"Has anything happened to Professor Bumper?"
Tom demanded, a wild idea forming in his
head that perhaps some one of the Beecher party
had tried to kidnap the discoverer of the lost
city of Pelone.

"Oh, everything is all right," answered Mr.
Damon. "But it's nearly time for the show to
start, and we don't want to be late. I have
tickets."

"For what?" asked Tom and Ned together.

"The movies," was the laughing reply. "Bless
my loose ribs! but I wouldn't miss him for anything.
He's in a new play called `Up in a Balloon
Boys.' It's great!" and Mr. Damon named
a certain comic moving picture star in whose
horse-play Mr. Damon took a curious interest.
Tom and Ned were glad enough to go, Tom
that he might have a chance to do a certain
amount of thinking, and Ned because he was
still boy enough to like moving pictures.

"I wonder, Tom," said Mr. Damon, as they
came out of the theater two hours later, all three
chuckling at the remembrance of what they had
seen, "I wonder you never turned your inventive
mind to the movies."