Victor Appleton

“ There was no hollow in the ground, as far as he could make out, no depression and no other clumps of shrubbery and no boulders behind which a man might be hidden. Some distance away there were all of these things in profusion, for the land was wild and uncultivated outside the plant fence. But there was not a hole, boulder, or bush near enough to the one beside which Tom stood to have enabled a man to gain their protection while the young inventor was watching. ”

“ Concentrating his gaze, Tom Swift looked eagerly at a clump of bushes.
“It’s a man,” murmured Tom Swift. “A man, sure enough, and it isn’t one of our workers, either. None of them would sneak around as he is doing.”
For that described exactly the movements of the stranger of whom Tom had caught sight in the darkness as he approached the big fence which surrounded his plant. ”

“ TROUBLES AND WORRIES Instantly the scene just outside the hangar where the plane and the car were kept was in confusion. So quickly had Schlump given his captor the slip that, for a moment, every one was stunned. Even Tom Swift, accustomed as he was to emergencies, did not know what to do. But this hesitation was only momentary.
“Get him!” shouted the young inventor. “We’ve got to get him! Scatter and round him up!”
“Turn on the searchlight!” yelled Ned.
“By golly!” chuckled Eradicate, who had seen the man get away from the giant, “dat big man ain’t so smart whut he t’ink he am.” ”

“ What do you mean, Koku?” asked Ned.
“Man try climb fence,” went on the giant, pointing out of the window. “Koku see him! Koku get him! Bust him all up in slats!”
“Wait a minute!” cautioned Ned, as he caught hold of the big man who was about to rush from the room. “No one can get over, through, or under that fence without setting off the alarm. It would ring here as well as in other parts of the plant, Koku, and the bell hasn’t tinkled. You must have fallen asleep and dreamed it.”
“Koku saw man on fence!” insisted the giant. “Maybe so him cut alarm wires.” ”

“ For while Tom was working on the mechanical end, Ned looked after the business interests.
“Well, Ned, how goes it?” asked the young inventor at the close of a hard day’s work when Tom himself had been much cheered by the progress he had made in lightening his passenger car and installing a dual oiling system on the plane.
“It doesn’t go at all,” was the somewhat gloomy answer. “People seem afraid to risk their money. If you could only make a successful flight, Tom, or get some millionaire to invest about a hundred thousand dollars without really seeing the thing fly, we’d be all right.” ”

“ But, with all those, there is much more chance for life than if none is used. There is, too, always the danger that the parachute will not open in time, but this happens so rarely that it need not be considered.
“Bless my door mat!” cried Mr. Damon, fumbling with the straps. “I hope I don’t get this thing on backward!”
“This is the way it goes!” cried Ned, who already had his adjusted.
Tom, likewise, had adjusted his safety device, and now the young inventor, thinking regretfully meanwhile of this sudden ending of his hopes, began to prepare for “abandoning ship.” ”

“ Tom called to his new mechanician Sam Stone, who, with his helper, Jim Waldo, was to do most of the driving on the second lap of the journey. Of course Tom would take the wheel now and then to relieve the pilot, who was, necessarily, under a great strain.
The throttles were opened and the twin motors responded with a thundering volume of explosions which sent the Eagle across the field at ever increasing speed, carrying the car and its passengers with it. Then, like some great bird, true to her name, the Eagle rose into the air. ”

“ Once more Tom, Ned, Mr. Damon, Koku, and some others took their places in the car. Mr. Swift declined to come, saying it was too much for his nerves. The car rolled over the field, was clamped to the chassis of the big aeroplane, and up in the air it rose.
This time there was no accident, and off above the lake and over the country soared the Falcon, flying beautifully. “It’s a success!” cried Ned.
“I want to make a test landing and see how long it takes to unclamp the car and fasten it to the other plane,” said Tom, before he would permit himself to exult. ”

“ Almost at the instant he asked himself this question he saw the man crawl behind a clump of bushes. In the natural course of events the man should have appeared on the other side of the clump. But he did nothing of the sort.
“He may be hiding there,” mused Tom. “Perhaps waiting for a confederate. I’ll just have a closer look at this!”
He advanced boldly toward the bushes. There was nothing between him and the shrubbery, and it was still light enough to see fairly well. Besides, Tom had extraordinarily good eyes. ”

