“You are taking a great deal for granted, Tom.”

“I don’t think so, dad.  I’ve got to assume something, and maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think so.  At any rate, I’m going to try, if you’ll let me.”

“What do you mean to do?”

“I want to go to that deserted mansion and see what I can find.  If I locate the thieves, well—­”

“You may run into danger.”

“Then you admit I may be on the right track, dad?”

“Not at all,” and Mr. Swift smiled at the quick manner in which Tom turned the tables on him.  “I admit there may be a band of tramps in that house.  Very likely there is—­almost any deserted place would be attractive to them.  But they may not be the ones you seek.  In fact, I hardly see how they can be.  The men who stole my model and patent papers are wealthy.  They would not be very likely to stay in deserted houses.”

“Perhaps some of the scoundrels whom they hired might, and through them I can get on the track of the principals.”

“Well, there is something in that,” admitted Mr. Swift.

“Then may I go, dad?”

“I suppose so.  We must leave nothing untried to get back the stolen model and papers.  But I don’t want you to run any risks.  If you would only take some one with you.  There’s your chum, Ned Newton.  Perhaps he would go.”

“No, I’d rather work it alone, dad.  I’ll be careful.  Besides, Ned could not get away from the bank.  I may have to be gone a week, and he has no motor-cycle.  I can manage all right.”

Tom was off bright and early.  He had carefully laid his plans, and had decided that he would not go direct to Pineford, which was the nearest village to the old Harkness mansion.

“If those fellows are in hiding they will probably keep watch on who comes to the village,” thought Tom.  “The arrival of some one on a motor-cycle will be sure to be reported to them, and they may skip out.  I’ve got to come up from another direction, so I think I’ll circle around, and reach the mansion from the stretch of woods on the north.”

He had inquired from Eradicate as to the lay of the land, and had a good general idea of it.  He knew there was a patch of woodland on one side of the mansion, while the other sides were open.

“I may not be able to ride through the woods,” mused Tom, “but I’ll take my machine as close as I can, and walk the rest of the way.  Once I discover whether or not the gang is in the place, I’ll know what to do.”

To follow out the plan he had laid down for himself meant that Tom must take a roundabout way.  It would necessitate being a whole day on the road, before he would be near the head of Lake Carlopa, where the Harkness house was located.  The lake was a large one, and Tom had never been to the upper end.

When he was within a few miles of Pineford, Tom took a road that branched off and went around it.  Stopping at night in a lonely farmhouse, he pushed on the next morning, hoping to get to the woods that night.  But a puncture to one of the tires delayed him, and after that was repaired he discovered something wrong with his batteries.  He had to go five miles out of his way to get new cells, and it was dusk when he came to the stretch of woods which he knew lay between him and the old mansion.