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'!"