I know they must belong to
the same gang that Simpson, Blakeson, and Schwen are members
of--the German spies."
"But what was their object?" asked Ned. "Did they try to
force you to tell them the secrets of the tank?"
"No; and that's the funny part which makes me so
suspicious," Tom answered. "If they'd tried to force
something out of me, I would understand it better. But they
just kept me a prisoner after taking away what papers I
had."
"Were they of any value?" asked Mr. Damon.
"Not as regards the tank. That is, there was nothing of my
plans of construction, control or anything like that, though
there was some foreign correspondence that I am sorry fell
into their hands. However, that can't he helped."
"And did they just keep you locked up?" asked Ned.
"That's about all they did. After the fight--and it was
some fight!" declared Tom, as he recalled it with a shake of
his head--"they left me here with the door shut. There must
have been some one on guard, for I could faintly hear
somebody moving about.
"I tried to get out, of course, but I couldn't.
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