at him, fairly howling with delight.

"Ha! Guess yo' won't do no mo' spadin' in' Massa Tom's garden right
away, big man!" taunted Eradicate.

"Be quiet, Rad!" ordered Tom, as he reached up and pulled out the
switch, thus shutting off the current. "This isn't anything to laugh
at."

"But he done look so funny, Massa Tom!" pleaded the colored man. "He
done squirm laik--"

But Eradicate did not finish what he intended to say. Once free from
the powerful current, the giant looked at his numb hands, and then,
seeming to think that Eradicate was the cause of it all, he sprang at
the colored man with a yell. But Eradicate did not stay to see what
would happen. With a howl of terror, he raced out of the door, and, old
and rheumatic as he was, he managed to gain the stable of his mule,
Boomerang, over which he had his humble but comfortable quarters.

"Well, I guess he's safe for a while!" laughed Tom, as he saw the giant
turn away, shaking his fist at the closed door, for Koku, big as he
was, stood in mortal terror of the mule's heels.

Tom locked the door of the electrical shop and Went back to his
interrupted problem. From Jackson he learned that Koku and Eradicate
had merely happened to stroll into the forbidden place, which had been
left open by accident. There, it appeared, Koku had handled some of the
machinery, ending by switching on the current of the machine the
handles of which he later unsuspectingly picked up. Then he received a
shock he long remembered, and for many days he believed Eradicate had
been responsible for it, and there was more than the usual hostile
feeling between the two. But Eradicate was innocent of that trick, at
all events.

"Though," said Tom, telling his father about it later, "Rad would have
turned on the current if he had known he could make trouble for Koku by
it. I never saw their like for having disagreements!"

"Yes, but they are both devoted to you, Tom," said the aged inventor.
"But what is this you hinted at--a silent motor you called it, I
believe? Are you really serious in trying to invent one?"

"Yes, Dad, I am. I think there's a big field for an aeroplane that
could travel along over the enemy's lines--particularly at night--and
not be heard from below. Think of the scout work that could be done.

"Well, yes, it could be done if you could get a silent motor, or
propellers that made no noise, Tom. But I don't believe it can be done."

"Well, maybe not, Dad. But I'm goi