ppened to Tom there--well, we'll make whoever is responsible wish it
hadn't!"

"Bless my fountain pen, but that's what we will!" chimed in Mr. Damon.

And so the two began the search for the missing youth.

Chapter XXI

A Prisoner

Amos Kanker came to the door of his farmhouse as Ned and Mr. Damon
drove up in the runabout. There was an unpleasant grin on the not very
prepossessing face of the farmer, and what Ned thought was a cunning
look, as he slouched out and asked:

"Well, what do you want? Come to smash up any more of my barns at three
thousand dollars a smash?"

"Hardly," answered Ned shortly. "Your prices are too high for such
ramshackle barns as you have. Where's Tom Swift?" he asked sharply.

"Huh! Do you mean that young whipper-snapper with his big traction
engine?" demanded Mr. Kanker.

"Look here!" blustered Mr. Damon, "Tom Swift is neither a
whipper-snapper nor is his machine a traction engine. It's a war tank."

"That doesn't matter much to me," said the farmer, with a grating
laugh. "It looks like a traction engine, though it smashes things up
more'n any one I ever saw."

"That isn't the point," broke in Ned. "Where is my friend, Tom Swift?
That's what we want to know."

"Huh! What makes you think I can tell you?" demanded Kanker.

"Didn't he come out here?" asked Mr. Damon.

"Not as I knows of," was the surly answer.

"Look here!" exclaimed Ned, and his tones were firm, with no bluster
nor bluff in them, "we came out here to find Tom Swift, and we're going
to find him! We have reason to believe he's here--at least, he started
for here," he substituted, as he wished to make no statement he could
not prove. "Now we don't claim we have any right to be on your
property, and we don't intend to stay here any longer than we can help.
But we do claim the right, in common decency, to ask if you have seen
anything of Tom. There may have been an accident; there may have been
foul play; and there may be international complications in this
business. If there are, those involved won't get off as easily as they
think. I'd advise you to keep a civil tongue in your head and answer
our questions. If we have to get the police and detectives out here, as
well as the governmental department of justice, you may have to answer
their questions, and they won't be as decent to you as we are!"

"Hurray!" whispered Mr Damon to Ned. "That's the way to talk!"

And indeed the forceful remarks of the youn