SWIFT University of California Berkeley DONALD SIDNEY-FRYER COLLECTION > u * . -2 / "LOOK! LOOK!" EXCLAIMED TOM. "DOESN'T THAT SEEM SUSPICIOUS-? " Tom Swift and His Air Scout. Paee 20S TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT OR Uncle Sam's Mastery of the Sky BY VICTOR APPLETON &0THOR OP "TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR CYCLE," '*TOM SWIFf AND HIS BIG TUNNEL," "TOM SWIFT AND HIS WAR TANK," "THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS SERIES," ETC, ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS Made in the United State, of Amen* BOOKS FOR BOYS By VICTOR APPLETON izmo. Cloth. Illustrated. THE TOM SWIFT SERIES TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR CYCLE TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR BOAT TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRSHIP TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RUNABOUT TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIRELESS MESSAGE TOM SWIFT AMONG THE DIAMOND MAKERS TOM SWIFT IN THE CAVES OF ICE TOM SWIFT AND HIS SKY RACER TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RIFLE TOM SWIFT IN THE CITY OF GOLD TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR GLIDER TOM SWIFT IN CAPTIVITY TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIZARD CAMERA TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT SEARCHLIGHT TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT CANNON TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHOTO TELEPHONE TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIG TUNNEL TOM SWIFT IN THE LAND OF WONDERS TOM SWIFT AND HIS WAR TANK TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS SERIES THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN THE WEST THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON THE COAST THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN THE JUNGLE THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN EARTHQUAKE LAND THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS AND THE FLOOD THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS AT PANAMA THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS UNDER THE SEA THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON THE WAR FRONT THE MOTION PICTURE CHUMS SERIES THE MOTION PICTURE CHUMS' FIRST VENTURE THE MOTION PICTURE CHUMS AT SEASIDE PARK THE MOTION PICTURE CHUMS ON BROAD- THE MOTION PICTURE CHUMS' OUTDOOR EXHIBITION THE MOTION PICTURE CHUMS' NEW IDEA THE MOTION PICTURE CHUMS AT THE FAIR THE MOTION PICTURE CHUMS' WAR SPECTACLE GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New Yorfc i ._ . mt i I Mm r inn mil III i COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY GROSSET & DUNLAP Tom Swift and His Air Scov* CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I A SKY RIDE I II A NEW IDEA n III THE BIG OFFER 20 IV MR. DAMON'S WHIZZER 28 V TOM'S PROJECT 37 VI MAKING PLANS 47 VII A PROBLEM IN SOUND 53 VIII THROUGH THE ROOF 60 IX AFTER A SPY 72 X A BIG SPLASH 80 XI A NIGHT TRIP 89 XII THE CRY FOR HELP 98 XIII SOMETHING QUEER 104 XIV THE TELEPHONE CALL in XV A VAIN SEARCH 120 XVI THE LONG NIGHT 129 XVII SILENT SAM.. 138 XVIII SUSPICIONS 146 XIX ANOTHER FLIGHT 154 Hi fv CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XX QUEER MARKS 161 XXI THE DESERTED CABIN 169 XXII CLEWS AT LAST ... 177 XXIII THE GOVERNMENT TEST . . 185 XXIV IN THE MOONLIGHT 104 XXV THE GOLD TOOTH.. ................ 206 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT CHAPTER i A SKY RIDE "On, Tom, is it really safe?" A young lady an exceedingly pretty young lady, she could be called stood with one small, gloved hand on the outstretched wing of an aero- plane, and looked up at a young man, attired in a leather, fur-lined suit, who sat in the cockpit of the machine just above her. "Safe, Mary?" repeated the pilot, as he reached in under the hood of the craft to make sure about one of the controls. "Why, you ought to know by this time that I wouldn't go up if it wasn't safe!" "Oh, yes, I know, Tom. It may be all right for you, but I've never been up in this kind of airship before, and I want to know if it's safe for me." 2, TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT The young man leaned over the edge of the padded cockpit, and clasped in his rather grimy hand the neatly gloved one of the young lady. And though the glove was new, and fitted the hand perfectly, there was no attempt