CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. BLASTING FIRE........................... 1 II. NED DISAPPEARS.......................... 12 III. SUSPICIONS.............................. 24 IV. A STRANGE MESSAGE....................... 33 V. ON A MYSTERIOUS TRAIL................... 45 VI. TOO LATE................................ 55 VII. A WILD CHASE............................ 64 VIII. TWO CAPTIVES............................ 72 IX. ON THE ISLAND........................... 78 X. THE ESCAPE.............................. 90 XI. RESCUED................................. 100 XII. GREENBAUM THREATENS..................... 109 XIII. MR. DAMON DANCES........................ 115 XIV. KOKU IS DRUGGED......................... 125 XV. A SINISTER WARNING...................... 133 XVI. A STARTLING DISCOVERY................... 143 XVII. USELESS PLEADINGS....................... 151 XVIII. AN ANONYMOUS ADVERTISEMENT.............. 159 XIX. THE MEETING............................. 166 XX. MASKED MEN.............................. 171 XXI. A TEMPTING OFFER........................ 179 XXII. FLASHING LIGHTS......................... 186 XXIII. TOM ACCEPTS............................. 194 XXIV. A FINAL TEST............................ 201 XXV. A BRIGHT FUTURE......................... 209 TOM SWIFT AND HIS TALKING PICTURES CHAPTER I BLASTING FIRE ENTERING Tom Swift’s private laboratory from a room farther down the hall, Ned Newton, who seemed somewhat out of breath, glanced at the young inventor and asked: “Do you seem to be getting anywhere with it, Tom?” For a moment there was no reply. Tom, who had been leaning over a complicated apparatus of wires, switches, and radio bulbs that glowed dimly, was slowly turning a dial. Ned repeated his question, adding: “What seems to be the trouble?” “Trouble?” queried Tom, looking at Ned with eyes, however, that did not see him. “There must be some trouble,” insisted Ned, “or you’d have been capering around here on one leg when I came in after doing my stuff back there,” and he nodded toward the room farther down the hall. “How about it?” Tom Swift glanced away from the apparatus, which very much resembled a radio receiving set, to a yard-square burnished sheet of metal hanging in front of him and connected to the other mechanism by several wires. This burnished sheet appeared to be made of a mirror of some metal with a square of heavy plate glass covering it.