Victor Appleton

“ KOKU'S PRISONER
"Bless my knitting needles!" cried Mr. Damon, as he looked down, and saw, in the glare of the great light, the figure of the woman clinging to the swaying rope. "Help her, someone! Tom! Ned! She'll fall!"
The eccentric man started to rush from the motor room, where he had been helping Ned. But the latter cried:
"Stay where you are, Mr. Damon. No one can reach her now without danger to himself and her. She can climb up, I think." ”

“ At times she would be forced downward toward the angry waters of Lake Ontario, over which she was sailing, but the speed of her propellers and the buoyancy of the gas bag, would soon lift her again.
"How much longer are you going to stay?" called Ned in his chum's ear called loudly, not to be heard above the noise of the airship, but above the racket of the gale.
"Oh, I guess we may as well start back," spoke Tom, after a look at the clock on the wall. "We can just about make our camp by daylight, and they won't see us." ”

“ Whitford, gently. "What's your answer, Tom? Don't you think this is a sort of duty-call to you?"
"A duty-call?" repeated the young inventor.
"Yes. Of course I realize that it isn't like a soldier's call to battle, but Uncle Sam needs you just the same. When there is a war the soldiers are called on to repel an enemy. Now the smugglers are just as much an enemy of the United States, in a certain way, as an armed invader would be.
"One strikes at the life and liberty of the people, while the smugglers try to cheat Uncle Sam out of money that is due him. ”

“ Our motor broke down, we could get no help, and the storm came up. We thought we were doomed, until we saw your lights. I guessed it was a balloon, or some sort of an airship, and we whistled, and called for help. Then you rescued us! Oh, it is almost too wonderful to believe. It is a good thing I have practiced athletics or I never could have climbed that rope."
"It is like a story from a book!" added Mr. Illingway, as he grasped Tom's hand. "You rescued us in Africa and again here." ”

“ Like a bird the Falcon shot upward in pursuit noiselessly and resistlessly, the beam of the great searchlight playing on the other craft, which dodged to one side in an endeavor to escape.
"On the trail at last!" cried Tom, as he shoved over the accelerator lever, sending his airship forward on an upward slant, right at the stern of the smugglers' biplane. ”

“ This man he wiggle more. He wiggle more still, and then he watch. I watch too. I see him have knife in hand, but I am no afraid. I begin to go like snake also, but I bigger snake than he."
"I guess so," laughed Tom, as he watched the man trying in vain to get out of Koku's grip.
"Then I see man look up at balloon bag, so as if he like to cut it with knife. I say to myself, 'Koku, it is time for you to go into business for yourself.' You stand under me?" ”

“ For, search as Tom and his friends did for a trace of the smugglers, they could see nothing. They put on full speed, and even went as far as the limits of the Indian reservation, but to no purpose. They heard no throbbing motor, no whizz of great propellers, and saw no white, canvas wings against the dark background of the sky, as Tom's craft made her way noiselessly along.
"I guess we've frightened them away," said Mr. Whitford dubiously, as it came near morning, and nothing suspicious had been seen or heard. They're holding back their goods, Tom until they think they can take us unawares. ”

“ He'll soon come out," and Tom flashed the big light on the fleeing giant to whom fear seemed to lend more than wings.
But even a giant, long legged though he be, and powerful, cannot compete with a modern airship—certainly not such a one as Tom Swift had.
"We're almost up to him, Tom!" cried Ned a little later.
"Yes! I'm keeping track of him. Oh, why doesn't he know enough to stop? Koku! Koku!" called Tom. "It's all right! I'm in the airship! This is a searchlight, not a comet. Wait for us!" ”

“ THE APPEAL TO TOM
"Well, what does this mean?" asked Mr. Foger in indignant tones, as he faced the custom officer and Tom and Ned. "What do you mean by coming to my house at this hour, and disturbing me? I demand an answer!"
"And you shall have it," replied Mr. Whitford calmly. He was used to dealing with "indignant" persons, who got very much on their dignity when accused of smuggling. "We are here, Mr. Foger, because of certain information we have received, and we must ask you to submit to some questions, and allow your house to be searched."
"What! You question me? Search this house? ”

“ The interior contained parobolic curved mirrors.
"It's a sort of a lantern, and I hope it's going to do some magic work," explained Tom with a smile. But it isn't the kind of magic lantern you mean. It won't throw pictures on a screen, but it may show some surprising pictures to us—that is if you come along, and I think you will."
"Talking riddles; eh?" laughed Ned. "What's the answer?"
"Smugglers."
"I thought you were talking about a lantern."
"So I am, and it's the lantern that's going to show up the smugglers, so you can call it a smuggler's magic lantern if you like." ”

“ Tom sauntered up in time to hear the close of the conversation.
"I'm much obliged to you for your information," said the custom officer, "but I'm afraid, just as you say your chum felt about it, that there's nothing in it. This Foger chap may have been bad in the past, but I hardly think he's in with the smugglers. What I'm looking for is not a lad who has one airship, but someone who is making a lot of them, and supplying the men who are running goods over the border. That's the sort of game I'm after, and if this Andy Foger only has one aeroplane I hardly think he can be very dangerous." ”

