help you. Alec, I will go into this business with you. We'll take
a chance! I'll invest ten thousand dollars, and I'm not so awful
worried about getting it back, either--though I don't believe in
throwing money away."

"You won't throw it away in this case!" declared Mr. Peterson,
eagerly. "I'm sure to find that mine; but it will take a little
capital to work it. That's what I need--capital!"

"Well, I'll supply it to the extent of ten thousand dollars,"
said Mr. Swift. "Tom, what do you think of it? Am I foolish or
not?"

"Not a bit of it, Dad!" cried the young man, who was now
himself again. "I'm glad you took that chance, for, if you
hadn't--well, I would have supplied the money myself--that's
all," and he smiled at the fortune-hunter.



CHAPTER III

PLANNING A BIG GUN


"BUT, Tom, I don't see how in the world you can ever hope to
make a bigger gun than that."

"I think it can be done, Ned," was the quiet answer of the
young inventor. He looked up from some drawings on the table in