asked Ned. "The circus hasn't come to town this
evening, has it?"

"No," answered Harry, "it wasn't no circus. I saw this elephant down in
the big yard back of one of Mr. Swift's factories."

"Oh, down there, was it!" exclaimed Ned. "What was it like?"

"Well, I was walking along the top of the hill," explained Harry, "and
there's one place where, if you climb a tree, you can look right down
in the big fenced-in yard. I guess I'm about the only one that knows
about it."

"I don't believe Tom does," mused Ned, "or he'd have had that tree cut
down. He doesn't want any spying, I take it. Well, what'd you see?" he
asked Harry aloud.

"Saw an elephant, I tell you!", insisted the younger boy. "I was in
the tree, looking down, for a lot of us kids has tried to peek through
the fence and couldn't I wanted to see what was there."

"And did you?" asked Ned.

"I sure did! And it scared me, too," admitted Harry. "All at once, when
I was lookin', I saw the big doors at the back of the shed open, and
the elephant waddled out."

"Are you sure you weren't 'seeing things,' like the little boy in the
story?" asked Ned.

"Well, I sure did see something!" insisted Harry. "It was a great big
gray thing, bigger'n any elephant I ever saw in any circus. It didn't
seem to have any tail or trunk, or even legs, but it went slow, just
like an elephant does, and it shook the ground, it stepped so hard!"

"Nonsense!" cried Ned.

"Sure I saw it!" cried Harry. "Anyhow," he added, after a moment's
thought, "it was as big as an elephant, though not like any I ever saw."

"What did it do?" asked Ned.

"Well, it moved around and then it started for the fence nearest me,
where I was up in the tree. I thought it might have seen me, even
though it was gettin' dark, and it might bust through; so I ran!"

"Hum! Well, you surely were seeing things," murmured Ned, but, while he
made light of what the boy told him, the young bank Clerk was thinking:
"What is Tom up to now?"

Chapter VII

Up a Tree

"Want to come and have a look?" asked Harry, as Ned paused in the patch
of woods, which were in deeper darkness than the rest of the
countryside, for night was fast falling.

"Have a look at what?" asked Ned, who was thinking many thoughts just
then.

"At the elephant I saw back of the Swift factory. I wouldn't be skeered
if you came along."

"Well, I'm going over to see Tom Swift, anyhow," answered Ned, "so I'll
walk that way. Yo