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Page 55
"He was Lydane," said Mr. Gale. "It is about him I came."
"You might have saved yourself the trouble," returned Tom. "I
don't wish to discuss him."
"But I wish to make sure," said Mr. Gale, that what he has done
will not come back on us. We repudiate him entirely. His methods
we can not countenance. He is too daring--"
"Oh, don't worry!" interrupted Tom. "He hasn't done anything to
me--he didn't get the chance, as I guess he's told you. You
needn't apologize on his account. He did me no harm, and--"
"But I understood from him that--"
"Now I don't want to seem impolite!" broke in Tom, "nor do I
want to take pattern after some of your company's acts, if not
your own. But I am very busy. I have an important test to make
for the government, and my time is fully occupied. I am afraid I
shall have to bid you good-morning and--"
"But won't you give me a chance to--" began the president.
"Now, the less we discuss this matter the better!" interrupted
Tom. "Lydane, as you call the man with the gold tooth didn't
really do anything to me nor any great harm to any of my
possessions, 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 beard 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 Mr. Nestor
was dead. That he was alive was Tom Swift's firm opinion, and he
was doing all he could to prove it.
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