“Black man talk much—not do anything!” growled the giant. “Look out or um be squashed,” and he opened and closed his enormous hands as if he wanted to clutch the old servant in them.
“That will do now, you two!” warned Mr. Swift. “We came to find Tom. Are you sure he isn’t here, Koku?”
“Not too sure, master; Not sure much about Master Tom—he go—he come—no can tell—no can do.”
“That’s about right,” agreed Ned, with a laugh. “Tom certainly goes and comes without telling any one much about it. But I gathered, from what he said to me just outside the fence, that he would be right along. There didn’t seem to be anything special he had to do.”
“Just where was it you met him?” asked Mr. Swift. “Let us start the investigation from there, you and I, Ned. Meanwhile, I will have all the other shops called by telephone from the central here.”
He gave orders to this effect to one of the watchmen and then with Ned went to the place, outside the fence, where Tom had last talked with his chum. But it was dark, and Ned, naturally, could not point out the exact spot, even with the aid of a flashlight.
“I think it was here, near this rock and bush,” he said, throwing the gleam of his little electric torch about.
But the dry, hard ground gave no clews to this superficial examination, and, as a matter of fact, Ned was about twenty-five feet off in his calculations, as was demonstrated later. Otherwise he and Mr. Swift might have seen the hole in the ground and the flight of stairs, for it was not until some time later that night—near morning, as a matter of fact—that the plotters replaced the planks and spread earth over them, thus hiding the secret entrance.
“Well, there doesn’t seem to be anything here,” said Mr. Swift, with an uneasy sigh as they made a hasty examination of the place. “We had better go inside and look there.”
But the search in and about the many buildings of the great Swift plant was no more successful. Every office and shop telephone had been rung. Some were answered by guards or watchmen who happened to be in the vicinity at the time the bell rang. But one and all said they had not seen Tom.