“Just outside the big fence—on the landing field, in fact. Tom was on his way here then. He found what he wanted in some Shopton store, he told me, and I said he’d better hurry if he was going to keep his date with Mary. I was a bit late myself, so I left him and hurried on and he started for the house.”
“Then something has happened to him, for he never got here!” exclaimed Mr. Swift. “Something has happened!” He was getting excited and Ned did not like that, for the aged man’s health was far from good.
“Oh, not necessarily,” said Ned, in easier tones than his own feelings justified. “Tom’s all right, you can be sure of that. He knows how to take care of himself. Besides, how could anything happen at his own doorstep, so to speak? He was near the big fence.”
“Well, I’m sure something has happened,” Mr. Swift declared.
But Ned shook his head and smiled.
“More than likely,” he said, “Tom went into his private office to leave what he had bought in Shopton. Once he was at his desk he saw something he had forgotten to do, or he was taken with a sudden idea, and he sat down to make some note about it before it slipped out of his mind.
“It isn’t the first time he has done that, nor the first time he has made dates with Mary and then forgotten all about them. Don’t worry, Mr. Swift, you’ll find Tom in his private office over at the works.”
“That is easily settled,” was the answer. “I’ll call him on the telephone.”
There was an instrument in the living room where this conversation took place. The Swift home and works were linked by intercommunicating telephones, and Mr. Swift was soon plugging in on the circuit that connected with Tom’s private office. While he was waiting Mrs. Baggert came quietly into the room behind Mr. Swift.
“Is Tom home?” she asked of Ned, forming the words with her lips but not speaking, since she did not want to disturb Mr. Swift. Ned shook his head in negation, and a puzzled look spread over the face of the housekeeper.