Victor Appleton

“ For when he landed he saw Koku, the giant, coming toward him with an appearance of excitement.
"Is Rad worse? Is there more trouble with his eyes?" asked the young inventor.
"No, him not much too bad," answered Koku. "I keep him good as I can. He sleep now, so I come out to swallow some fresh air. But man come to see you—much mad man."
"Mad?" queried Tom.
"Well, what you say—angry," went on Koku. "Man what was in Roman Skycracker blaze."
"Oh, you mean Mr. Baxter, who was in the fireworks blaze," translated Tom. ”

“ Tom told his friends, as they darted forward. "When I give the word press the levers, and the chemical containers will drop. Then we'll hope for the best."
Higher mounted the flames, and more fiercely raged the fire. The heat of it penetrated even aloft, where Tom and his friends were scudding along in the airship.
"Now!" cried Tom, as his craft hovered for an instant in a favorable position for dropping the bombs. The young inventor, Mr. Damon, and Ned Newton pressed the levers. Looking over the sides of the craft, they saw three dark objects dropping into the midst of the burning barn. ”

“ Your dye formulae here in my office?" cried Mr. Keith, for he had heard something of the chemist's loss, though he did not directly associate Field and Melling with it.
"That's what this is! The very papers, containing all the rare secrets, for which I have been so at a loss!" cried the delighted old man. "Now I can give to the world the dyes for which it has long been waiting! Oh, Tom Swift, you did more than you knew when you put out this fire!" and he hugged the bundle of smoke-smelling papers to his breast.
"But how did they get here?" asked the young inventor. ”

“ Big thing! Best for big man tell!" broke in another voice; a deep, booming voice that could only proceed from a powerfully built man.
"Koku!" exclaimed Tom, with a half comical look at Ned. "He and Rad are at it again!"
Koku was a giant, literally, and he had attached himself to Tom when the latter had made one of many perilous trips. So eager were Eradicate and Koku to serve the young inventor that frequently there were more or less good-natured clashes between them to see who would have the honor. ”

“ Keith, and he wet Mary's handkerchief in the water and handed it to her to bind over her face.
"Is everything all right, Ned?" called Tom, as he turned on a little more power, so that the Lucifer lunged ahead toward the great pillar of fire that now reddened the sky for miles around.
"All ready," was the answer. "You only have to give the word when you want us to let go."
"Let go!" cried Mr. Damon. "Bless my umbrella, Tom! We don't have to jump out, do we?"
"He means to let go the extinguisher grenades," said Mr. Baxter. "Shall we let them all go at once, Tom?" asked the chemist. ”

“ It had no sooner struck and burst, letting loose a mass of flame-choking vapor, than the fire died out.
"You've struck it, Tom! You've struck it!" cried Ned.
"It begins to look so," agreed the young inventor. "But I'll not call myself out of the woods until this afternoon. Though we can consider it a success so far."
Quite a throng was on hand when the old barn was set ablaze. Tom and Ned and Mr. Damon were there with the airship which had been especially fitted to carry the bombs filled with the extinguisher. ”

“ It was the day following the night of excitement, and Tom and his friends, at the invitation of the fire department of Newmarket, were inspecting what was left of the Landmark Building—and there was considerable left—though access to the upper floors was to be had only by ladders, down which Mary and her uncle, Barton Keith, had been carried.
"Here are my offices," said Mr. Keith, who accompanied Tom, Ned, Mr. Damon and Mr. Baxter, as he ushered them into his suite of rooms.
"Bless my fountain pen! nothing is burned here," cried the eccentric man. ”

“ This was in a city some four hundred miles away and when Ned Newton called on him one afternoon he found Tom busily engaged in loading his sky-craft with a heavy cargo of the newest liquid extinguisher.
"You aren't taking any chances, are you, Tom?" asked Ned.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you seem to have enough of the liquid 'fire-discourager' to douse any blaze that was ever started."
"No use sending a boy on a man's errand," said Tom. "I'm counting on you to go with me, Ned—you and Mr. Baxter. We leave this afternoon for Denton." ”

“ Behind him were Ned, Mr. Damon and Mr. Baxter, ready to drop the grenades at the word.
"Getting close, Tom!" called Ned, as they could all feel the heat of the conflagration in the Landmark Building, which now seemed doomed.
"You'll not dare cross it too low down, will you?"
"No, I'll have to keep pretty well up," was the answer. "There's a current of air over that fire which might turn us turtle."
Heat creates a draft, sucking in colder air from below, and making an upward-rushing column which, in the case of a big blaze, is very powerful. Tom knew he had to avoid this. ”

