“Your father isn’t going to have any business dealings with Mr. Foger then?”

“I guess not.  Dad doesn’t trust him.  But say, Ned, what do you say to a little trip in my sky racer?  I want to go over to Waterford and see Mr. Damon.  We can talk about our trip, and he was going to get some big maps of Central Mexico to study.  Will you come?”

“I will this afternoon.  I’ve got to go to the bank now.”

“All right, I’ll wait for you.  In the meanwhile I’ll be tuning up the motor.  It didn’t run just right the other night.”

The two chums separated, Ned to go downtown to the bank, while Tom hastened to the shed where he kept his speedy little air craft.  Meanwhile Eradicate went on whitewashing the fence, pausing every now and then to chuckle at the memory of Andy Foger.

Tom found that some minor adjustments had to be made to the motor, and they took him a couple of hours to complete.  It was nearly noon when he finished, and leaving the sky racer in the open space in front of the shed, he went in the house to wash up, for his face and hands were begrimed with dirt and oil.

“But the machine’s in good shape,” he said to the housekeeper when she objected to his appearance, “and Ned and I will have a speedy spin this afternoon.”

“Oh, you reckless boys!  Risking your lives in those aeroplanes!” exclaimed Mrs. Baggert.

“Why, they’re safer than street cars!” declared Tom with a laugh.  “Just think how often street cars collide, and you never heard of an aeroplane doing that.”

“No, but think what happens when they fall.”

“That’s it!” cried Tom gaily, “when they fall you don’t have time to think.  But is dinner ready?  I’m hungry.”

“Never saw you when you weren’t.” commented the housekeeper laughing.  “Yes, you can sit right down.  We won’t wait for your father.  He said he’d be late as he wants to find something about his gyroscope.  I never did any such people as inventors for spoiling their meals,” she added as the put dinner on the tab’s.

Mr. Swift came in before his son had finished.

“Was Andy Foger here to see me again?” he asked.

“No, why do you ask?” inquired Tom quickly.

“I just saw him out by the aeroplane shed, and—­”

Tom jumped up without another word, and hurried to where his sky racer rested on its bicycle wheels.

He breathed more easily when he saw that Andy was not in sight, and a hurried inspection of the aeroplane did not disclose that it had been tampered with.

“Anything the matter?” asked Mr. Swift, as he followed his son.

“No, but when you mentioned that Andy was out here I thought he might have been up to some of his tricks.  He had a little trouble with Eradicate this morning, and he threatened to get even with me for it.”  And Tom told of the whitewashing incident.

“I just happened to see him as I was coming to dinner,” went on the aged inventor.  “He hurried off—­when he noticed me, but I thought he might have been here to leave another letter.”