to with- draw it. Instead, the young lady seemed to be very glad indeed that her hand was in such safe keeping. "Mary!" exclaimed the young man, "if it wasn't safe as safe as a church I wouldn't dream of taking you up !" and at the mention of "church" Mary Nestor blushed just the least bit. Or perhaps it was that the prospective excitement of the moment caused the blood to surge into her cheeks. Have it as you will. "Come, Mary! you're not going to back out the last minute, are you?" asked Tom Swift. "Everything is all right. I've made a trial flight, and you've seen me come down as safely as a bird. You promised to go up with me. I won't 4jo very high if you don't like it, but my expe- rience has been that, once you're off the ground, it doesn't make any difference how high you go. Vou'll find it very fascinating. So skip along to the house, and Mrs. Baggert will help you get into your togs." "Shall I have to wear all those things such *s you have on?" asked Mary, blushing again. "Well, you'll be more comfortable in a fur- A SKY RIDE 3 fined leather suit," asserted Tom. "And if it does make you look like an Eskipo, why I'm sure it will be very becoming. Not that you don't look nice now," he hastened to assure Miss Nes- tor, "but an aviation suit will be very well, fetching, I should say." "If I could be sure it would 'fetch* me back safe, Tom " "That'll do! That'll do!" laughed the young aviator. "One joke like that is enough in a morning. It was pretty good, though. Now go on in and tog up." "You're sure it's safe, Tom?" "Positive! Trot along now. I want to fix a wire and " "Oh, is anything broken?" and the girl, who had started away from the aeroplane, turned back again. "No, not broken. It's only a little auxiliary dingus I put on to make it easier to read the barograph, but I think I'll go back to the old system. Nothing to do with flying at all, except to tell how high up one is." "That's just what I don't care to know, Tom," said Mary Nestor, with a smile. "If I could imagine I was sailing along only about ten feet in the air I wouldn't mind so much." "Flying at that height would be the worst sort of danger. You kave it to me, Mary. I won't g TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT. take you up above the clouds on this sky ride; though, later, I'm sure you'll want to try that, iThis is only a little flight. You've been promis- ing long enough to take a trip with me, and now I believe you're trying to back out." "No, really I'm not, Tom! Only, at the last minute, the machine looks so small and frail, and the sky is so big " She glanced up and seemed to shiver just a trifle. "Don't be thinking of those things, Mary!" laughed Tom Swift. "Trot along and get ready. The motor never worked better, and we may break a few speed records this morning. No traffic cops to stop us, either, as there might be if we were in an auto. "There you go, Mary!" exclaimed Tom, as if struck with a new thought. "You've ridden in an auto with me many a time, and you never, ;were a bit afraid, though we were in more dan- ger than we'll be this morning." "Danger, Tom, in an auto? How?" "Why, danger of a wheel collapsing as we were going full speed; or the steering knuckle breaking and sending us into a tree; danger of running into a stone wall or a ditch; danger of some one running into us, or of us running into some one else. [There isn't one of these dangers on a sky ride." A SKY RIDE 9 "No," said Mary slowly. "But there's the danger of falling." "One against twenty. That's the safety mar- gin. And, if we do fall, it will be like landing in a feather bed ! There, don't wait any longer, po and get ready." Mary sighed, and then, seeming to summon her nerve to her aid, she smiled brightly, waved he? hand to Tom, and hastened toward his home, Jwhere Mrs. Baggert the matronly housekeeper, was waiting to help the girl attire herself in a flying-suit of leather. Mary Nestor, who had a very warm place in Jhe heart of Tom Swift, had, as he stated, some time since promised to take a trip in the air with the young inventor. But she had kept putting it off, for one reason or another, until Tom began to despair of ever getting her to accompany him. fTo-day, however, when she had called to inquire about his father, who had been slightly ill, Tom had, after the social visit, insisted on the promise jbeing kept. He had his mechanic get out one of the safest, though a speedy, double machine, and, with Mary to watch, Tom had taken a trial flight, just to show her how easy it was. It was not the first time she had seen him take to the air, but now she watched with different emotions, for she was yitally interested. 