ter, came with the forged note. The giant and Tom's men set out
in the tank, and the machine was stopped at a certain place where the
plotter, who gave the name of Crossleigh, told them Tom was to meet his
men.

Out of ambush leaped Simpson and others, who overpowered the mechanics,
even subduing Koku after a fierce fight, and then they took possession
of the tank, making the others prisoners.

What happened after that could only be conjectured by Tom's men, for
they were shut up in an inner room. It seemed certain, though, that the
tank was taken to some secret place and there painted to resemble the
verdure. Then she went on again, coming to rest where Tom and Ned saw
her.

Meanwhile the plotters were gradually getting at the secrets of
construction, and they were in the midst of this work when one of them
saw the aeroplane. Rightly guessing what it portended, they left
hurriedly, still leaving the hapless men bound, and started the tank on
what they thought would be her last trip.

"But you saved her, Tom!" cried Ned. "You saved her with the wireless."

And word was sent back to Shopton by the same means to tell Mr. Swift,
Mr. Damon, and the others that Tom and his tank were safe. And then, a
little later, when the bound men had recovered the use of their cramped
limbs, the tank was backed away from the ledge and started on her
homeward way, Tom and Ned preceding her in the Hawk.

Without further incident, save a slight break which was soon repaired,
Tank A soon reached her harbor again, and a double guard was posted
about the shop.

"And they won't get much more chance to steal her secrets," said Tom
that night, when the stories had been told.

"Why?" asked Ned.

"We start to dismantle her at once," Tom answered, "and she goes to
England to be reproduced for France."

"If only those plotters haven't stolen the secrets," mused Ned.

But if they had they got little good of them. For shortly afterward
government secret service agents rounded up the chief members of the
gang, including Simpson and Blakeson. They, with Schwen, were sent to
an internment camp for the period of the war, and enough information
was obtained from them to disclose all the workings of the plot.

"It was just like lots of other stunts the German spies tried to put
over on the good old U.S.A.," said Tom to Ned, the day after the
dismantled tank was shipped to Great Britain. "In some way the spies
found out what I was making, and t