“Whew!” whistled Tom. “They’re keeping up the fight until the last minute. So you caught the masked men, did you? Good! I’ll have a look at them in a moment. But what’s our time, Ned? We’ve completed our schedule and fulfilled our contract, but I’d like to know what actual running time we made this last trip in.” Ned did some rapid figuring. Then he uttered a cry of delight. “What is it?” asked Tom. “Fifteen hours and forty-six minutes!” was the answer. “The best time ever made! You’ve broken all records, Tom!” “I’m glad of it,” was the modest reply. “And so am I!” cried a voice, and Mary pressed her way through the milling throng to—well, what she did to Tom is none of your business nor mine, is it? “Well, young man, you did what you said you would,” came in the rasping voice of Jason Jacks. “Any time you want that hundred thousand dollars, or two hundred thousand, just let me know. I didn’t believe much in this thing when you started, but you have proved that you can run an airline express between New York and San Francisco. There’s a big future in it, I believe!” “So do I,” said Tom quietly. “And now I’d like to see who those masked men are.” When the men were brought before the young inventor and stripped of black face-coverings, they proved to be none other than Renwick Fawn and the man who variously called himself Blodgett and Barsky—the men who had endeavored to steal Tom’s Chest of Secrets. “I thought so!” said the young inventor. “So it was you who were back of this, with Kenny and Schlump. Well, we have both of them and now we have you.” “But I thought these two were in jail,” said Ned wonderingly. “They either escaped or bribed their way to a parole,” returned Tom. “But they’ll go back now.” And back went Fawn and Barsky to the prison from which, by means of political influence, they had been paroled. They had wanted revenge and had also tried, by corrupting Kenny and Schlump, to steal the airline express patents. But their plans had been frustrated. “Did you really suspect, Tom, that the two masked plotters were Fawn and Barsky?” asked Ned. “Not at first,” was the answer. “Fawn has gotten over that queer trick of throwing out his elbow that surely would have given him away, and both men disguised their voices when they talked. They wanted to escape recognition, for they knew they might be sent back to jail on the old charges. Well, they’ll do double time now—on the old charge, and for trying to kidnap me, as well as setting fire to the hangar.” “They played a desperate game,” commented Ned. “To think of digging that tunnel and going to all that work to get your patents.” “They didn’t dig the tunnel,” Tom answered. “It’s a natural one. They just made an entrance to it near our fence—that much of the digging alone was new. The rest was natural. I may find a use for that same tunnel, too. It’s a good thing to know about. And now, Ned, I’m going to take a little vacation.” “You deserve it!” answered the manager.