6 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT Tom had sailed down from aloft, making a landing in the aviation field he had constructed near his home, and then he had insisted that Mary should keep her promise to take a sky ride with him. "Don't be too long now!" called Tom to the girl, as she hurried toward the house. "Never mind about your hair, or whether your hat's on straight. You're going to wear a cap, anyhow, and tuck your hair up under that. It's hot down here, but it will be cold up above; so tell Mrs. Baggert to see that you're warmly dressed." "All right," and gaily she waved her hand to him. Now that she had made her decision, and was really going up, she was not half so fright* ened as she had been in the contemplation of it^ As Tom climbed out of the machine, to give it a careful inspection, though he was certain there was nothing wrong, an aged colored man shuffled toward him. "Yo' yo'll be mighty careful ob Miss Nestor now, won't yo', Massa Tom ?" asked the man. "Of course I will, Eradicate," was the young inventor's answer. "Case we ain't got many laik her no mo', an* dat's de truf, Massa Tom," went on the old man. "So be mighty careful laik !" "That's what I will, Rad! And, while I'm up Jn the air, don't you and Koku have any trouble,'* A SKY RIDE J "Ho! Trouble wif dat onery no-'count giant! I guess not!" and the colored man limped off, highly indignant. Satisfied, from an inspection of his machine, that it was as nearly mechanically perfect as it was possible to be, Tom Swift finished his trip around it and stood near the big propeller, wait- ing for Mary Nestor to reappear. Presently she did so, and Tom gaily waved his hand to her. "You're a picture !" he cried, as he saw how particularly "fetching" she looked in the avia- tor's costume which was like his own. Because of the danger of entanglement, Miss Nestor had doffed her skirts, and wore the costume of all aviators men and women. "I wish I had my camera !" cried Tom. "You look stunning !" "I hope that isn't any comment on how I'm going to feel if we have to make a forced land- ing, I believe you call it," she retorted. "Oh, I'll take care of that!" exclaimed Tom. "Now up you go, and we'll start," and he helped her to climb into the padded seat of the cockpit, behind where he was to sit. "Oh, Tom! Don't be in such a hurry!" ex- postulated Mary. "Let me get my breath !" "No!" laughed the young inventor. "If I did you might back out. Get in, fasten the strap around you and sit still That's all you have to 8 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT do. Don't be afraid, I'll be very careful. And don't try to yell at me to go slower or lower once we're up in the air." "Why not ?" Mary wanted to know, as she set- tled herself in her seat. "Because I can't very well hear you, or talk to you. The motor makes so much noise, you know. We can, do a little talking through this speaking tube," and he indicated one, "but it isn't very satisfactory. So if you have anything to say " "In the language of the poets/' interrupted Mary, "if I have words to spill, prepare to spill them now. Well, I haven't! Now I'm here, go ahead! I shall probably be too frightened to talk, anyhow." "Oh, no you won't after the first little sen- sation," Tom assured her. "You'll be crazy about it. Come on, Jackson!" he called to the mecha- nician. "Start the ball rolling!" Tom was in his place, his goggles and cap well down over his face, and he was adjusting the switch as the mechanic prepared to spin the pro- pellers. Suddenly a man came running from the Swift house, waving his arms not unlike the blades of an aircraft propeller. He also shouted, but Tom, whose ears were covered with his fur cap, could not hear. However, Jackson did, and stopped A SKY RIDE g Whirling the blades, turning about to see what was wanted. "Why, it's Mr. Damon!" exclaimed Tom, as he caught sight of the excited man. "Hello, what's the matter?" the youth asked, pulling aside one flap of his head-covering so he might hear the answer. "Tom! Wait a minute! Bless my mouse trap!