y have the nerve to ask me to invest money in some secret dye
formulae they claim will revolutionize the industry! Bah! They're
scoundrels, that's what they are--Field and Melling are scoundrels, and
I'm going to have them arrested!"

CHAPTER XVII

A TOWN BLAZE

Mary's uncle, Jasper Blake, always an impetuous man, opened the door so
quickly that Tom, who was standing near it talking to Mary, barely had
time to move aside.

"Oh, Tom, excuse me! Didn't see you!" bruskly went on Mr. Blake. "But
this thing has gotten on my nerves and I guess I'm a bit wrought up.

"There isn't any guessing about it, Uncle Jasper," said Mary, with a
laugh and a look at Tom to warn him not to tell her relative that he
had just befriended Field and Melling. "For," as Mary said to Tom
later, "he would positively rave at you."

Tom was wise enough to realize this, and so, after some laughing
reference to the effect that he would have to wear protective armor if
he stood near doors when Mary's uncle opened them so suddenly, the
conversation became general.

"I hope you never get roped in as I have been," said Mr. Blake, as he
sat down. "Those scoundrels, Field and Melling, would rob a baby of his
first tooth if they had the chance!"

"No, I am not likely to have anything to do with them; though I have
met them," and Tom gave Mary a glance. "But did I hear you say they are
embarking on a dye enterprise?" he asked. "I couldn't help overhearing
what you said in the hall," he explained.

"That's the story they tell," said Uncle Jasper. "I was foolish enough
to invest in the Landmark Building, and now I'm likely to lose it all
in a lawsuit."

"I mentioned it," said Mary.

"And that isn't the worst," went on Mr. Blake. "But Barton--that's your
friend of the submarine--will give me the laugh, for he was asked to
invest in the same building, and didn't."

"Oh, maybe it will all turn out right," said Tom consolingly. "My
friend Mr. Damon has a little stock in the same structure."

"Nothing those two scoundrels have anything to do with will turn out
right," declared Mary's uncle. "And to think of their nerve when they
ask me to go in with them on a dye scheme!"

"That's what interests me," said Tom.

"Well, take my advice and don't become interested to the extent of
investing any money," warned Mr. Blake. "I'm not going to."

"I didn't mean that way," said Tom. "But I happen to be acquainted with
an expert dye maker who lost s