“Asleep, Tom, after that explosion?” exclaimed Mr. Swift incredulously.
The telephone receiver had been hung back on the hook, so Mr. Newton heard none of this talk.
“It doesn’t seem possible,” Tom had to admit to his father; “but still I can’t account for Ned’s disappearance in any other way. He was dead tired and he may have slept through the fire and explosion. We’ll soon find out. I wish I could go and take a look for myself.”
“No, you stay here!” his father ordered. “Obey the doctor’s advice. Koku and Rad will find Ned if he’s to be found.”
The giant and negro came back soon, to report that there was no sign of Ned in the laboratory.
“Perhaps he may have returned home by this time,” suggested Mr. Swift. “Better call up and find out.”
“There is just a bare possibility—” said Tom musingly, as he reached for the ’phone, “there is just a bare chance that Ned took the midnight train for New York to get the selenium.”
“Took the midnight train to get selenium!” exclaimed Mr. Swift. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I needed some more sensitive selenium for my—for my—new experiment,” Tom said, knowing his father would understand he was speaking of the talking-picture machine. “Ned knew about it and planned to go after it to-day. When he left me last night he may have decided suddenly to keep right on to New York. I think I’ll tell his father that.”
“Do you really believe it, Tom?”