"
"I guess you're right," agreed Tom, with a rather rueful
face. "But I'm not going to hand him over three thousand
dollars. In fact, I haven't that much with me."
"Oh, well, I don't suppose he'd want it all in cash."
But, it appeared, that was just what the farmer wanted. He
went over all his arguments again, and it could not be
denied that he had the law on his side. As he rightly said,
Tom could not expect to go about the country, "smashing up
barns and such like," without being willing to pay.
"Well, what you going to do?" asked the farmer at last. "I
can't stay here all day. I've got work to do. I can't go
around smashing barns. I want three thousand dollars, or
I'll hold your contraption for security."
This last he announced with more conviction after he had
had a talk with one of the men in the automobile. And it was
this consultation that confirmed Tom and Ned in their belief
that the whole thing was a plot, growing out of Tom's rather
reckless destruction of the barn; a plot on the part of
Blakeson and his gang. That they had so speedily taken
advantage of this situation carelessly given them was only
another evidence of how closely they were on Tom's trail.
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