“Oh, are you? Well, you’re not going to get away!” and with that the man grabbed Joe around the waist, pinning his arms to his sides. Then from the little building came running Mr. Benjamin and Mr. Holdney.
“Did you get him all right?” asked the manager of the harvester works eagerly.
“I certainly did,” panted the other man, for Joe was struggling to get loose. “Didn’t give me any trouble either, until just now.”
“Well, I’ll make lots of trouble for you, if you don’t let me go!” cried Joe.
“Now, young man, take it easy,” advised Mr. Benjamin. “We don’t intend to do you a bit of harm, and we only brought you to this place to have a quiet talk with you. It’s in your father’s interest and I hope you’ll overlook the unconventional way we took to get you here. Bring him in,” he added to the man in the carriage and, despite Joe’s struggles he was lifted out and carried into the little building. The door was shut and locked, and he was alone with his three captors.
“What do you want of me?” hotly demanded the lad.
“Now don’t get excited and we’ll tell you,” said Mr. Benjamin. “It’s about your father’s patents.”
“Yes,” broke in Mr. Holdney, “we want to know where they are. He had no right to take the papers and models away from the harvester works. Those inventions are the property of the company and aren’t your father’s at all. We want——”
“Better let me talk to him,” advised Mr. Benjamin. “Now Joe, you can’t understand all the ins and outs of this business, for it’s very complicated. You know that your father is working on certain patents about a corn reaper and binder; don’t you?”