Ned faced ’round, and his pale face flushed an angry crimson.
Young Hinkley’s rejoinder was to make a rush at him. He extended both his hands to shove the visitor, whom he had found so unwelcome, off the premises. But the next instant he met with a setback. Still holding his precious box under one arm, Ned’s fingers closed on the bully’s wrists. They shut down with a grip like steel handcuffs.
“Ow! Ouch! Leggo my hands,” roared Sam at the top of his voice.
“From what I’ve heard of Jack Chadwick and Tom Jesson I don’t believe they would tolerate for an instant the way you have behaved toward me,” was the firm reply. “March!”
“Where are we going?” inquired Sam, writhing painfully under the young stranger’s powerful grip, unable to do anything, try as he would to shake it off.
“Straight into that workshop. From what I can hear, I believe we will find those whom I wish to see inside.”
Sam looked very uncomfortable. He was the son of fairly well-to-do parents in the little town of Nestorville, on the outskirts of which Mr. Chadwick’s home was situated. Jack and Tom had taken him on because he was a youth who had always shown mechanical ability and had pleaded persistently for a chance to work in the big experimental shop at High Towers.
But a fair trial of Sam Hinkley had not resulted in his rising in favor with his young employers. He had been detected in several mean acts. Besides, they felt he was hardly a lad to be trusted with the important secrets of the workshop, in which most of the inventions of the boys and their father and uncle were worked out. So that had Sam but known it, he was by no means so important a factor at High Towers as he imagined.
“Lemmo go and I’ll take you in,” howled Sam.
“Very well. You might have done so in the first place.”
But no sooner were Sam’s hands released than he aimed a savage blow at young Nevins.
“I’ll trim you for this, you--you scarecrow, you!” he bawled out. “I’ll fix you. I’ll----”
“Here, here! What’s all the trouble about?”
The question was asked by a tall, well-built youth with curly dark hair and sparkling, intelligent eyes, who had just appeared at the door of the workshop.
“I--I wanted to find Mr. Chadwick, Jr.,” began the newcomer, while Sam looked abashed.