“ The young inventor, not heeding the cries of wonder that arose from below and paying no attention to the uplifted hands and arms pointing to him, steered his craft to a corner of the yard where there was a small isolated fire in a pile of boards. It was Tom's idea to try his new chemical first on this spot to watch the effect. Then he would turn loose all his other containers of the chemical mixture that had proved so effective in other tests. ”

“ Mary smiled, and seemed to have regained her composure. Tom glanced at her anxiously, not because of what he thought might be the state of her nerves, but to see if she had sensed anything the two men behind the screen had said. But the girl gave no indication that her mind had been occupied with anything more than the selection of her dessert.
"I wonder who they are, and what they meant by that talk," mused Tom, as the waiter served the Murolloas to him and Mary. "Poor Baxter! It looks as if he might have more enemies than the fireworks men he accuses of having taken his valuable formulae. ”

“ He did not believe the men recognized him as the person who had been at the Meadow Inn one day with Mary. They had hardly glanced at him then, he thought.
"That's a mighty powerful extinguisher you have there, young man," said Melling. "May I ask the make of it? We ought to carry one like it on our car," he told his companion.
"It is the Swift Aerial Fire Extinguisher," said Tom gravely, with a glance at Mr. Damon.
"The Swift—Tom Swift?" exclaimed Melling. "Do you mean—"
"I am Tom Swift," put in the young inventor quickly. ”

“ One of your men tells me old Eradicate is killed!"
"Not as bad as that, yet," replied Tom, as he came out, leaving the doctor to make his first examination. "It was an explosion of my new aerial fire-fighting chemicals that I left Rad to mix for me. If anything serious results to him from this I'll drop the whole business! I'll never forgive myself!"
"It wasn't your fault, Tom. Perhaps he did something wrong," said Mr. Damon.
"Yes, it was my fault. I should not have let him take the chance with a mixture I had tried only a few times. But we'll hope for the best. How is he, Doctor?" ”

“ I don't know that I could depend on him."
"It's worth trying," declared Ned. "What do you suppose he means, Tom, saying that Field and Melling stole his formulae?"
"Haven't the least idea. I only know those fireworks firm members slightly, if at all. I'm not sure I'd recognize them if I met them. But they are reputed to be wealthy, and I hardly think they would stoop to stealing some inventor's formulae.
"We inventors are a suspicious lot, Ned, as you probably have found out," he added with a smile. ”

“ The fire burned on, doing no damage, of course, for that had been thought of when it was started in the meadow.
"Something wrong!" declared the young inventor, when they were back at the hangar, climbing out of the machine.
"What was it?" asked Ned.
"Didn't use the right kind of chemicals," Tom answered. "From the way the flames shot up, you'd think I had poured oil on the blaze instead of carbon dioxide."
"Bless my insurance policy, Tom!" cried Mr. Damon, "but I'd hate to trust to your apparatus if my house caught."
"Don't blame you," Tom assented. "But I'll do the trick yet! ”

“ Ned rejoined.
"But this is a new one," went on Tom. "You saw what trouble they had this evening to get a stream of water to the top stories of that factory, didn't you?"
"Yes, the pressure here isn't what it ought to be," Ned agreed. "And some of our engines are old-timers."
"Why is it necessary always to fight a fire with water?" Tom continued. "There are plenty of chemicals that will put out a fire much quicker than water."
"Of course," Ned answered. "There are plenty of chemical fire extinguishers on the market, too, Tom. If your idea is to invent a new hand grenade, stay off it! ”

“ The young inventor never attempted the solution of any problem without going into it with his whole energy. So he wanted this experiment to succeed.
He quickly reviewed, mentally, the composition of the chemical compound. He had made it as strong as possible, and he had spared no pains to insure a hot fire, so that the test would not be too simple.
"What's the matter, Tom?" asked Ned, as his chum appeared to hesitate about giving the word that would send the chemicals hurtling down into the fire. ”

“ Then I am going to put on a searchlight, so I can see where I am heading at night."
"Not your great big one!" cried Ned, recalling the immense electric lantern that had so aided in capturing the Canadian smugglers.
"No. But one patterned after that." Tom answered.
"Bless my candlestick!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "what do you want with a searchlight at a fire, Tom? Isn't there light enough at a blaze, anyhow?"
"No," answered the young inventor, as he made his usual skillful landing. ”

“ But for the helmets, which were like the gas masks of the Great War, they would not have been able to live.
One of the firemen pointed through the luridly-lighted smoke to a small structure near the main building. This was beginning to burn. With quick blows of an axe the door was hewed down, and the rescue party, including Tom and Ned, made its way inside. In the light from the blaze, as it filtered through the windows, it could be seen that a man lay in a huddled heap on the floor. ”

