“The scoundrel,” muttered the officer, gritting his teeth, “and to think that I have regarded him as my most trusted assistant.”
“But he doesn’t know the secret of your equalizer,” ventured Merritt.
“No. Thank goodness, he does not, but,” the officer’s face grew troubled, “I wish I had the plans in a safe place. Somehow, since you have told me all this, I can only regard everybody about me as a traitor. If only I had left the plans with your father to be placed in the safe deposit vault in his bank, my mind would be easy.”
“Then you can work out your ideas without the plans?” asked Rob, in some astonishment.
“My boy, when an inventor has dreamed, and thought and pondered over an idea for many long days and sleepless nights, it is photographed on his brain, and he can never forget it.”
“Then I have an idea!” exclaimed Rob. “Let me take the plans back with me to town. I can hand them over to my father, and he can place them in a vault in the bank.”
“The very thing!” exclaimed the young officer. “I know I can trust you, Blake, and you won’t mind if I give them to you in a sealed envelope.”
“Not a bit,” rejoined Rob. He flushed a bit, though, as he spoke, although the words came readily enough.
“You see,” explained the officer, who had noticed the flush, “I almost dread to let even you have the plans. I cannot bear to let them out of my sight. This Jap—I have a suspicion who he is—is not the only one who is after them for his government. Aerial equipment has now become an important adjunct of every navy and army. In Washington, two attempts were made to get them from me, but in this lonely place I thought I was safe.”
“At least in my father’s bank they will be secure——” began Rob, when he broke off short, and turned swiftly. His keen ear had detected a slight rustling in a clump of bushes behind him. As he communicated his suspicion that some one might have been concealed there, they all sprang forward, surrounding the clump, but there was no sign of a concealed listener, and, satisfied that everything was well, they followed the young officer toward the house. Their conductor narrated, as they went, such details of the experimental work as he thought might interest the lads.