Page:Air Service Boys Flying for France.djvu/39

34 intruder had come prepared for hasty flight in case of discovery. Then a car sped away with a great roaring of the unmuffled engine.

Keenly disappointed, and yet pleased to know that the would-be robbery had not occurred, Tom retraced his steps. His father met him just inside the grounds.

"Then he got away clean and clear, did he?" asked the gentleman, who of course guessed the state of affairs when he first heard the sound of a speeding car.

"I don't know about clean and clear, Dad," Tom told him. "Come here, Duke, and let's see what you're shaking so savagely."

It was only with some difficulty that Tom persuaded the bulldog to let him have the article. He held this up and then laughed.

"Why, it's pretty nearly the entire seat of a pair of trousers, father," he explained. "The dog was hanging to him like the pendulum of a grandfather clock, and fighting like everything to drag him down. But the cloth gave finally, which allowed the scamp to tumble over the fence and get away."

Mr. Raymond took the spoils of Duke's attack and examined it under the glare of a little hand-electric torch he was carrying with him.

"The teeth of the dog drew blood, as you can see, my boy," he remarked, holding the article