“ He dodged to one side, off the path on which he had been running, and plunged into the bushes.
"Where him go?" called Koku, coming to a puzzled halt.
"Ned, play the light on both sides!" ordered Tom to his chum, who was now on the deck of the airship, near the wheels and levers that operated the big lantern, "Show him up!"
Obediently the young bank clerk swung the searchlight from side to side. The powerful combined electric current, hissing into the big carbons, and being reflected by the parabolic mirrors, made the growth of underbrush as brightly illuminated as in day time. ”

“ Damon, who pulled over the accelerating lever and instantly the Falcon responded. Now indeed the race was on in earnest. The smugglers must have understood this, for they tried all their tactics to throw the pursuing airship off the track. They dodged and twisted, now going up, and now going down, and even trying to turn back, but Tom headed them off. Ever the great beam of light shone relentlessly on them, like some avenging eye. They could not escape.
"Are we gaining?" cried Mr. Whitford. ”

“ Then came a whistle from the speaking tube, that led to the pilot house.
"What is it?" asked Ned, putting the tube to his ear.
"Stand by for a rescue!" ordered Tom, who had also, through a window in the floor of the pilot house, seen the hapless motor boat. The men in it were frantically waving their hands to those on the airship. "I'm going down as close as I dare," went on Tom. "You watch, and when it's time, have Koku drop from the stern a long, knotted rope. That will be a sort of ladder, and they can make it fast to their boat and climb up, hand over hand. It's the only plan." ”

“ The only safe way out of the danger, unless he could remove the obstruction, was to descend to earth, and, as Ned had said, open every outlet. But to have done that in mid-air would have been dangerous, as the large volume of gas, suddenly liberated, would have hung about the airship in a cloud, smothering all on board. If they were on the earth they could run away from it, and remain away until the vapor had blown off.
"Is Mr. Damon keeping her on the course, Ned?" asked Tom, pausing a moment to get his breath after a series of frantic efforts. ”

“ I'm not going far this time. Only to the Canadian border, and that's only a few hundred miles. But I want to see if I can shut the current off, and turn it on again. When a thing happens by accident you never know whether you can get just exactly the same conditions again."
Tom shut off the current from the dynamo, and the powerful beam of light died out. Then he turned it on once more, and it glowed as brightly as before. He did this several times, and each time it was a success.
"Hurrah!" cried Tom. "To-morrow I'll start on my latest invention, a great searchlight!" ”

“ If they have goods on which there is a tax, they either have to pay or surrender the goods."
"But don't the smugglers slip over in spite of all the precautions?" asked Ned. "Say at some lonely ravine, or stretch of woods?"
"I suppose they do, occasionally," replied Mr. Whitford. Yet the fact that they never can tell when one of the inspectors or deputies is coming along, acts as a stop. You see the border line is divided up into stretches of different lengths. A certain man, or men, are held responsible for each division. They must see that no smugglers pass. That makes them on the alert. ”

“ That's what I'm asking you to do, Tom.
"I don't want to get prosy, or deliver a lecture on the work of the custom house, Tom, but, honestly, I think it is a duty you owe to your country to help catch these smugglers. I admit I'm at the end of my rope. This last clew has failed. The Fogers seem to be innocent of wrong doing. We need your help, Tom."
"But I don't see how I can help you."
"Of course you can! You're an expert with airships. The smugglers are using airships, of that I'm sure. You tell me you have just perfected a noiseless aircraft. That will be just the thing. ”

“ Ned called to her. "Come in out of the wet."
"Oh, it seems a miracle that we are saved!" the woman gasped, as, rain-drenched and windtossed, she staggered toward the door which Tom had opened by means of a lever in the pilot house. The young inventor had his hands full, manipulating the airship so as to keep it above the motor boat, and not bring too great a strain on the rope. ”

“ Not so much of a crowd came out as on the first day, and Koku had little trouble in keeping them far enough away so that Tom and the others could get some rest. Koku walked about, brandishing a big club, and looking as fierce as a giant in a fairy tale.
It was afternoon when a message came from Mr. Whitford to the effect that Andy's airship was not out the previous night, and that so far no clews had developed from the letter, or from any other source.
"We'll just have to keep our eyes open," wrote Mr. Whitford. ”

“ Oh, that is only down into the cellar," was the reply. "There is nothing there." "We can't take anything for granted," went on the agent with a smile. "I'll take a look down there."
He descended with some of his men. Tom and Ned remained in the kitchen of the cottage, while Andy and his father conversed in low tones, occasionally casting glances at our heroes. Once Tom thought Mr. Foger looked apprehensively toward the door, through which the custom men had descended. ”

“ Mr. Whitford was soon in communication with his headquarters by means of the wireless apparatus on Tom's airship, and a little later two custom officers arrived, with an extra horse on which they were to take their prisoner back.
"And now we'll try our luck once more," said Mr. Whitford as his men left with Shafton securely bound. "Can you make the reservation in good time, Tom? It's quite a distance," and he pointed it out on the map.
"Oh, I'll do it," promised the young inventor, as he sent his powerful craft aloft in the darkness. ”

“ I wonder if it was Andy's airship that was used?"
"We can easily find that out," said Mr. Whitford. "I have a detective stationed in a house not far from where the Foger's live. Andy came back from Shopton yesterday, just before you arrived here, and I can soon let you know whether he was out last night. I'll take this letter with me, and get right up to my office, though I'm afraid this won't be much of a clew after all. Print isn't like handwriting for evidence."
"And to think they sailed right over this place, and we weren't home," mourned Tom. "It makes me mad!" ”