voice of a new man.

Now, serenely confident that discovery was impossible, he picked up his
small but heavy bag and started for the door. Dawn was breaking and he
wished to put as many miles between himself and Tom's laboratory as
could be covered in the next few hours. But at the door he hesitated.
Then, despite the furious yapping of Spot, he returned to the table of
the rays and, with deliberate thoroughness smashed the costly tubes
which had brought about his rehabilitation. With a pinch bar from a
nearby tool rack, he wrecked the controls and generating mechanisms
beyond recognition. Now he was absolutely secure! No meddling experts
could possibly discover the secret of Tom's invention. All evidence
would show that the young experimenter had met his death at the hands of
Old Crompton, the despised hermit of West Laketon. But none would dream
that the handsome man of means who was henceforth to be known as George
Voight was that same despised hermit.

He recovered his satchel and left the scene. With long, rapid strides he
proceeded down the old dirt road toward the main highway where, instead
of turning east into the village, he would turn west and walk to
Kernsburg, the neighboring town. There, in not more than two hours time,
his new life would really begin!

* * * * *

Had you, a visitor, departed from Laketon when Old Crompton did and
returned twelve years later, you would have noticed very little
difference in the appearance of the village. The old town hall and the
little park were the same, the dingy brick building among the trees
being just a little dingier and its wooden steps more worn and sagged.
The main street showed evidence of recent repaving, and, in consequence
of the resulting increase in through automobile traffic; there were two
new gasoline filling stations in the heart of the town. Down the road
about a half mile there was a new building, which, upon inquiring from
one of the natives, would be proudly designated as the new high school
building. Otherwise there were no changes to be observed.

In his dilapidated chair in the untidy office he had occupied for nearly
thirty years, sat Asa Culkin, popularly known as "Judge" Culkin. Justice
of the peace, sheriff, attorney-at-law, and three times Mayor of
Laketon, he was still a controlling factor in local politics and
government. And many a knotty legal problem was settled in that gloomy
little office. Many a di