Tom was still chuckling as his two friends took their leave. Bud’s joshing remarks had lifted his spirits and made him feel better already.
That evening as Ted Spring and Bud prepared for bed they heard a knock on the door and a staff clerk entered the room. “There’s a longdistance call for Mr.
Spring. You can take it downstairs in the office.”
To Ted’s surprise, the call was from his mother back in Shopton. But his pleasure dimmed when he heard how worried she sounded.
“Ted, that Mr. Hampshire called again,” Mrs. Spring reported. “Goodness, I just don’t know what to make of it, but I thought you’d better know.”
“You’re right, Mother. What did he say?”
“Well, he asked for you. I knew that you were suspicious of him, and that Tom Swift and his father would like to trace him. So I said I’d be glad to pass along any message and tried to keep him talking. In the meantime, I told Ray to run next door and call the police on our neighbor’s phone, so they could trace the call.”
Ray was Ted’s ten-year-old brother.
“What happened?” Ted asked, gripping the
THE MYSTERIOUS CALLER 25
phone excitedly. “Were the police able to trace the call?”
“Yes,” Mrs. Spring replied. “It was coming from a phone booth in the lobby of some little run-down hotel. But unfortunately the caller was gone by the time a cruise car arrived. This Mr. Hampshire-or whoever he is-had slipped away.”
Ted groaned with disappointment. “What a break! Did they get a description of him?”
“Yes, that’s one good thing. A bellhop had noticed the man making a call.