um quickly. "There may be
more clews in the house, and I'm sure there'll be some out of doors,
for they must have left footprints or the marks of carriage wheels.
We'll take a look, and then we'll get right on the search. I'm not
going to let them take Mr. Petrofsky to Russia if I can help it. I want
to get after that platinum, and he's the only one who can pilot us
anywhere near the place; and besides, there's his brother we've got to
rescue. We'll make a search for the exile."

"I'm with you!" cried Ned. "Jove! Wouldn't it be great if we could
rescue him? They can't have gotten very far with him."

"I'm afraid they have quite a start on us," admitted Tom with a dubious
shake of his head, "but as long as they're in the United States we have
a chance. If ever they get him on Russian soil it's all up with him."

"Come on then!" cried Ned. "Let's get busy. What's the first thing to
do?"

"Look for clews," replied Tom. "We'll begin at the top of the house and
work down. It's lucky we came when we did, for every minute counts."

Then the two plucky lads began their search for the kidnapped Russian
exile. Had those who took him away seen the mere youths who thus
devoted themselves to the task, they might have laughed in contempt,
but those who know Tom Swift and his sturdy chum, know that two more
resourceful and brave lads would be hard to find.

CHAPTER V

A CLEW FROM RUSSIA

"Nothing much up here," remarked Tom, when he and Ned had gone all over
the second floor twice. "That scrap of paper, which put me on to the
fact that some one from the Russian government had been here, is about
all. They must have taken all the documents Mr. Petrofsky had."

"Maybe he didn't have any," suggested Ned.

"If he was wise he'd get rid of them when he knew he was being
shadowed, as he told us. Perhaps that was why they broke up the
furniture, searching for hidden papers, or they may have done it out of
spite because they didn't find anything. But we might as well go
downstairs and look there."

But the first floor was equally unproductive of clews, save those
already noted, which showed, at least so Tom believed, that Mr.
Petrofsky had been surprised and overpowered while at breakfast.

"Now for outside!" cried the young inventor. "We'll see if we can
figure out how they got him away."

There were plenty of marks in the soft ground and turf, which was still
damp from the night's rain, though it was now afternoon. Un