CHAPTER IV
LIBERTY BONDS
Ned Newton turned back to the telephone, from which he had moved but a moment to answer his chum and employer, and to his father, on the other end of the wire, the young manager said:
“I’ll be with you right away, Dad! They’re not going to get by with anything like that—not in a thousand years! Don’t let them bluff you. It’s just a rotten bad mistake, that’s all. I’ll be right with you. What’s that? Will Tom let me come? Well, say——”
“Tell him I’m coming with you!” shouted the young inventor vigorously as he caught the import of what his chum had said, and his voice was so loud that it carried to the other end of the wire.
“He heard you,” said Ned. “Thanks, Tom. Yes, Dad, I’ll be right along.”
He clicked the receiver back into place and with burning indignation on his face turned to Tom and Mr. Swift.
“Is your father in trouble, Ned?” asked Barton Swift. “If so you must say to him that Tom and I will do all in our power for him.”
“Thanks,” and Ned’s voice was a bit broken as he spoke the word, for he was greatly affected, as they all noted.
“Tell me in a few words what it is,” suggested Tom. “I want to know so we can go prepared to help him. Maybe we’d better stop and get Mr. Plum.” Ralph Plum was a lawyer of Shopton who attended to legal matters for the Swifts.
“I guess maybe we’ll need a lawyer,” answered Ned dejectedly. “For my father has been arrested.”