“He’s choking them to death!” shouted Ned.

But Koku was not needlessly cruel.

A moment later, with a quick and sudden motion he bent his arms, bringing toward each other the two men he held as captives.  Their heads came together with a dull thud, and a second later Koku allowed two limp bodies to slip from his grip to the floor.

“He’s done for them!” Tom cried.  “Knocked them unconscious.  Good for you, Koku!”

The giant grunted, and then, with a quick motion, slung himself around, hoping to bring the enemies at his back within reach of his powerful arms.  But there was no need of this.

As soon as the other two ruffians had seen their companions fall to the floor of the shop they turned and fled, leaping from an open window.

“There they go!” cried Ned.

“Some of the other men can chase them,” said the young inventor.  “We’ll tie up the two Koku has captured.”

As he approached nearer to the unconscious captives Tom uttered a cry of surprise, for he recognized them as two of the new men he had employed.

“What can this mean?” he asked wonderingly.

He glanced toward the window through which the two men had jumped to escape, and he was just in time to see one of them run past the open door.  The face of this one was under a powerful electric light, and Tom at once recognized the man as Feldman, the worker who had had so much trouble with the trip-hammer.

“This sure is a puzzle,” marveled Tom.  “My own men in the plot!  But why did they attack Koku?”

The giant, bending over the men he had knocked unconscious by beating their heads together, seemed little worse for the attack.

“We tie ’em up,” he said grimly, as he brought over the rope that had been intended for himself.

CHAPTER XIV THE FIRST FLIGHT

Little time was lost in securing the two men who bad been so effectively rendered helpless by Koku’s ready, if rough, measures.  One of them was showing signs of returning consciousness now, and Tom, not willing to inflict needless pain, even on an enemy, told one of his men, summoned by the alarm, to bring water.  Soon the two men opened their eyes, and looked about them in dazed fashion.

“Did—­did anything hit me?” asked one meekly.

“It must have been a thunderbolt,” spoke the other dreamily.  “But it didn’t look like a storm.”

“Oh, dere was a storm, all right,” chuckled Eradicate, who, having left his mule, Boomerang outside, came into the shed.  “It was a giant storm all right.”

The men put their hands to their heads, and seemed to comprehend.  They looked at the rope that bound their feet.  Their forearms had been loosened to allow them to take a drink of water.

“What does this mean—­Ransom—­Kurdy?” asked Tom sternly, when the men seemed able to talk.  “Did you attack Koku?”