He turned to glance up at the window of the sleeping room over the
garage where Koku was supposed to spend the night. But Tom knew the
giant was seldom there during the dark hours. He was as much of a
night-prowler as a wildcat or an owl.

There was no light there in any case. But Koku did not use a light
much. He could see in the dark, like a wild animal. Tom did not want to
call him. If he must have Koku's help, he would have to climb the
stairs to his bedside. The giant always aroused as wide awake as at
noonday.

But while the young inventor hesitated a sudden, but muffled, snap--the
breaking of metal--sounded. Tom knew instantly the direction from which
the sound came.

Although he could see nothing up there at the bathroom window because
of the rain and the deep shadow, he knew that the snapping sound meant
the severing of the window lock that he had so recently closed. Some
instrument had been forced under the bottom of the lower sash and
pressure enough been brought to bear to break the thin steel lever.

On the heels of this sound came another. A muffled buzzing somewhere in
the house--again! again! And then, startlingly clear from the room over
the garage, the burglar alarm went off in Koku's chamber.

"It's all off now!" gasped Tom, and he ran to the foot of the
honeysuckle ladder up which he knew the enemy had climbed to get to the
roof of the porch. "If he comes down I'll have him!" muttered Tom,
staring up into the mist and gloom.

"Fo' de lawsy's sake! 'Tain't mawnin', is it?" Rad's sleepy voice was
heard to announce. "No, it's da'k as--" And the voice trailed off into
silence.

"Tom! Tom!" the young fellow heard his aroused father shouting.

Tom knew that his father was in no danger. In fact Mr. Swift's voice
did not even betray apprehension. It was to the garage Tom looked for
an explosion. But none came.

If Koku was up there the prolonged buzzing of the alarm did not awake
him. Therefore he could not be there. Tom realized that if the burglar
was to be taken the whole affair fell upon his shoulders.

"And I've got my hands full, if it is the fellow with the big feet that
we saw on the Waterfield Road the other day," muttered the young
inventor.

Nothing stirred on the porch roof. Moment after moment slipped by. Tom
began to grow more than amazed. He was worried. What would happen next?

His father had not cried out again. Stepping around to the end of the
roofed porch, Tom saw a lig