Chapter 21 Tom Swift and his Chest of Secrets by Victor Appleton
SCOUTING AROUND
Fairly well satisfied that he had secured some clews that would be of value to him, Tom Swift hurried home with Ned, Koku and Eradicate in the electric runabout. On the way the giant recovered somewhat from the rough treatment accorded him by the robbers, and talked of what he would do to them when he caught them.
“You must be hungry,” suggested Ned, as they neared Shopton. For Koku had been taken away the previous midnight and evening was now coming on again.
“Me eat ten loaves of bread!” cried the giant, opening wide his enormous mouth.
“We’ll give you something else, too!” chuckled Tom. “But I know poor Mrs. Baggert will almost faint when she sees you begin to eat.”
The giant’s appetite was always a source of wonder to the housekeeper, and now, starved as he was by his enforced fast, it might reasonably be expected that he would clean out the pantry. Tom had the foresight to stop and telephone word to Mrs. Baggert of the situation, so she sent out and got in plenty of food before the wayfarers returned. Thus was Koku provided for.
“Well, Ned, let’s get together and talk this thing over,” suggested Tom to his manager, leaving the giant still eating, long after the others had finished. Eradicate, true to his promise to be friends with the big man, remained to help serve him.
“Yes,” agreed Ned, “we had better make some plan to work on. But this discovery that Renwick Fawn is in the plot rather surprises me.”
“I must see if Mr. Damon knows anything about him in this connection. He may have heard Blythe speak of him.”
Mr. Damon was communicated with over the telephone, and after several queer “blessings” announced that, as far as he knew, Fawn was a stranger to Mr. Blythe.
“He doesn’t know anything of Blodgett either,” Tom told Ned, recalling the conversation Mary had overheard in the restaurant.
“Then we’ll have to tackle Fawn on our own account,” said Ned. “I know where he lives. Shall we go to his house and ask for him?”
“What shall we say to him if he’s at home?” Tom wanted to know.
Ned thought for a moment and replied:
“We can ask him, for a starter, if he has recovered any of the Liberty Bonds he says my father took. Then, after that opening, you can mention the theft of your box and ask if Fawn thinks there is any connection between the two.”
“Then what?” Tom inquired.
“Well, if things turn out the way we expect—I mean if this Fawn has really had a part in the robbery at your place—he’ll get confused and maybe give himself away. That’s our one hope—that he will give himself away.”
“It’s worth trying,” decided Tom, after a little consideration. “Come on.”
A little later in the evening the two young men set off in a small gasoline car to call at the home of the suspected man. Ned had had occasion to go there before some time since, months prior to the accusation against Mr. Newton.
But it was with some feelings of apprehension and with wonderings as to what they had best say to the man when he saw them that Ned and Tom walked up the steps of the Fawn home.
A maid answered the door, and when they said they had called to see Mr. Fawn she remarked:
“I think Mr. Fawn is not at home, but Mrs. Fawn is. Please come in and I will tell her you are here.”
Mrs. Fawn, a small, pale, unimpressive woman, came timidly into the room where the boys waited.
“You wanted to see my husband?” she asked, and Tom jumped at once to the conclusion (in which Ned later joined) that she knew nothing of the man’s peculiar activities. Their feeling that he was a brute and a bully toward her was afterward borne out by facts.
“We have some business to transact with Mr. Fawn,” stated Ned. “But the maid said he wasn’t at home.”
“No, he isn’t,” answered Mrs. Fawn, and the boys did not doubt her. “He has gone to Chicago on business. At least I think it is Chicago,” she added. “He goes to so many places I sometimes forget. But I know it was out West.”
“Well, if he’s that far off, I guess we can’t see him to-night,” returned Tom with a smile as he arose to go. “When did he leave town?”
“The day before yesterday,” answered Mrs. Fawn.
Ned had not given his name, and though Tom had mentioned his, he did not believe Mrs. Fawn knew enough of her husband’s business to connect her callers with the bond accusation against Mr. Newton.
But the two young men glanced sharply at each other when Mrs. Fawn spoke of her husband having gone to Chicago two days previous. If that was the case he could hardly have been engaged in the theft of Tom’s strong box.
“Do you want to leave any word for Mr. Fawn when he returns?” asked his wife.
