"What can this mean?" he asked wonderingly.
He glanced toward the window through which the two men had jumped to escape, and he was just in time to see one of them run past the open door. The face of this one was under a powerful electric light, and Tom at once recognized the man as Feldman, the worker who had had so much trouble with the trip-hammer.
"This sure is a puzzle," marveled Tom. "My own men in the plot! But why did they attack Koku?"
The giant, bending over the men he had knocked unconscious by beating their heads together, seemed little worse for the attack.
"We tie 'em up," he said grimly, as he brought over the rope that had been intended for himself.
CHAPTER XIV
THE FIRST FLIGHT
Little time was lost in securing the two men who had been so effectively rendered helpless by Koku's ready, if rough, measures. One of them was showing signs of returning consciousness now, and Tom, not willing to inflict needless pain, even on an enemy, told one of his men, summoned by the alarm, to bring water. Soon the two men opened their eyes, and looked about them in dazed fashion.
"Did—did anything hit me?" asked one meekly.