out and close the door.

"No--thank you," was the halting reply. "I guess nothing can be
done. Field and Melling have me where they want me now--down and
out."

"Do you mean Amos Field and Jason Melling of the fireworks
firm?" asked Tom, for the names were familiar to him in a
business way.

"Yes, the--the scoundrels!" exclaimed Mr. Baxter, and from his
voice Tom judged that he was growing stronger. "They pretended to
be my friends, giving me a shop in which to work and experiment,
and when the time came they took my secret formulae. I believe
that is what they started the fire for--to conceal their crime!"

"You don't mean that!" cried Tom. "Deliberately to start a fire
in a factory where there was powder and other explosives! That
would be a terrible crime!"

"Field and Melling are capable of just such crimes as that!"
said Josephus Baxter, bitterly. "If they took my formulae they
wouldn't stop at arson."

"Were your formulae for the manufacture of fireworks?" asked
Tom.

"Not altogether," was the reply. "I had several formulae for
valuable chemical combinations. They could be used in fireworks,
and that is why I could use the laboratory here. But the main use