ke, but
it isn't very dangerous, otherwise I wouldn't have used it. When the
boys were some distance away from the fire, I threw the powder in the
blaze. It went off in a moment, and--"

"I guess they run some; didn't they?" asked Mr. Mason with a laugh.

"They certainly did," agreed Tom.

CHAPTER X

TOM HAS A FALL

The young inventor told more details of his adventure in the woods,
but, though the farmers questioned him closely, he would not give a
single name of his assailants.

"But I should think you'd want to have them punished," remarked Mr.
Mason.

"I'll attend to that part later," answered Tom. "Besides, most of them
didn't know what they were doing. They were led on by one or two. No,
I'll fight my own battles. But I wish you'd lend me a lantern long
enough to find my motor-cycle. The moon doesn't give much light in the
woods, and those fellows may have hidden my machine."

Mr. Mason and his companions readily agreed to accompany Tom on a
search for his wheel. It was found just where he had dismounted from it
in the road. Andy and his cronies had evidently had enough of their
encounter with our hero, and did not dare to annoy him further.

"Do you think you can ride home?" asked one of the farmers of the lad,
when he had ascertained that his machine was in running order.

"Well, it's risky without my lantern," answered Tom. "They smashed that
for me. But I guess I can manage."

"No, you can't!" insisted Mr. Mason. "You're stiff from being tied up;
and you can't ride. Now you just wheel that contraption over to my
place, and I'll hitch up and take you home. It isn't far."

"Oh, I couldn't think of troubling you," declared Tom. At the same time
he felt that he was in no condition to ride.

"It's no trouble at all," insisted Mr. Mason. "I guess your father and
I are good enough friends to allow me to have my way. You can come
over and get your choo-choo bicycle in the morning."

A little later Tom was being rapidly driven toward his home, where he
found his father and Mrs. Baggert, to say nothing of Mr. Sharp,
somewhat alarmed over his absence, as it was getting late. The youth
told as much of his adventure as he thought would not alarm his father,
making a sort of joke of it, and, later, related all the details to the
balloonist.

"We'll have to get after Andy again," declared the aeronaut. "He needs
another toning down."

"Yes, similar to the one he got when we nearly ran away wit