to break the thin steel lever.

On the heels of this sound came another. A muffled buzzing
somewhere in the house--again! again! And then, startlingly clear
from the room over the garage, the burglar alarm went off in
Koku's chamber.

"It's all off now!" gasped Tom, and he ran to the foot of the
honeysuckle ladder up which he knew the enemy had climbed to get
to the roof of the porch. "If he comes down I'll have him!"
muttered Tom, staring up into the mist and gloom.

"Fo' de lawsy's sake! 'Tain't mawnin', is it?" Rad's sleepy
voice was heard to announce. "No, it's da'k as--" And the voice
trailed off into silence.

"Tom! Tom!" the young fellow heard his aroused father shouting.

Tom knew that his father was in no danger. In fact Mr. Swift's
voice did not even betray apprehension. It was. to the garage Tom
looked for an explosion. But none came.

If Koku was up there the prolonged buzzing of the alarm did not
awake him. Therefore he could not be there. Tom realized that if
the burglar was to be taken the whole affair fell upon his
shoulders.

"And I've got my hands full, if it is the fellow with the big
feet that we saw on the Waterfield Road the other day," muttered
the young inventor.