"So Ned is coming over to see it; eh? You ought to have Mr. Damon
here to bless it a few times."

"Yes, I wish I did. And he may come along at any moment, as it is.
You never can tell when he is going to turn up. Mrs. Baggert says
you were out walking while I was at the bank, Dad. Do you feel
better after it?"

"Yes, I think I do, Tom. Oh, I'm growing stronger every day, but it
will take time. But now tell me something about the electric gun."

Thereupon the young inventor related to his father some facts about
the improvements he had recently made to the weapon. It was dinner
time when he had finished, and, after the meal Tom went out to the
shed where he built his aeroplanes and his airships, and in which
building he had fitted up a shooting gallery.

"I'll get ready for the trial to-night," he said "I want to see what
it will do to a dummy figure. Guess I'll make a sort of scarecrow
and stuff it with straw. I'll get Eradicate to help me. Rad! I say,
Rad! Where are you?"

"Heah I is, Massa Tom! Heah I is" called a colored man as he came
around the corner of a small stable where he kept his mule
Boomerang. "Was yo'-all callin' me?"

"Yes, Rad, I want you to help make a scarecrow."

"A scarecrow, Massa Tom! Good land a' massy! What fo' yo' want ob a
scarecrow? Yo'-all ain't raisin' no corn, am yo'?"