e war. You know he
made an aerial warship, so why couldn't he have a lot of armor plated
elephants?"

"Oh, I suppose he could if he wanted to," admitted Ned. "But I guess
he isn't doing that. Don't get to going too fast in high speed, Harry,
or you may have nightmare. Well, I'm going down to see Tom."

"And you won't tell him I was peekin'?"

"Not if you don't do it again. I'll advise him to have that tree cut
down, though. It's too good a vantage spot."

Harry turned and went in the direction of his home, while Ned kept on
down the hill toward the house of his chum. The young bond salesman was
thinking of many things as he tramped, along, and among them was the
information Harry had just given.

But Ned did not pay a visit to his chum that evening. When he reached
the house he found that Tom had gone out, leaving no word as to when he
would be back.

"Oh, well, I can tell him to-morrow," thought Ned.

It was not, however, until two days later that Ned found the time to
visit Tom again. On this occasion, as before, he took the road through
the clump of woods where he had seen Harry running.

"And while I'm about it," mused Ned, "I may as well go on to the place
where the tree stands and make sure, by daylight, what I only partially
surmised in the evening--that Tom's place can be looked down on from
that vantage point."

Sauntering slowly along, for he was in no special hurry, having the
remainder of the day to himself, Ned approached the hill where the tree
stood from which Harry had said he had seen what he took to be a giant
elephant, perhaps in armor.

"It's a good clear day," observed Ned, "and fine for seeing. I wonder
if I'll be able to see anything."

It was necessary first to ascend the hill to a point where it overhung,
in a measure, the Swift property, though the holdings of Tom and his
father were some distance beyond the eminence. The tree from which Ned
and Harry had made their observations was on a knob of the hill, the
stunted pine standing out from among others like it.

"Well, here goes for another torn coat," grimly observed Ned, as he
prepared to climb. "But I'll be more careful. First, though, let's see
if I can see anything without getting up."

He paused a little way from the pine, and peered down the hill. Nothing
could be seen of the big enclosed field back of the building about
which Tom Was so careful.

"You have to be up to see anything," mused Ned. "It's up a tree for me!