Of course Tom Swift was interested in all that Mary was interested in. Nevertheless he had pretty well put out of his mind any anxiety for the invalid. He believed that Mr. Nestor was in very capable hands, for the eccentricities of Wakefield Damon did not keep him from being a loyal friend and a jolly traveling companion. As Mr. Barton Swift said, Tom ate, slept, and lived _flying boat_! Nothing else in the world seemed just then of so much importance as the building of the _Winged Arrow_, which was the name Tom had selected for the seaplane. “If the craft accomplished the speed Tom expects, she will be well named,” the elder Swift said in confidence to Ned Newton. Secretly Ned was quite as proud of his chum’s ability and brains as was Tom’s father. But he felt it his duty to put brakes on whenever he saw a great amount of money being risked in an enterprise that might toe a fizzle in the end. To Tom’s mind the weeks passed with astonishing celerity. Mary was looking for news from Iceland when the huge flying boat was removed in sections from the erecting shop and trundled down to the edge of Lake Carlopa on trucks. There it was once more put together on the ways, every part tested for faults, the motors put aboard and connected with the propellers, and then, like any ship, she was launched into the water. It was a gala day in Shopton when the marvel was given her first bath. The works closed down and everybody connected with the Swift Construction Company was on hand to see the launching. Mary Nestor broke the bottle of grape juice on the nose of the _Winged Arrow_ as she struck the water and was splashed in return by the water as the plane “made a hole” in the lake. It was a rough and windy day when this took place; but the boat merely rocked gently upon the surface after that first splash. It made a very brave appearance indeed. “Mebbe the jinx is finished,” said Carney, the old workman, in confidence when the launching was over. “Anyway, we got the thing out of the shops without killing anybody. And that’s a good thing.” Tom Swift was not thinking about Carney’s “jinx” on this day. He was much too deeply absorbed in the fact of the boat’s being in the water. Then, too, he had a small puzzle in his mind while the ceremony of launching was taking place. In the crowd of spectators was a man whose face he knew. The man watched proceedings with an exceedingly keen scrutiny. His interest in the huge flying boat was professional, Tom was sure. He began to have some uneasiness about the man, for, although he was sure he had seen him before, Tom Swift could not remember where he had seen him or what his name was. CHAPTER XI THE TRIAL Ned Newton took dinner at the Swift house that evening, and in the course of the meal he asked Tom: “Did you chance to see a man in a frock coat, a gardenia in his buttonhole, and wearing a top hat at the lake to-day? Little peaked black mustache and a whisp of goatee? Rather Frenchy looking.”