“ Tom glanced at the oil gage, at the gasoline indicator, and at the needle of the dial which showed their height above the ground. He had noted the tips of several jagged peaks below as they flew over them, and he realized that while they might be up sufficiently high in flying over level ground, they were not when traversing the Rocky Mountains.
“A little drop and we’ll scrape some of those stone teeth,” thought Tom. “I’m going up a bit.”
He was in much more comfortable circumstances than had been the two men whom he and Ned relieved, for the storm garments protected him and his chum. ”

“ Mary asserted. “I have had a feeling for some time that Tom would be in danger as soon as he tried to go ahead with that new invention of his—the airline express. It always has happened so from the time he made his first speedy motor boat until he put his valuable papers in the Chest of Secrets. Always some enemies have been on his trail. And you don’t imagine they’re going to stop and let him alone, do you, when he’s got something as big as this airline express almost perfected?”
“Well, of course there are always scoundrels ready to take advantage of what an inventor does,” admitted Ned. ”

“ This Tom and Ned could well believe. A search through the premises revealed nothing of any value as a clew. The ropes which Tom had discarded when he made his escape had been taken away, or it might have been possible to trace the place where they had been bought.
“I guess Waterfield is our next and best hope,” remarked Ned, as he and Tom came away from the lonely house.
“I think so,” agreed the young inventor. “Mr. Damon may have heard something more.”
They found the odd man contemplating his new plane, which had been repaired and taken back to his own private hangar. ”

“ This was shouted by one of the masked men, whose identity Tom Swift could only guess at, though he judged all of them to be some of his enemies.
But the young inventor had no intention of jumping out of the boat to swim for safety. He knew he would soon be overtaken and captured. His only chance lay in beating the scoundrels in a race. Besides, he was in no physical condition to endure a long swim. He had been in a most uncomfortable, cramped position all night, and the exertion of filing off the chain and going through the tunnel to emerge on Barn Door Island had tired him. ”

“ Ned stated. “If the plotters hope to get Tom’s models and papers it isn’t likely they would use bombs of very great force. To do so would be to blow things so much apart that they couldn’t get anything out of the ruins.
“So I think they will use bombs with only a small charge of explosive—enough to make a lot of noise, smoke, and confusion. But if we can find them first—the bombs, I mean—and put them out of business, we’ll be all right.”
“Yes,” said Mr. Damon, “providing they don’t find us first and put us out of business. It doesn’t take much of a bomb to blow a man sky-high.” ”

“ But his intention of keeping secret the reason for their bold acts was not shared by the masked man who had spoken of the imprisoned Barsky. For approaching Tom and shaking his fist in the lad’s face the scoundrel exclaimed:
“You’re trying to beat us out of our invention, but it can’t be done! We’ve got you now where we want you!”
“Your invention—what do you mean?” asked Tom, genuinely puzzled.
“The airline express car,” was the unexpected answer. “That’s our invention, and we’re going to get patents on it ahead of you! We don’t intend to let you cheat us out of it. ”

“ But where’s Tom? Is he there? What? He isn’t? Has he been there? No!”
The silence on Mr. Swift’s part, following his last word, told Ned and Mrs. Baggert, more than anything else, how worried he was. He appeared to be listening to what the giant at the other end of the wire was saying. Then he spoke again:
“We’ll be right over, Koku. Yes, I’m coming and so is Mr. Newton. Don’t bring Eradicate? Well, he might be of some help. There’s no use in you being jealous. Look around until we get there. Tom may be in some of the other buildings!” ”

“ Often a person may be recognized by his voice alone. And Tom remembered how he had recognized Renwick Fawn by that man’s elbow peculiarity. But he could not place these two.
“Yes, he filed the chain off all right,” admitted Kenny. “We might have known he’d do something like that. We should have bound his hands.”
“They’re bound now,” grimly remarked Schlump, as he tightened the knots on the rope around Tom’s wrists. It was so closely drawn as to be painful, but Tom did not murmur. He was not going to let these men know that they were hurting him. ”

“ My readers are all familiar with the general outline of an aeroplane. Beneath the fuselage which held the engine and a cockpit for the pilot and his helper was built a heavy frame to which could be clamped the passenger car.
This car was like a Pullman parlor car combined with a sleeper. It had some folding berths and also some easy chairs. There was a small dining room and a buffet kitchen, and many conveniences were installed. Tom limited the number of passengers to be carried on any one trip to ten, saying he could enlarge the cars if he found the machine was going to be a success. ”

