," added Ned, "so I'm off
to my work."

"All right," assented Tom. "I've got several new schemes to try. Some
of them ought to work."

Tom Swift was very busy for the next few days--so busy, in fact, that
even Mary saw little of him. He was closeted with Mr. Baxter more than
once, and that individual seemed to lose some of his bitter feelings
over the loss of his formulae as he found he could be of service to the
young inventor. For he was of service in suggesting new ways of
combining fire-fighting chemicals, gained by his association with the
fireworks concern.

"And that's about all the benefit I derived from being with those
scoundrels, Field and Melling," said Mr. Baxter gloomily.

"You still think they took your dye formulae?" asked Tom.

"I'm positive of it, but I can't prove anything. They threatened to get
the best of me when I would not sell them, for a ridiculously low sum,
an interest in the secrets. And I believe they did get the best of me
during that fire."

"I believe the same!" exclaimed Tom.

"How is that? What do you know? Can you help me prove anything against
them?" eagerly asked the chemist.

"Well, I don't know," answered Tom slowly. "I'll tell you what I heard."

Thereupon he related the conversation he had overheard while with Mary
at the wayside inn. The eyes of Josephus Baxter gleamed as he listened
to this recital.

"So that was their game!" he cried, as he smote the table with his
fist, thereby nearly upsetting a test tube of acid, which Tom caught
just in time. "I knew something crooked was going on, and they thought
I'd be so badly overcome in the fire that I wouldn't know, or wouldn't
remember, what happened."

"What did happen?" asked Tom. "All I know is that you were overcome in
the laboratory room."

"It's too long a story to tell in detail now," said Mr. Baxter. "But
the main facts are that through misrepresentations I was induced to
associate myself with Field and Melling. They had a good factory for
the making of fireworks, and some of the chemicals used in that
industry also enter into the manufacture of the kind of dyes I have in
mind to make. So I associated myself with them, they agreeing to let me
use their laboratory.

"One night they came to see me as I was working there over my formulae.
They pretended to have discovered something in an expired patent that
nullified what I had. I did not believe this to be so, and I brought
out my formulae to compare with