"Bless my shoe buttons!" exclaimed a voice, as a man came
toward Tom's shop, a little later. "Bless my very necktie! This
is odd. I go to the house, and find no one there. I come out
here, and not a soul is about. Tom Swift can't have gone off on
another one of his wonderful trips, without sending me word. I
know he wouldn't do that. And yet, bless my watch and chain, I
can't find any one!"

It was Mr. Damon who spoke, as my old readers have already
guessed. He peered into one of the shop windows, and saw
something like a fog filling the place.

"That's strange," he went on. "I don't see Tom there, and yet
it looks as if an experiment was going on. I wonder--"

Mr. Damon heard some one coming up behind him, and turned to
see Koku the giant, who was returning . from the errand on which
Tom had sent him.

"Oh, Koku, it's you; is it?" the odd man asked. "Bless my cuff
buttons! Where is Tom?"

"In shop I guess."

"I don't see him. Still I had better look. There doesn't seem
to be any one about."

Mr. Damon opened the shop door, and was met by such an outward
rush of choking gas that he staggered back.