ectly
in his path. It was part of the swamp--the most liquid part of the bog
and a home of frogs and lizards.

Too late, the man, who was evidently unaware of the proximity of the
swamp, saw his danger. His further flight was cut off by the mud hole,
but it was too late to turn back. Tom Swift was at his heels now, and
seeing that it was impossible to grab the man, Tom did the next best
thing. He stuck out his foot and tripped him, and tripped him right on
the edge of the mud hole, so that the man fell in with a big splash,
the muddy water flying all around, some even over the young inventor.

For a moment the man disappeared completely beneath the surface, for
the mud hole was rather deep just where Tom had thrown him. Then there
was another violent agitation of the surface, and a very woebegone and
muddy face was raised from the slough, followed by the rest of the
figure of the man. Slowly he got to his feet, mud and water dripping
from him. He cleared his face by rubbing his hands over it, not that it
made his countenance clean, but it removed masses of mud from his eyes,
nose, and mouth, so that he could see and speak, though his first
operation was to gasp for breath.

"What--what are you doin'?" he demanded of Tom, and as the man opened
his mouth to speak Tom was aware of a glitter, which disclosed the
'fact that the man had a large front tooth of gold.

"What am I doing?" repeated Tom. "I think it's up to you to answer that
question, not me. What are you doing?"

"You--you tripped me into this mud hole!" declared the man.

"I did, yes; because you were trespassing on my property, and ran away
instead of stopping when I told you to," went on Tom. "Who are you and
what are you doing? What were you doing with Bower at my shop?"

"Nothin'! I wasn't doin' nothin'!"

"Well, we'll inquire into that. I want to see what you have in your
pockets before I believe you. Come on out!"

"You haven't any right to go through my pockets!" blustered the
stranger.

"Oh, haven't I? Well, I'm going to take the right. Jackson--Koku--just
see that he doesn't get away. We'll take him back and search him," and
Tom motioned to his chief machinist and the giant, who had reached the
scene, to take charge of the man. But Koku was sufficient for this
purpose, and the mud-bespattered stranger seemed to shrink as he saw
the big creature approach him. There was no question of running away
after that.

"Bring him along," ordered Tom