ght best search in next when he heard, running along a road that
bordered the lake, an automobile.

"Wonder who that is?" mused Tom. "It won't do any harm to take a look,
for it might be some of those thieves again. They probably still have
their auto or Happy Harry couldn't have gotten from Sandport to Shopton
so quickly."

The young inventor slipped ashore from the motor-boat, taking care to
make no noise. Stealing silently along toward the road, he peered
through the underbrush for a sight of the machine, which seemed to be
going slowly. But before the youth had a glimpse of it he was made
aware who the occupant was by hearing someone exclaim:

"Bless my shoe laces if this cantankerous contraption isn't going wrong
again! I wonder if it's going to have a fit here in this lonely place.
It acts just as if it was. Bless my very existence! Hold on now. Be
nice! Be nice!"

"Mr. Damon!" exclaimed Tom, and, without knowing it, he had spoken
aloud.

"Hold on there! Hold on! Who's calling me in this forsaken locality?
Bless my shirt studs! But who is it?" and the eccentric man who had
sold Tom the motor-cycle looked intently at the bushes.

"Here I am, Mr. Damon," answered the lad, stepping out into the road.
"I knew it was you as soon as I saw you."

"Bless my liver, but that's very true! I suppose you heard my
unfortunate automobile puffing along. I declare I don't know what ails
it. I got it on the advice of my physician, who said I must get out in
the air, but, bless my gears, it's the auto who needs a doctor more
than I do! It's continually out of order. Something is going to
happen right away. I can tell by the way it's behaving."

Mr. Damon had thrown out the clutch, but the engine was still running,
though in a jerky, uncertain fashion, which indicated to the trained
ear of the young inventor that something was wrong.

"Perhaps I can fix it for you as I did before," ventured Tom.

"Bless my eyebrows! Perhaps you can," cried the eccentric man
hopefully. "You always seem to turn up at the right moment. How do
you manage it?"

"I don't know. I remember the time you turned up just when I wanted
you to help me capture Happy Harry and his gang, and now, by, a strange
coincidence, I'm after them again."

"You don't say so! My good gracious! Bless my hatband! But that's
odd. There!" he ejaculated suddenly as the automobile engine stopped
with a choking sigh, "I knew something was going