"When did you last see that it was in perfect condition?" asked Jackson.
Tom named a certain date.
"That was just before Gale called," observed the mechanician. "He might have known of it."
"I wish I'd known of it at the time," said Tom savagely. "He wouldn't have gotten away as easily as he did. Well, there's no use standing here talking about it. Let's get back to civilization and we'll send back one of the trucks. Luckily I have another silencer I can put on for the government test. This one will never be of any more use, though I may be able to save some of the valves and baffle plates."
Slowly they turned from the disabled aeroplane and started to look for a path that would lead them out of the lonely place. Tom as the first to strike what seemed to be a cow path, or perhaps what had been a road into the wood lot in the early days.
As he tramped along it, followed by Jackson, the young inventor suddenly stopped, as he came to a sandy place, and, stooping over, looked intently at some queer marks in the soil.
"What is it?" asked the mechanician.
"Looks like the marks of an automobile," said Tom slowly. "And I was just trying to remember where I'd seen marks like these before."