right."

She left the room to give orders to the servant about the meal, and
returned to say that Mrs. Nestor was sleeping quietly. She had been
given a sedative. Mary managed to eat a little, and she gave Tom the
address of several friends who were called up in the vain hope that,
somehow, Mr. Nestor might have gone to see them.

"Tom, what do you really think has happened?" asked Mary again, as they
sat facing one another in the library, during a respite from the
telephone.

Tom Swift repeated, to the girl his theory of what had happened with an
assumption of confidence he did not altogether feel.

His prediction of a speedy end to the suspense did not come true that
day, nor for many days. No news was heard of Mr. Nestor. After the
first day, when there was no information and when no reports came of
any one of his description having been hurt in an automobile accident
or having been taken to any hospital, the police started an energetic
search.

The authorities in all near-by cities were notified, and all thought of
keeping from the public what had happened was given over. Tom's story,
of how he and Mr. Damon had heard the cry for help on the lonely
meadow, was printed in the papers, though the young inventor did not
say that he had been out trying his new aeroplane. That was a detail
not needed in the finding of Mr. Nestor.

But Mary's father was not found. The mystery regarding his
disappearance deepened, and there was no trace of him after he had left
Tom's house that eventful evening. Persons living along the roads he
might have taken in riding his bicycle were questioned, but they had
seen nothing of him, nor were they aware of any accident. Tom's
testimony and that of Mr. Damon was all the clew there was.

"I don't believe he's dead!" stoutly declared the young inventor, when
this dire possibility had been hinted at. "I believe the persons who
were responsible for the accident are afraid to reveal his whereabouts
until he recovers from possible injuries. You'll see! Mr. Nestor will
come back safe!"

And, somehow, though her mother was skeptical, Mary believed what Tom
said.

The search was kept up, but without result, and Tom aided all he could.
But there was not much he could do. The police and other authorities
were at a total loss.

In the intervals of visiting Mary and her mother, and doing what he
could for them, Tom worked on his new motor. He knew that he was on the
right track and that al