phants there," said Ned, with a smile, as he remembered Harry's
excitement. "Still it's just as well for Tom to know that his place can
be looked down on. I'll go and tell him."

As Ned descended the tree he caught a glimpse, off to one side among
some bushes, of something moving.

"I wonder if that's my Simp friend, playing I spy?" mused Ned. "Guess
I'd better have a look."

He worked his way carefully close to the spot where he had seen the
movement. Proceeding then with more caution, watching each step and
parting the bushes with a careful hand, Ned beheld what he expected.

There was the late occupant of the pine tree the man who had stepped on
Ned's fingers, applying a small telescope to his eye and gazing in the
direction of Tom Swift's home.

The man stood concealed in a screen of bushes with his back toward Ned,
and seemed oblivious to his surroundings. He moved the glass to and
fro, and seemed eagerly intent on discovering something.

"Though what he can see of Tom's place from there isn't much," mused
Ned. "I've tried it myself, and I know; you have to be on an elevation
to look down. Still it shows he's after something, all right. Guess
I'll throw a little scare into him."

As yet, Ned believed himself unobserved, and that his presence was not
suspected was proved a moment later when he shouted:

"Hey! What are you doing there?"

He had his eye on the partially concealed man, and the latter, as Ned
said afterward, jumped fully two feet in the air, dropping his
telescope as he did so, and turning to face the lad.

"Oh, it's you, is it?" he faltered.

"No one else;" and Ned grinned. "Looking for a good place to fish, I
presume?"

Then, at least for once, the man's suave manner dropped from him as if
it had been a mask. He bared his teeth in a snarl as he answered:

"Mind your own business!"

"Something I'd advise you also to do," replied Ned smoothly. "You can't
see anything from there," he went on. "Better go back to the tree
and--cut a fishing pole!"

With this parting shot Ned sauntered down the hill, and swung around to
make his way toward Tom's home. He paid no further attention to the
man, save to determine, by listening, that the fellow was searching
among the bushes for the dropped telescope.

The young inventor was at home, taking a hasty lunch which Mrs. Baggert
had set out for him, the while he poured over some blueprint drawings
that, to Ned's unaccustomed eyes, looked like th