“Yes, Mary. Thanks! I’m glad you did. It’s all a mystery to me.” “What do you think it means?” “That would be hard to say. I’ll have to admit I’m a bit worried about it, in view of several things that have happened at the shop lately.” “Oh, Tom do you think there is any danger?” “No more than usual. There’s always danger when you have rivals. But I never heard of this Blodgett that I know of. As for the other matters: As I said, Mr. Damon opened the subject but I told him to head off any visit of the men to me, for I wouldn’t do business with them. And from the fact that they haven’t called on me, I took it that they had dropped the matter.” “It doesn’t seem so, though, does it?” asked Mary. “I should say not! I don’t like this at all!” Tom seemed anxious and upset over the matter. “And what I particularly don’t like is the way they said Blodgett would fix it. Is that the word they used?” “Yes. It was ‘fix,’ I’m sure of it.” “Smacks of desperation,” commented Tom. “I wonder if the owner of the restaurant would know those men, Mary?” “He might.” “Then I’m going to drop in and have a talk with him. Give me the address. Oh, I don’t mean I’m going to drop in off the _Hummer_ and let you run the machine alone,” he went on with a laugh, as he saw Mary’s momentary gasp of surprise. “I’ll go over and see him to-morrow. Just now we’ll go for a ride. I need a little free breathing space in the upper air.” “Yes, it’s a wonderful day for a ride, Tom. And there’s no sign at all of rain.” “We need rain, too,” said the young inventor. “The woods and fields are as dry as tinder. If a forest fire should start now it would do a lot of damage. But as long as it hasn’t rained for some time, we’ll hope it will hold off until we get back from our spin. Come on—let’s go!” CHAPTER XI A DOUBLE PERIL WITH a roar the motor accepted the additional gas Tom turned into the cylinders, and a moment later the little plane began to move over the smooth surface of the field. Gathering speed, the _Hummer_ slowly rose as the young inventor depressed the horizontal rudder, and a moment later up rose the machine like some creature of life—up and up toward the clouds. “This is glorious!” cried Mary, thrilled by the sensation. Riding in a plane was not new to her, but she never failed to get a sense of exhilaration out of even a short spin in the air. “Not so bad,” answered Tom. By raising their voices slightly they could make themselves audible to one another, for, as the young man had said, there was a silencer, or muffler, on his engine. “It makes one forget all their trouble,” called out Mary, as she looked over the side of the rear cockpit where she sat strapped in and glanced down at the earth rapidly dropping away below them. “Yes, it does,” assented Tom. “That’s one reason I wanted to come out to-day—to get rid of some of the cobwebs.” “And are they being brushed away?” asked Mary.