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Page 49
"What shall we do now?" asked Mary, as she looked at Tom.
"Oh, there's lots to do," he said, trying to make his voice
sound cheerful. "We'll be busy all day. I sent word to have one
of my touring cars ready to hurry to any part of the country the
moment we should get word from your father."
"And do you think we shall get word, Tom?" the girl went on
wistfully.
"Of course we shall!" he cried. "Word may come in at any time.
Now get ready, eat a good breakfast, and then you can go with me
as soon as we hear anything definite. Come, we'll have
breakfast!"
"I can't eat a thing!" protested Mary.
"Oh, yes you can," said her aunt, who was a cheerful sort of
person. "I'll see about getting something for you and Mr. Swift,
and see that your mother is all right."
She left the room to give orders to the servant about the meal,
and returned to say that Mrs. Nestor was sleeping quietly. She
had been given a sedative. Mary managed to eat a little, and she
gave Tom the address of several friends who were called up in the
vain hope that, somehow, Mr. Nestor might have gone to see them.
"Tom, what do you really think has happened?" asked Mary again,
as they sat facing one another in the library, during a respite
from the telephone.
Tom Swift repeated, to the girl his theory of what had happened
with an assumption of confidence he did not altogether feel.
His prediction of a speedy end to the suspense did not come
true that day, nor for many days. No news was heard of Mr.
Nestor. After the first day, when there was no information and
when no reports came of any one of his description having been
hurt in an automobile accident or having been taken to any
hospital, the police started an energetic search.
The authorities in all near-by cities were notified, and all
thought of keeping from the public what had happened was given
over. Tom's story, of how he and Mr. Damon had heard the cry for
help on the lonely meadow, was printed in the papers, though the
young inventor did not say that he had been out trying his new
aeroplane. That was a detail not needed in the finding of Mr.
Nestor.
But Mary's father was not found. The mystery regarding his
disappearance deepened, and there was no trace of him after he
had left Tom's house that eventful evening. Persons living along
the roads he might have taken in riding his bicycle were
questioned, but they had seen nothing of him, nor were they aware
of any accident. Tom's testimony and that of Mr. Damon was all
the clew there was.
"I don't believe he's dead!" stoutly declared the young
inventor, when this dire possibility had been hinted at. "I
believe the persons who were responsible for the accident are
afraid to reveal his whereabouts until he recovers from possible
injuries. You'll see! Mr. Nestor will come back safe!"
And, somehow, though her mother was skeptical, Mary believed
what Tom said.
The search was kept up, but without result, and Tom aided all
he could. But there was not much he could do. The police and
other authorities were at a total loss.
In the intervals of visiting Mary and her mother, and doing
what he could for them, Tom worked on his new motor. He knew that
he was on the right track and that all that was needed now was to
make certain refinements and adjustments in the apparatus he had
already constructed, so that it would operate more quietly.
"Absorbing the vibrations from the exhaust, caused by the
exploded gases in the cylinders, does the trick," Tom told his
father.
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