And I
can do that myself. I'll get it out of you before you leave,
or, anyhow, before you take your contraption away," and he
glanced at the tank.
The same suspicion came at once to Tom and Ned, and the
latter gave voice to it when he murmured in a low voice to
his chum:
"This is a frame-up--a scheme, Tom. He doesn't care a rap
for the barn. It's some of that Blakeson's doing, to make
trouble for you."
"I believe you!" agreed Tom. "Now I know what to do."
He looked toward the collapsed barn, as if making a mental
computation of its value, and then turned toward the farmer.
"I'm very sorry," said Tom, "if I have caused any trouble.
I wanted to test my machine out on a wooden structure, and I
picked your barn. I suppose I should have come to you first,
but I did not want to waste time. I saw the barn was of
practically no value."
"No value!" broke in the farmer. "Well, I'll show you,
young man, that you can't play fast and loose with other
people's property and not settle!"
"I'm perfectly willing to, Mr. Kanker. I could see that
the barn was almost ready to fall, and I had already
determined, before sending my tank through it, to pay the
owner any reasonable sum.
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