yours point right at my house? Of course it does; you can't deny
it!"

Tom did not attempt to, and Mr. Moker went on:

"Now what do you mean by it?"

"If any of the bullets from my electric gun went near you, it was a
mistake, and I'm sorry for it," said Tom.

"Well, they did, all right," declared the excited man. "They went
right past my ear."

"I don't see how they could," declared Tom. "I was trying my new
electric rifle, but I had the limit set for two hundred feet, the
length of the gallery. That is, the electrical discharge couldn't go
beyond that distance."

"I don't know what it was, but it went through the side of my house
all the same," insisted Mr. Moker. "It didn't make a hole, but it
scorched the wall paper a little."

"I don't see how it could," declared Tom. "It couldn't possibly have
gone over two hundred feet with the gage set for that distance." He
paused suddenly, and hurried over to where he had placed his gun.
Catching up the weapon he looked at the gage dial. Then he uttered
an exclamation.

"I'm sorry to admit that you are right, Mr. Moker!" he said finally.
"I made a mistake. The gage is set for a thousand feet instead of
two hundred. I forgot to change it. The charge, after passing
through the steel plate, and the scarecrow figure, destroying the
latter, went on, and shot through the side of your house."

"Ha! I knew you were trying to shoot me!" exclaimed the still angry
man. "I'll have the law on you for this!"

"Oh, that's all nonsense!" broke in Ned Newton. "Everybody knows Tom
Swift wouldn't try to shoot you, or any one else, Mr. Moker."

"Then why did he shoot at me?"

"That was a mistake," explained Tom, "and I apologize to you for
it."

"Humph! A lot of good that would do me, if I'd been killed!"
muttered the miser. "I'm going to sue you for this. You might have
put me in my grave."

"Impossible!" exclaimed Tom.

"Why impossible?" demanded the visitor.

"Because I had so set the rifle that almost the entire force of the
electrical bullet was expended in blowing apart the scarecrow figure
I made for a test," explained Tom. "All that passed through your
house was a small charge, and, if it HAD hit you there would have
been no more than a little shock, such as you would feel in taking
hold of an electric battery."

"How do I know this?" asked the man cunningly. "You say so, but for
all I know you may have wanted to kill me."

"Why?" asked Tom, trying not to laugh.