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Page 73
"The gold tooth! So it's you again, is it, you spy?"
The man shrugged his shoulders with an assumption of
indifference. And, as Tom took a closer look, he became aware
that the man was surely none other than Lydane, the spy he had
chased into the mud puddle some weeks before. His companion was a
stranger to Tom.
"What does it all mean, Mr. Nestor ?" asked Tom. "Have these
men held you a prisoner ever since you called for help on the
moor that night?"
"Yes, Tom, they have. And I did call for help after they
attacked me as I was riding my wheel, but I didn't know any one
heard me. I began to be afraid no one would ever help me."
"We've been trying to, a long time," said Mr. Damon, "but we
couldn't find you. Where did they keep you?"
"Here, part of the time," was Mr. Nestor's answer. "And in
other lonely houses. They bound and gagged me when they took me
from place to place."
"But what was their object?" asked Tom, concluding it was
useless to question the two captives. "Why did they make you a
prisoner, Mr. Nestor?"
"Because they took me for you, Tom."
"For me?"
"Yes. The night I called at your house, and found you were not
at home, I put back in my pocket a bundle of papers I had brought
over to show you. They were plans of a little kitchen appliance a
friend of mine had invented, and I wanted to ask your opinion of
it."
"These scoundrels must have followed me, or have seen the
bundle of papers, and, mistaking me for you, they followed,
attacked me in a lonely spot and, bundling me and my wrecked
wheel into an auto, carried me off. They first demanded that I
gave up the 'plans,' and when I wouldn't they choked off my cries
for help and knocked me into unconsciousness. Then they brought
me here, and kept me here for several days.
"They soon learned that the plans I had weren't those they
wanted, though what they were thin after I couldn't imagine.
Only, from what I laser overheard, I knew they mistook me for you
and that they were bitterly disappointed in not getting plans of
some new airship you were working on. They have kept me a
prisoner ever since, and though they offered to let me go if I
would keep silent, I refused. I did not think, to secure my own
comfort, I should let such men go unpunished if I could bring
about their arrest."
"I should say not!" cried Tom.
"Did they treat you brutally, Mr. Nestor?" asked Mr. Damon.
"Not after they found out who I was, by looking through my
wallet. Of course they didn't behave very decently, but they
weren't actually cruel, except that they bound and gagged me. Oh,
but I'm glad you came, Tom! How did it happen?"
Then they told Mr. Nestor their story, and how the test of the
new Air Scout had led to his rescue.
"But where are the Secret Service men?" asked Mr. Terrill, when
it became evident that none them was on guard at the cabin.
Later it developed that, by following a false clew, the Secret
Service men had been drawn miles away from the cabin. And only
that Tom and his companions in the silent airship saw the men.
Mr. Nestor might not have been rescued for some further time.
His version of what had happened was correct. He had been
mistaken for Tom, and the spy with the gold tooth and his
accomplice had waylaid Mary's father, under the belief that it
was Tom Swift with the plans of the new silent motor. Mr. Nestor
had been attacked while riding his wheel in a lonely place, and
had been carried off and kept in hiding, a prisoner even after
his identity became known.
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