“Thank you, no,” answered Tom. “It wasn’t important. We’ll see him when he gets back.”
When they were outside Ned asked:
“Well, what do you think now, Tom?”
“I don’t know what to think. Koku is pretty sharp. When he says he saw a thing you can make up your mind that he did. Of course it’s possible there may be two men who limp and throw out their left elbows, you know.”
“It’s possible, but not very probable,” answered the young manager. “I believe Fawn is guilty, but his wife may not, and very likely doesn’t, know anything about it. She’s a meek little lady.”
“Yes, indeed,” agreed Tom. “Well, we’re stuck for the time being. However, to-morrow is another day. Something may turn up then. Anyhow, even if it doesn’t, I’m going to start out.”
“Start out where?” Ned wanted to know.
“To look for that blue aero-hydroplane. I’m going to scout around in the Blackbird and see if I can’t get on the trail of the fellows who have my chest of secrets.”
“I’d like to go with you.”
“Wouldn’t think of taking off without you, old scout!” cried Tom.
He guided the car down the street and out on a wide avenue, going along at a steady pace and with such an evident object in view that Ned asked:
“Where are you heading?”
“I thought I’d stop at the Nestors’ a minute,” answered Tom.
“Then let me out here and I’ll take a trolley home,” said Ned.
“Let you out here! What’s the idea?” cried Tom.
“Well, you’re going to call on Mary, and——”
“Forget it!” laughed Tom, clapping his chum on the back. “This is a sort of joint call, and you’re coming in. Mary isn’t fussy that way, and she always likes to see you.”
“Thanks,” murmured Ned.
The two young men were no strangers in the Nestor home, Tom especially; and soon the whole family was in conversation. Tom mentioned the fact that he and his chum had just called on Mr. Fawn but found that he had left for the West two days before.
“Left for the West!” exclaimed Mr. Nestor. “That’s queer!”
“Why so?” Tom asked.
“Because I saw him in town yesterday morning. And he couldn’t have been going to Chicago.”
“Are you sure?” inquired Ned.
“Of course. I know the man as well as I know you. He was limping along, tossing his left elbow out every now and then as he has a habit of doing.”
Ned and Tom glanced at one another. If this was the case it would explain matters. Fawn may have told his wife he was leaving for Chicago, and even have packed a bag to go. But he went to some other place and remained about Shopton long enough to take part in the robbery that night.
Mr. Nestor’s mention of the peculiar gait of the man and his habit of tossing his left elbow away from his body while walking or talking was almost positive proof that there could be no mistake.
But Tom was not yet ready to let it be known that Fawn was caught in a falsehood. There were many more points to be cleared up before the affair was on the way to be solved. So, passing the matter off as though it did not amount to much, murmuring that possibly he had misunderstood Mrs. Fawn, Tom turned the talk into other channels.
The chums left the Nestor home near midnight, Mary expressing her indignation at the loss inflicted on Tom and asking if she could not do something to help.
“I’ll let you know if you can,” Tom told her as he pressed her hands.
For a few minutes Tom and Ned rode on in silence, each busy with his thoughts, and then Ned asked:
“Well, Tom, what do you make of it?”
“You mean about Fawn not going to Chicago at all?”
“Yes.”
“Well it means he’s a trickster surely, but more than that. He’s in the plot, of course. And I’m beginning to believe that it’s bigger than I thought. Fawn and Barsky—both in the same town, both probably working together against dad and me. It was a sorry day when I let that so-called Russian into my shop!”
“It surely was,” agreed Ned. “But it’s too late to think of that now. What is the next move? I want to get my hands on Fawn, as well as on the others.”
“We start scouting to-morrow morning!” decided the young inventor. “It oughtn’t to be hard to pick up the trail of this blue aeroplane. I had some inquiries made around Lake Carlopa, and she seems to have headed west. That, naturally, would be the best place for the robbers to go—plenty of open places to land, and with widely scattered cities and towns they wouldn’t run so much risk of being captured. We’ll start scouting in the morning.”
Accordingly the Blackbird was made ready. This craft was not as small nor as speedy as the Hummer, but she would carry three, and Tom decided to take Koku along to identify the robbers if possible.
“Good luck, Tom!” called his aged father, as he was ready to take off the next morning. “Bring back that chest!”
“I’ll do my best!” was the answer.