e safely bound, and Mr. Nestor had somewhat recovered from the
shock, Tom had a chance to examine the prisoners.

"What does it all mean? Who are you fellows, anyhow, and what's your
game?" he demanded.

"Guess it--since you're so smart!" snapped one.

And no sooner had he opened his mouth and Tom had a glance of something
gleaming brightly yellow, than the young inventor cried:

"The gold tooth! So it's you again, is it, you spy?"

The man shrugged his shoulders with an assumption of indifference. And,
as Tom took a closer look, he became aware that the man was surely none
other than Lydane, the spy he had chased into the mud puddle some weeks
before. His companion was a stranger to Tom.

"What does it all mean, Mr. Nestor?" asked Tom. "Have these men held
you a prisoner ever since you called for help on the moor that night?"

"Yes, Tom, they have. And I did call for help after they attacked me as
I was riding my wheel, but I didn't know any one heard me. I began to
be afraid no one would ever help me."

"We've been trying to, a long time," said Mr. Damon, "but we couldn't
find you. Where did they keep you?"

"Here, part of the time," was Mr. Nestor's answer. "And in other lonely
houses. They bound and gagged me when they took me from place to place."

"But what was their object?" asked Tom, concluding it was useless to
question the two captives. "Why did they make you a prisoner, Mr.
Nestor?"

"Because they took me for you, Tom."

"For me?"

"Yes. The night I called at your house, and found you were not at home,
I put back in my pocket a bundle of papers I had brought over to show
you. They were plans of a little kitchen appliance a friend of mine had
invented, and I wanted to ask your opinion of it."

"These scoundrels must have followed me, or have seen the bundle of
papers, and, mistaking me for you, they followed, attacked me in a
lonely spot and, bundling me and my wrecked wheel into an auto, carried
me off. They first demanded that I gave up the 'plans,' and when I
wouldn't they choked off my cries for help and knocked me into
unconsciousness. Then they brought me here, and kept me here for
several days.

"They soon learned that the plans I had weren't those they wanted,
though what they were then after I couldn't imagine. Only, from what I
later overheard, I knew they mistook me for you and that they were
bitterly disappointed in not getting plans of some new airship you were
working on. The