“ I may be able to save partly the sight of one eye."
"Poor Rad!" murmured Tom. "This will break his heart."
"There is no need for telling him at once," Dr. Henderson said. "It will only make his recovery so much the slower. It will be weeks before I am able to operate, and, meanwhile, he should be kept as comfortable and cheerful as possible."
"We'll see to that," declared Tom. "Is he otherwise injured?"
"No, it is merely his eyesight that we have to fear for. And, as I said, that is not altogether hopeless, though it would not be honest to let you look for much success. ”

“ Damon. "Those are the slickest scoundrels I ever tackled! They're like a flea. Once you think you have them where you want them, and they're on the other side of the table, skipping around."
"I've about given up," said Mr. Baxter, in discouraged tones. "I guess my dye formulae are gone forever."
"Don't say that!" exclaimed Tom. "Once I get this fire matter off my hands, I'm going to tackle the problem myself. We'll either make those fellows sorry they ever meddled in this matter, or we'll get up a new combination of dyes that will put them out of business!" ”

“ What is it—your barns or one of your new shops?"
"Neither one, Mr. Damon," laughed Ned. "It's only a blaze that Koku and Rad started."
"And the fire department is here," added Tom.
"Where?" inquired the eccentric man.
"Here," and Tom pointed to his airship—one of the smaller craft—into which the tank of chemicals had been hoisted.
"Oh!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "Something new, eh, Tom?" His eyes glistened.
"Yes. Fighting fires from the air. I got the idea after the fireworks factory went up in smoke. Will you come along? There's plenty of room." ”

“ I can sail over the burning building and drop the chemicals down. That will douse the blaze if my plans go right."
Ned was silent a moment, considering Tom's daring plan and project. Then, as it became clearer, the young banker cried:
"Blamed if I don't think that's just the thing, Tom! It ought to work, and, if it does, it will save a lot of lives, to say nothing of property! A fire in a sky-scraper ought to be fought from above. Then the extinguisher element, whether chemicals or water, could be dropped where they'd do the most good. As it is now, with water, a lot of it is wasted. ”

“ I can't see to help yo' nevah no mo'!"
"Don't worry about that, Rad!" cried Tom, as cheerfully as possible under the circumstances. "We'll soon have you fixed up! Come in here, Koku, and help me carry Rad out!"
Though the fumes from the chemicals that had exploded were choking, causing both Tom and Koku to gasp for breath, they never hesitated. In they rushed and picked up the limp figure of the helpless colored man.
"Poor Rad!" murmured the giant Koku tenderly. "Him bad hurt! I carry him, Master Tom! I take him bed, an' I go for doctor! I run like painted pig!" ”

“ Wasn't as much trouble as I had over their car those two fellers you were speaking of—Field and Melling. They're rich guys!"
"Yes?" replied Tom, questioningly.
"Sure! They've started a big dye company."
"A dye company?" repeated the young inventor, all his suspicions coming back as he recalled that Baxter had said his formulae were more valuable for dyes than for fireworks.
"Yes, they're trying to get the business that used to go to the Germans before the war," went on the man.
"Yes, the Germans used to have a monopoly of the dye industry," said Tom, hoping the man would talk on. ”

“ If I could only get those formulae back!" he sighed.
"Perhaps you may recall the combinations," suggested Ned. "Or can't you get them from that Frenchman?"
"He is dead," answered the chemist. "Everything seems to be against me!"
"Well, it's always darkest just before daylight," said Tom. "So let us hope for the best. We both have had a bit of bad luck. But when I think of Rad, who may lose his eyesight, I can stand my losses smiling."
"Yes," agreed Mr. Baxter, "you have big assets when you have your health and eyesight." ”

“ In an instant a fierce blaze shot up, as hot, in proportion, as would come from any burning building.
For the second time Tom was about to make a test on a fairly large scale of his experimental extinguisher mixture.
"All ready up there?" he called to his helper perched high in the air.
"All ready!" came back the answer above the roar and crackle of the flames that made Tom and Ned step back.
Would success or failure attend the young inventor's project? ”

“ Of course it isn't any of my business, in a way, but I don't think it is right to stand by and see a fellow inventor defrauded.
"Of course," mused Tom, while his helper put the finishing touches to the carburetor, "it may have been a business deal in which one took as many chances as the other. There are always two sides to every story. Baxter says they took his formulae, but he may have taken something from them to make it even. The only thing is that I'd trust Baxter sooner than I would those two fellows, and he certainly had a narrow squeak at the fire. ”