“ To get sharp pictures it is necessary to focus up to the last moment. In the reflex camera the operator can see the image of the picture he is about to take on a ground glass. When the focal plane shutter is released this ground glass automatically drops out of the way.
Something in the actions of this man aroused the suspicions of Tom. He looked at him keenly for a moment as the fellow ran forward, his head almost inside his camera. Then, with a cry, Tom leaped out of the window of the car, and, like a football tackler, threw himself on the man. ”

“ The young inventor, who had taken personal charge of piloting the big plane through the storm, that it might arrive on time, soon realized that he had his “work cut out for him,” as he said later. While it is not at all unusual for aeroplanes of even less power than the big ones Tom used to fly through storms, still there is always the element of danger.
But Tom’s Osprey had one advantage. Because of the heavy car slung below it, the center of gravity was thus made much lower than usual, and this served to keep the craft steady. ”

“ Damon. “I never saw a worse one.”
“Oh, we’ve been in just as severe ones before,” observed Tom, in what seemed a cool voice. “When we were trying out the flying boat I remember a storm when I thought we never would get through it. This is bad enough, but the Osprey can buck it I think.”
“Ah knows Massa Tom gwine to pull us through all right,” said Eradicate, with a glance at Koku. “Ah isn’t scairt, no how!”
“Huh! Black man talk big—but him knees shake all same,” sneered the giant. ”

“ It was night there, though still daylight in San Francisco.
“I’m all right, Dad!” reported the young inventor. “Didn’t make it quite as speedily as I hoped, but I’ll do better on the return trip. How’s Mary?”
“She’s all right,” answered Mr. Swift. “She will speak to you in a moment. But, Tom, be careful. I’m worried about you. A number of mysterious messages have come in over the telephone wires during the day. I’m afraid your enemies are still on your trail.”
“Well, maybe they are, Dad, but I think I have given them the slip,” laughed Tom. ”

“ What the man had said about the necessity of keeping quiet on Loon Island came to Tom with force now. He had a wild idea of setting up a yelling that might attract some passing oarsman or motor boat man. But he gave this idea up very soon.
“I might get help, and then, again, I might not,” Tom thought. “If I didn’t get it, these fellows would be angry at me and they might beat me up. I want to keep a whole skin as long as I can. I can do better work if I’m not injured. ”

“ I can reach right over and grab him. And when I get near enough to do that, Mary, I want you to take the steering wheel of this car and hold it steady. Can you do that?”
“I’ll try, Tom.”
“You’ve got to do it if we’re to save his life.”
“Very well then, Tom, I will,” returned Mary in a quiet voice, and Tom knew she would not fail him. “How fast the horse is going!” she added.
The light buggy whirled around a curve on two wheels in a manner to make Mary catch her breath. Tom gave a low whistle. Then as the runabout made the same curve, Tom saw that the road ahead was straight but narrow. ”

“ Swift and Mary Nestor returned to the house.
The heads of the various factory departments were called into consultation and instructions given them to search their respective quarters with minute care to discover any possible bombs. Koku and Eradicate were also called in and with Ned and Mr. Damon formed a separate searching party.
It was Koku who found the first bomb. The giant was looking in a pile of rubbish in one corner of a certain shop when he made a dive for something and cried:
“Cannon ball—like strong man throw in circus. I stronger than circus man—I toss cannon ball!” ”

“ A full complement of passengers was not carried on this initial trip, and there was more than room for all of them in the comfortable chairs. Koku had to be content with a bench, for no ordinary chair was large enough for him, and to his delight Eradicate was allowed to take charge of the small kitchen, where a buffet lunch would be served at noon, and other refreshments as needed.
“Ah eben gib dat giant suffin in case he git hungry,” chuckled Eradicate, who seemed to forget his jealous enmity against the big man in his delight at being near Tom and allowed to serve. ”

“ When they expect to go to great heights and encounter cold of such intensity that it is hard to conceive of it, they wear suits in which are woven wires of high resistance. A low voltage electric current, passing through these wires, warms them, just as is done in some of the warming pads used in bed by invalids. In this way the blood of the daring aviators is kept circulating.
But as Tom did not expect to go very high on his airline express trips, there was no need of these electrically heated suits, and none had been taken along. ”