"And they won't get much more chance to steal her secrets," said Tom
that night, when the stories had been told.
"Why?" asked Ned.
"We start to dismantle her at once," Tom answered, "and she goes to
England to be reproduced for France."
"If only those plotters haven't stolen the secrets," mused Ned.
But if they had they got little good of them. For shortly afterward
government secret service agents rounded up the chief members of the
gang, including Simpson and Blakeson. They, with Schwen, were sent to
an internment camp for the period of the war, and enough information
was obtained from them to disclose all the workings of the plot.
"It was just like lots of other stunts the German spies tried to put
over on the good old U.S.A.," said Tom to Ned, the day after the
dismantled tank was shipped to Great Britain. "In some way the spies
found out what I was making, and then they got hold of Blakeson and
Grinder. Those fellows, who so nearly queered me in the big tunnel game
promised to make a tank that would beat those the British at first put
out, and they took some German money in advance for doing it.
"When they found they couldn't make good, the German spies agreed to
help them get possession of my secrets. They worked hard enough at it,
too, but, thanks to you, Ned, and to Eradicate, who gave us the tip on
Schwen, we beat 'em out."
"And so it's all over, Tom?"
"Yes, practically all over. I've given all my interests in the tank to
Uncle Sam. It was the only way I could do my bit, at this time. But
I've something else up my sleeve."
And those of you who care to learn what the young inventor next did may
do so by reading the next volume of this series.
It was about a week after Tank A, as she was still officially called,
had been shipped in sections that Ned Newton called at Tom's home. He
found his chum, with a flower in his buttonhole, about to leave in his
small runabout.
"Oh, excuse me!" exclaimed Ned. "This is Wednesday night. I might have
known. Give Mary my regards."
"I will," promised Tom, with a smile.
End of Project Gutenberg's Tom Swift and his War Tank, by Victor Appleton
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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