“Is that you, Ned?” he called. “Anything wrong?”
Tom did not open the door—he was taking no chances.
“That you, Ned?” he asked again, more sharply.
“No, Mr. Swift,” came back a voice with a foreign accent. “I am just leaving my own laboratory. I think I have perfected that new magnetic gear shift we have been working on.”
“That’s good,” Tom responded. He recognized the voice of Jacob Greenbaum, a clever inventor whom he had recently engaged to work on some side lines that occupied the Swift factory. Tom had an idea for a new device to make easier the shifting of gears on automobiles. It was an adaptation of the old magnetic selection that has often been tried and which, up to date, had not been successful.
“Do you want to take a look at it?” asked Greenbaum, and from the nearness of the voice Tom knew that the man was just outside the locked door.
“No, thank you, Greenbaum, not now,” the young inventor replied. “I am busy at something else. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“You are working late, Mr. Swift,” went on the man. “Could I be of any service to you? I should be glad——”
“No, thank you,” Tom said. “As for lateness, you are doing a bit of overtime yourself.”
“Oh, yes; but I do not mind. I think I am on the right track. If you would take a look——”