as far as I
can learn. His career is a closed book--a book with muddy covers!" and
the young inventor laughed.

"Oh, well, if you look at it that way, there is nothing further for me
to say," said Mr. Gale stiffly. "I understood-- But hasn't my partner,
Mr. Ware, seen you?" he asked Tom quickly.

"No. And I don't care to see him."

"Oh, then that accounts for it," was the quick answer. "Well, if you
regard the matter as closed I suppose we should also. We are not to
blame for what Lydane does when he is no longer in our employ, and we
repudiate anything he may do, or may have done."

This struck Tom, afterward, as being rather a queer remark, but he did
not think so at the time.

The truth was that the young inventor wished very much to try out a new
device on his noiseless aeroplane and wanted to get rid of Mr. Gale
before doing so. So he did not pay as much attention to the remarks of
the president as, otherwise, he might have done.

It was not until after Mr. Gale had taken his leave and Tom had
finished the particular work on which he was engaged when the president
of the rival company came in, that the young man did some hard
thinking. And this thinking was done after he had received a telephone
call from Mary Nestor, asking, if by any chance, he had heard anything
like a clew as to the whereabouts of her father.

Tom had been obliged to tell her that he had not. Everything possible
was being done to find the missing man but he had disappeared as
completely as though he had ridden on his bicycle into the crater of
some extinct volcano on the meadow, and had fallen to the bottom.

An effort was made to trace him through an automobile association which
had a large membership. That is, the members were asked to make
inquiries to ascertain, if possible, whether any one had heard of an
unreported accident--one in which Mr. Nestor might have been carried
away by persons who accidently ran him down.

But this came to naught, and the police and other authorities were at a
loss how farther to proceed. It was a theory in some quarters that Mr.
Nestor was perfectly safe, but that he was out of his mind, and was
either wandering around, not knowing who he was, or was, in this
condition, detained somewhere, the persons having him in charge not
realizing that he was the missing man so widely sought.

This belief was a relief to Mrs. Nestor and Mary in many ways for it
prevented them from giving way to the fear that M