“No, you must not think it was your fault, Tom,” said his father.  “You could not help it, though I appreciate your desire to recover the missing model.”

“And I’ll do it, too, dad.  I’ll start to-morrow, and I’ll make a complete circuit of the country for a hundred miles around.  I can easily do it on my motor-cycle.  If I can’t get on the trail of the three men who robbed me, maybe I can find Happy Harry.”

“I doubt it, my son.  Still, you may try.  Now I must write to Mr. Crawford and tell him about the attempted burglary while I was away.  It may give him a clue to work on.  I’m afraid you ran quite a risk, Tom.”

“I didn’t think about that, dad.  I only wish I had managed to keep that rascal a prisoner.”

The next day Tom started off on a hunt.  He planned to be gone overnight, as he intended to go first to Dunkirk, where Mr. Blackford lived, and begin his search from there.

CHAPTER XX.

ERADICATE SAWS WOOD

The farmer’s family, including the son who was a deputy sheriff, was glad to see Tom.  Jed said he had “been on the job” ever since the mysterious robbery of Tom had taken place, but though he had seen many red automobiles he had no trace of the three men.

From Dunkirk Tom went back over the route he had taken in going from Pompville to Centreford, and made some inquiries in the neighborhood of the church shed, where he had taken shelter.  The locality was sparsely settled, however, and no one could give any clues to the robbers.

The young inventor next made a trip over the lonely, sandy road, where he had met with the tramp, Happy Harry.  But there were even fewer houses near that stretch than around the church, so he got no satisfaction there.  Tom spent the night at a country inn, and resumed his search the next morning, but with no results.  The men had apparently completely disappeared, leaving no traces behind them.

“I may as well go home,” thought Tom, as he was riding his motor-cycle along a pleasant country road.  “Dad may be worried, and perhaps something has turned up in Shopton that will aid me.  If there isn’t, I’m going to start out again in a few days in another direction.”

There was no news in Shopton, however.  Town found his father scarcely able to work, so worried was he over the loss of his most important invention.

Two weeks passed, the young machinist taking trips of several days’ duration to different points near his home, in the hope of discovering something.  But he was unsuccessful, and, in the meanwhile, no reassuring word was received from the lawyers in Washington.  Mr. Crawford wrote that no move had yet been made by the thieves to take out patent papers, and while this, in a sense, was some aid to Mr. Swift, still he could not proceed on his own account to protect his new motor.  All that could be done was to await the first movement on the part of the scoundrels.