he
starting lever back and forth.

But there was no response. There was no hum from the motor. The machine
was "dead."

"That's queer," murmured the young inventor

"Maybe a fuse blew out," suggested Mr. Damon, that seeming to be his
favorite form of trouble.

"If it had you'd have known it," remarked Mr. Sharp.

"There's plenty of current in the battery, according to the registering
gauge," murmured the lad. "I can't understand it." He reversed the
current, thinking the wires might have become crossed, but the machine
would move neither backward nor forward, yet the dial indicated that
there was enough power stored away to send it a hundred miles or more.

"Perhaps the dial hand has become caught," suggested Mr. Sharp. "That
sometimes happens on a steam gauge, and indicates a high pressure when
there isn't any. Hit it slightly, and see if the hand swings back."

Tom did so. At once the hand fell to zero, indicating that there was
not an ampere of current left. The battery was exhausted, but this fact
had not been indicated on the gauge.

"I see now!" cried Tom. "It was those fellows at the hotel barn! They
monkeyed with the mechanism, short circuited the battery, and jammed
the gauge so I couldn't tell when my power was gone. If I had known
there wasn't enough to carry us I could have recharged the battery at
the hotel. But I figured that I had enough current for the entire trip,
and so there would have been, if it hadn't leaked away. Now we're in a
pretty pickle."

"Bless my hat band!" cried Mr. Damon. "Does that mean we can't move?"

"Guess that's about it," answered Mr. Sharp, and Tom nodded.

"Well, why can't we go on to some place where they sell electricity,
and get enough to take us where we want to go?" asked the odd
character, whose ideas of machinery were somewhat hazy.

"The only trouble is we can't carry the heavy car with us," replied
Tom. "It's too big to pick up and take to a charging station."

"Then we've got to wait until some one comes along with a team of
horses, and tows us in," commented Mr. Sharp. "And that will be some
time, on this lonely road."

Tom shook his head despondently. He went all over the car again, but
was forced to the first conclusion, that the reserve current had leaked
away, in consequence of the meddling prank of the youth at the hotel.
The situation was far from pleasant, and the delay would seriously
interfere with their plans.

Suddenly, as Tom was pacin