He said he'd be back as soon as he could after
meeting you."
"And I never said a word to him!" cried Ned. "It's all a
plot--a scheme of that Blakeson gang to get him into their
power. Oh, how could Tom be so fooled? He knows my voice,
over the phone as well as otherwise. I don't see how he
could be taken in."
"Let's ask the telephone operator," suggested Mr. Damon.
"She knows your voice, too. Perhaps she can give us a clew."
A talk with the young woman at the telephone switchboard
in the Swift plant brought out a new point. This was that
the speaker, in response to whose information Tom Swift had
left home, had not said he was Ned Newton.
"He said," reported Miss Blair, "that he was speaking for
you, Mr. Newton, as you were busy in the bank. Whoever it
was, said you wanted Tom to meet you at the Kanker farm. I
heard that much over the wire, and naturally supposed the
message came from you."
"Well, that puts a little different face on it," said Mr.
Damon. "Tom wasn't deceived by the voice, then, for he must
have thought it was some one speaking for you, Ned.
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