?"

"Oh, you mean Baudermann?"

"Yes."

"Why, it's rather queer about him. The foreman of the shop where he was
detailed, saw that he was an experienced man, in spite of his seemingly
stupid ways, and he was going to promote him, only he never came back."

"Never came back? What do you mean?"

"I mean the day after the cast of the gun was made he disappeared, and
never came back."

"Oh!" exclaimed Tom. He said nothing more, but he believed that he
understood the man's actions. Failing to obtain the desired
information, or perhaps failing to spoil the cast, he realized that his
chances were at an end for the present.

With great care the gun was hoisted from the mould. More eyes than
Tom's anxiously regarded it as it came up out of the casting pit.

"Bless my buttonhook!" cried Mr. Damon, who had gone with the lads.
"It's a monster; isn't it?"

"Oh, wait until you see it with the jackets on exclaimed," Ned, who had
viewed the completed drawings. "Then you'll open your eyes."

The great piece of hollow steel tubing was lifted to the boring lathe.
Then Tom and the manager examined it for superficial flaws.

"Not one!" cried the manager in delight.

"Not that I can see," added Tom.. "It's a success--so far."

"And that was the hardest part of the work," went on the manager of the
steel plant. "I can almost guarantee you success from now on."

And, as far as the rifling was concerned, this was true. I will not
weary you with the details of how the great core of Tom Swift's giant
cannon was bored. Sufficient to say that, after some annoying delays,
caused by breaks in the machinery, which had ne