“No,” replied Tom, “but I saw—­” Then he stopped.  He recalled the man he had seen in the post-office.  He answered this description, but it was too vague to be certain.

“Did you say you’d seen him?” asked Mr. Merton, regarding Tom curiously.

“No—­yes—­that is—­well, I’ll tell my father about it,” stammered Tom, who concluded that it would be best to say nothing of his suspicions.  “I’ll be back right after dinner, Mr. Merton.  Please have the bolts ready for me, if you can.”

“I will.  Is your father going to use them in a new machine?”

“Yes; dad is always making new machines,” answered the youth, as the most polite way of not giving the proprietor of the shop any information.  “I’ll be back right after dinner,” he called as he went out to get on his wheel.

Tom was much puzzled.  He felt certain that the man in the post-office and the one who had questioned Mr. Merton were the same.

“There is something going on, that dad should know about,” reflected Tom.  “I must tell him.  I don’t believe it will be wise to send any more of his patent work over to Merton.  We must do it in the shops at home, and dad and I will have to keep our eyes open.  There may be spies about seeking to discover something about his new turbine motor.  I’ll hurry back with those bolts and tell dad.  But first I must get lunch.  I’ll go to the restaurant and have a good feed while I’m at it.”

Tom had plenty of spending money, some of which came from a small patent he had marketed himself.  He left his wheel outside the restaurant, first taking the precaution to chain the wheels, and then went inside.  Tom was hungry and ordered a good meal.  He was about half way through it when some one called his name.

“Hello, Ned!” he answered, looking up to see a youth about his own age.  “Where did you blow in from?”

“Oh, I came over from Shopton this morning,” replied Ned Newton, taking a seat at the table with Tom.  The two lads were chums, and in their younger days had often gone fishing, swimming and hunting together.  Now Ned worked in the Shopton bank, and Tom was so busy helping his father, so they did not see each other so often.

“On business or pleasure?” asked Tom, putting some more sugar in his coffee.

“Business.  I had to bring some papers over from our bank to the First National here.  But what about you?”

“Oh, I came on dad’s account.”

“Invented anything new?” asked Ned as he gave his order to the waitress.

“No, nothing since the egg-beater I was telling you about.  But I’m working on some things.”

“Why don’t you invent an automobile or an airship?”

“Maybe I will some day, but, speaking of autos, did you see the one Andy Foger has?”

“Yes; it’s a beaut!  Have you seen it?”

“Altogether at too close range.  He nearly ran over me this morning,” and the young inventor related the occurrence.