The buzzers were
still working. But there was no sign of the man who had set them
off at the bathroom window.
Suddenly Tom heard a door slam. It was from the front of the
house. Had his father come downstairs to look around and see what
the matter was?
The young fellow started around the house on a run. He heard
heavy bootsoles spurning the gravel of the path to the front
gate. He arrived at the far corner of the house in time to see a
man dash through the gateway and run down the street,
disappearing finally into the fast-driving rain.
"Fooled me! He went in and right through and down the stairs!
Out the front door!" gasped Tom. "Did he get anything? I wonder!"
He sprang up to the front porch and tried the door. It was
locked again, of course. Should he ring the bell and get Rad or
his father down to the door?
And then, of a sudden, the principal mystery of all this affair
bit into Tom Swift's mind. The burglar had made his escape. He
could relieve his father's anxiety later. It was his own
puzzlement of mind that he first wished to ease.
Where was Koku?
Even had the giant been circling the stockade around the shops
he surely must have come up to the home premises by this time.
His keen ears could not fail to hear the buzzers. They were still
going and would go until the switch was turned.
If the giant was in his room--Tom turned suddenly and started
on a run for the rear premises.
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