in front of me, and--well, I
just keeled over."

"I should say you did," spoke Mr. Peterson.

"An' ef he hadn't a-been there to cotch yo' all," put in Eradicate,
"yo' all suah would hab hit de ground mighty hard."

"That's two services he did for me today," said Tom, as he managed to
sit up. "Cutting that wire--well, it saved my life, that's certain."

"I believe you, Tom," said Mr. Swift, solemnly, and he held out his
hand to his old mining partner.

"Do you need the doctor?" asked Mr. Damon, who was at the telephone.
"He says he'll come right over--I can get him in Tom's electric
runabout, if you say so. He's on the wire now."

"No, I don't need him," replied the young inventor. "Thank him just the
same. It was only an ordinary faint, caused by the slight electrical
shocks, and by getting a bit nervous, I guess. I'm all right--see,"
and he proved it by standing up.

"He's ail right--don't come, doctor," said Mr. Damon into the
telephone. "Bless my keyring!" he exclaimed, "but that was a strenuous
time!"

"I've been in some tight places before," went on Tom, as he sat down in
an easy chair, "and I've had any number of shocks when I've been
experimenting, but this was a sort of double combination, and it sure
had me guessing. But I'm feeling better every minute."

"A cup of hot tea will do you good," said motherly Mrs. Baggert, as she
bustled out of the room. "I'll make it for you."

"You cut that wire as neatly as any lineman could," went on Tom,
glancing from Mr. Peterson out of the window to where one of his
workmen was repairing the break. "When I flew over it in my airship I
never gave a thought to the trailer from my wireless outfit. The first
I knew I was caught back, and then pulled down to the balloon shed
roof, for I tilted the deflecting rudder by mistake.

"But, Mr. Peterson," Tom went on, "I haven't seen you in some time.
Anything new on, that brings you here?" for the fortune-hunter had
called at the Swift house after Tom had gone out to the shop to get his
airship ready for the flight to try the magneto.

"Well, Tom, I have something rather new on," replied Mr. Peterson. "I
hoped to interest your father in it, but he doesn't seem to care to
take a chance. It's a lost opal mine on a little-known island in the
Caribbean Sea not far from the city of Colon. I say not far--by that I
mean about twenty miles. But your father doesn't want to invest, say,
ten thousand dollars in it, though I can a