wall paper."

"Oh, I'll pay for that," said Tom quickly, for he did not wish to
have trouble with the unpleasant man. "Will ten dollars be enough?"
He knew that the whole room could be repapered for that, and he did
not believe the wall-covering was sufficiently damaged for such work
to be necessary.

"Well, if you'll make it twelve dollars, I won't say anything more
about it," agreed the miser craftily, "though it's worth thirteen
dollars, if it is a penny. Give me twelve dollars, Tom Swift, and I
won't prosecute you."

"All right, twelve dollars it shall be," responded the young
inventor, passing over the money, and glad to be rid of the
unpleasant character.

"And after this, just fire that gun of yours the other way,"
suggested Mr. Moker as he went out, carefully folding the bills
which Tom had handed him.

"Hum! that was rather queer," remarked Ned, after a pause.

"It sure was," agreed his chum. "This rifle will do more than I
thought it would. I'll have to be more careful. I was sure I set the
gage for two hundred feet. I'll have to invent some automatic
attachment to prevent it being discharged when the gage is set
wrong." Let us state here that Tom did this, and never had another
accident.