it robbed right after he was hangin' around here with
the burglar tools?" inquired Andy, as if that was unanswerable.

"What were you hanging around here for?" Mr. Swift demanded quickly.

"Me? Oh, well, me an' Sam Snedecker was out takin' a walk. That's all."

"You didn't want to rob the bank, did you?" went on the inventor,
keenly.

"Of course not," roared the bully, indignantly. "I ain't got no burglar
tools."

Andy told more along the same line, but his testimony of having seen
Tom near the bank, with a bag of odd tools could not be shaken. In fact
it was true, as far as it went, but, of course, the tools were only
those for the airship; the same ones Mr. Sharp had sent the lad after.
Sam Snedecker was called in after Andy, and told substantially the same
story.

Mr. Swift could not understand it, for he knew nothing of Tom being
sent for the tools, and had not heard any talk at home of the bag of
implements ordered by the balloonist. Still, of course, he knew Tom had
nothing to do with the robbery, and he knew his son had been at home
all the night previous. Still this was rather negative evidence. But
the inventor had one question yet to ask.

"You say you also suspect Mr. Damon of complicity in this affair?" he
went on, to the chief of police.

"We sure do," replied Mr. Simonson.

"Then can you explain?" proceeded the inventor, "how it is that Mr.
Damon has on deposit in this bank a large sum. Would he rob the bank
where his own funds were?"

"We are prepared for that," declared the president. "It is true that
Mr. Damon has about ten thousand dollars in our bank, but we believe he
deposited it only as a blind, so as to cover up his tracks. It is a
deep-laid scheme, and escaping in the airship is part of it. I am
sorry, Mr. Swift, that I have to believe your son and his accomplice
guilty, but I am obliged to. Chief, you had better send out a general
alarm. The airship ought to be easy to trace."

"I'll telegraph at once," said the official.

"And you believe my son guilty, solely on the testimony of these two
boys, who, as is well known, are his enemies?" asked Mr. Swift.

"The clue they gave us is certainly most important," said the
president. "Andy came to us and told what he had seen, as soon as it
became known that the bank had been robbed."

"And I'm going to get the reward for giving information of the robbers,
too!" cried the bully.

"I'm going to have my share!" insisted Sam.

"Ah, th