“I reckon you are right, Koku,” answered the young inventor. “But we caught him red-handed, didn’t we?”
“Him like snake in the grass.”
“So he is.”
“Him do harm to Massa Tom. Must watch out.”
“Then you think he is a bad egg, do you?”
“Him worse than many bad eggs!”
“Well, maybe, Koku. We’ll see.”
Tom extinguished the lantern, hung it in its place, locked the gate carefully and returned to the office. It was now long past midnight, but he was too wrought up to have any desire to sleep. He sat with his elbows on the desk and his head in his hands, immersed in thought.
What had been Hankinshaw’s real motive? On reflection, Tom dismissed the idea that he had intended to cripple the machinery. Much more probable it seemed to him that the fellow had heard in some way that he was busy on some new invention, that the machinery had been rigged up for the purpose of testing it, and that he might make a fortune if he could steal the idea and have it patented before Tom himself should have time to do it.
But how could he have heard of it? Tom had been extremely careful to keep the matter in the circle of a few trusted friends. His father, Ned, Jackson and Mr. Damon were the only ones that knew of it. The first three would have been as silent as the grave concerning it. As for Mr. Damon, although he was impulsive and talkative, he was a keen business man and knew too well the importance of secrecy in a matter of this kind to speak of it to anybody, much less to a fellow like Hankinshaw, whom he disliked and distrusted.