starter! they may try something mean again this very night. Come
on, Tom. I want to run you home. And on the way, I tell you, I've
got something to put up to you myself. It may not promise a small
fortune like this electric locomotive business; but bless my
barbed wire fence! my trouble has more than a little to do with
footpads, too."

He led the way out of the house and to the motor car again. In
a minute he had started his engine, and Tom, jumping in beside
him, was borne away toward his own home.



Chapter V

Barbed Wire Entanglements


"This gets us to your particular trouble, Mr. Damon," Tom Swift
said, while the motor car was rolling along. "You intimated that
you had something to consult me about."

"Bless my windshield! I should say I had," exclaimed the
eccentric gentleman, swinging around a corner at rather a fast
clip.

"And has it to do with highwaymen?" asked Tom, much amused.

"Some of the same gentry, Tom," declared Mr. Damon. "I haven't
any peace of my life, I really haven't!"