"No, his back is toward us. But he's limping, all right. I guess that jump jarred him up a bit. Where is Koku?"

"There he goes now!" exclaimed Ned, as a figure leaped from the side door of the house--a gigantic figure, scantily clad.

"Get to him, Koku!" cried Tom.

"Me git, Master!" was the reply, and the giant sped on.

"Let's go out and lend a hand!" suggested Ned, looking at the water pitcher as though wondering what he had intended to do with it.

"I'm with you," agreed Tom. "Only I want to get into something a little more substantial than my pajamas."

As the two lads hurriedly slipped on some clothing they heard the voice of Mr. Swift calling:

"What is it, Tom? Has anything happened?"

"Nothing much," was the rea.s.suring answer. "It was a near-happening, only Ned woke up in time. Someone was in our rooms--a burglar, I guess."

"A burglar! Good land a ma.s.sy!" cried Eradicate, who had also gotten up to see what the excitement was about. "Did you cotch him, Ma.s.sa Tom?"

"No, Rad; but Koku is after him."

"Koku? Huh, he nebber cotch anybody. I'se got t' git out dere mahse'f!

Koku? Hu! I s'pects it's dat no-'count cousin ob mine, arter mah chickens ag'in! I'll lambaste dat c.o.o.n when I gits him, so I will. I'll cotch him for yo'-all, Ma.s.sa Tom," and, muttering to himself, the aged colored man endeavored to a.s.sume the activity of former years.

"Hark!" exclaimed Ned, as he and Tom were about ready to take part in the chase. "What's that noise, Tom?"

"Sounds like a motor-cycle."

"It is. That fellow--"

"It's the same chap!" interrupted Tom. "No use trying to chase him on that speedy machine. He's a mile away from here by now. He must have had it in waiting, ready for use. But come on, anyhow."

"Where are you going?"

"Out to the shop. I want to see if he got in there."

"But the charged wires?"

"He may have cut them. Come on."

It was as Tom had suspected. The deadly, charged wires, that formed a protecting cordon about his shops, had been cut, and that by an experienced hand, probably by someone wearing rubber gloves, who must have come prepared for that very purpose. During the night the current was supplied to the wires from a storage battery, through an intensifying coil, so that the charge was only a little less deadly than when coming direct from a dynamo.

"This looks bad, Tom," said Ned.

"It does, but wait until we get inside and look around. I'm glad I took my gun-plans to the house with me."

But a quick survey of the shop did not reveal any damage done, nor had anything been taken, as far as Tom could tell. The office of his main shop was pretty well upset, and it looked as though the intruder had made a search for something, and, not finding it, had entered the house.

"It was the gun-plans he was after, all right," decided Tom. "And I believe it was the same fellow who has been making trouble for me right along."

"You mean General Waller?"

"No, that German--the one who was at the machine shop."

"But who is he--what is his object?"

"I don't know who he is, but he evidently wants my plans. Probably he's a disappointed inventor, who has been trying to make a gun himself, and can't. He wants some of my ideas, but he isn't going to get them. Well, we may as well get back to bed, after I connect these wires again. I must think up a plan to conceal them, so they can't be cut."

While Tom and Ned were engaged on this, Koku came back, much out of breath, to report:

"Me not git, Master. He git on bang-bang machine and go off--puff!"

"So we heard, Koku. Never mind, we'll get him yet."

"Hu! Ef I had de fust chanst at him, I'd a cotched dat c.o.o.n suah!"

declared Eradicate, following the giant. "Koku he done git in mah way!"

and he glared indignantly at the big man.

"That's all right, Rad," consoled Tom. "You did your best. Now we'll all get to bed. I don't believe he'll come back." Nor did he.

Tom and Ned were up at the first sign of daylight, for they wanted to go to the steel works, some miles away, in time to see the cannon taken out of the mould, and preparations made for boring the rifle channels.

They found the manager, anxiously waiting for them.

"Some of my men are as interested in this as you are," he said to the young inventor. "A number of them declare that the cast will be a failure, while some think it will be a success."

"I think it will be all right, if my plans were followed," said Tom.

"However, we'll see. By the way, what became of that German who made such a disturbance the day we cast the core?"

"Oh, you mean Baudermann?"

"Yes."

"Why, it's rather queer about him. The foreman of the shop where he was detailed, saw that he was an experienced man, in spite of his seemingly stupid ways, and he was going to promote him, only he never came back."

"Never came back? What do you mean?"

"I mean the day after the cast of the gun was made he disappeared, and never came back."

"Oh!" exclaimed Tom. He said nothing more, but he believed that he understood the man's actions. Failing to obtain the desired information, or perhaps failing to spoil the cast, he realized that his chances were at an end for the present.

With great care the gun was hoisted from the mould. More eyes than Tom's anxiously regarded it as it came up out of the casting pit.

"Bless my b.u.t.tonhook!" cried Mr. Damon, who had gone with the lads.

"It's a monster; isn't it?"

"Oh, wait until you see it with the jackets on!" exclaimed Ned, who had viewed the completed drawings. "Then you'll open your eyes."

The great piece of hollow steel tubing was lifted to the boring lathe.