"And not only about your new airship and other inventions," said the officer, "but about yourself, personally. Will you do that?"
"Yes, though I don't imagine anything like that will happen."
"Well, be on your guard, at all events," warned Lieutenant Marbury.
As Tom had said, he had been obliged to hire a number of new men. Some of these were machinists who had worked for him, or his father, on previous occasions, and, when tasks were few, had been dismissed, to go to other shops. These men, Tom felt sure, could be relied upon.
But there were a number of others, from New York, and other large cities, of whom Tom was not so sure.
"You have more foreigners than I ever knew you to hire before, Tom," his father said to him one day, coming back from a tour of the shops.
"Yes, I have quite a number," Tom admitted. "But they are all good workmen. They stood the test."
"Yes, some of them are too good," observed the older inventor. "I saw one of them making up a small motor the other day, and he was winding the armature a new way. I spoke to him about it, and he tried to prove that his way was an improvement on yours. Why, he'd have had it short-circuited in no time if I hadn't stopped him."
"Is that so?" asked Tom. "That is news to me. I must look into this."
"Are any of the new men employed on the Mars?" Mr. Swift asked.