The rest of the night every precaution was taken to prevent any damage being done to the plane or the car. Men walked about the hangar in relays, and the slightest suspicious object or movement was at once investigated. Nothing happened, and when the first glimmer of dawn appeared, Tom made ready to hop off on what he hoped would be the last trip before he would fulfil the conditions of Jason Jacks. “Those fellows must know that everything depends on my completion of the six round trips, Ned,” said the young inventor as he took his place in the car, while Meldrum and Dodge went to the cockpit of the aeroplane. “They think if they can put me out of business I won’t get the money to complete the patent work and establish the line as a practical concern.” “I suppose so,” agreed Ned. “But how do you think they know that?” “Oh, there has been a lot of talk over the financing of this thing. You know that,” remarked Tom. “It isn’t extraordinary that some of these plotters would get to hear about it. I wish we could have held on to Schlump, though.” “So do I! He might have given information that would help us catch those other two—the ones you say wore masks. I wonder who they could be?” “I have an idea,” said Tom. “I’ll tell you later if my suspicions are correct. But now we’ve got to get busy. I’m going to try to break the time record this trip. If I do it will please the old millionaire. Then, when we come back from San Francisco—if we do—and make it somewhere near the sixteen hours, he’ll put in the rest of the cash.” “And believe me, we’ll need it!” exclaimed Ned, in such fervent tones that Tom asked: “Why, is our bank balance low?” “Well, it isn’t anything to boast of,” Ned answered. “You know we had to dip into it pretty heavily to finance this thing—not only in building the planes but in securing the landing fields and paying the men who look after them.” “Yes, it has taken a bit of money,” admitted Tom. “But then, after we are successful, and I’m sure we shall be, we’ll get it all back, and more, too.” “Yes,” agreed Ned. “Well, let’s go!” He followed Ned and the others into the main compartment of the car which had been clamped to the aeroplane in readiness for the start. Though Ned did not tell Tom, the finances of the Swifts were in a very precarious state just then. Of course the firm owned much property and many valuable patents, but the Swift Construction Company had drawn largely on its credit, borrowing from the banks, and to raise more cash meant the stretching of the credit to a danger point. By selling some of their holdings, cash could have been raised, certainly; but no business man likes to sacrifice any of his principle, and Ned was a good business man.