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "I want to speak to you!" He was panting from his run across the field. "I just got to your house saw your father he said you were going up with Miss Nestor, but bless my dog biscuit " "Can't stop now, Mr. Damon !" answered Tom, with a laugh. "I have only just succeeded, by hard work, in getting Mary to a point where she has consented to take a sky ride. If I stop now she'll back out and I'll never get her in again. See you when I come back," and Tom pulled the covering over his ear once more. "But, Tom, bless my shoe laces ! This is im- portant!" "So's this!" answered Tom, with a grin. He saw, by the motion of Mr. Damon's lips, what the latter had said. Around swung the propeller blades. The gaso- line vapor in the cylinders was being compressed. "Contact!" called Tom sharply, as he pressed the switch to give the igniting spark at the proper 10 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT moment. The mechanic had stepped back out of the way, in case there should be a premature starting of the powerful engine, in which event the blades would have cut him to pieces. "Wait, Tom! Wait! This is very important! Bless my collar button, Tom Swift, but this Bang ! Bang ! Bang ! With a series of explosi ^s, like those of a machine gun, the motor started, and further talk was out of the question. Tom turned on more gas. The propellers became almost invisible blades of light and shadow, and the aeroplane began moving over the grassy field. The me- chanic had sprung out of the way, pulling Mr. Damon with him. "Come back! Come back! Wait a minute, Tom Swift! Bless my pansy blossoms, I want to tell you something !" cried the little man. But Tom Swift was away and out of hearing. He had started on his sky ride with Mary Nestor, CHAPTER II A NEW IDEA ANY one who has taken a flight in an aeroplane or gone up in a ba?ix>n, will know exactly how Mary Nestor felt on this, her first sky ride of any distance. For a moment, as she looked over the side of the machine, she had a distinct impression, not that she was going up, but that some one had pulled the earth down from beneath her and, at the same time, given her a shove off into space. Such is the first sensation of going aloft. Then the rush of air all about her, the slightly swaying motion of the craft, and the vi- bration caused by the motor took her attention. But the sensation of the earth dropping away from beneath her remained with Mary for some time. This sensation is much greater in a balloon than in an aeroplane, for a balloon, unless there is a strong wind blowing, goes straight up, while an aeroplane ascends on a long slant, and always into the teeth of the wind, to take advantage of ii 12 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT its lifting power on the underside of the planes. The reason for this sensation that of the earth's dropping down, instead of one's feeling, what really happens, that one is ascending is Jbecause there are no objects by which compari- son can be made. If one starts off on the earth's surface at slow, or at great speed, one passes stationary objects houses, posts, trees, and the like and judges the speed by the rapidity with which these are left behind. Going up is unlike this. There is nothing to pass. One simply cleaves the air, and only as it rushes past can one be sure of movement. And as the air is void of color and form, there is no sen- sation of passing anything. So Mary Nestor, as she shot into the air with {Tom Swift, had a sensation as though the earth yrere dropping from beneath her. For a moment she felt as though she were in some vast void floating in space and she had a great fear. Then she calmed herself. She looked at Tom sitting in front of her. Of course, all she could see was his back, but it looked to be a very sturdy back, indeed, and he sat there in the aircraft as calmly as though in a chair on the ground. Then Mary took courage, and ceased to grasp the sides of the cockpit with a grip that stiffened all her mus- cles. She was beginning to "find herself/' On and on, and up and up, went Mary and A NEW IDEA IJ Tom, in this the girl's first big sky ride. The earth below seemed farther and farther away. [The wide, green fields became little emerald squares, and the houses like those in a toy Noah's ark. Down below, Mr. Wakefield Damon, who had hurried over from his home in Waterfield to see Tom Swift, gazed aloft at the T^st disappearing aeroplane and its passengers. "Bless my coal bin !" cried the eccentric man, "but Tom is in a hurry this morning. Too bad he couldn't have stopped and spoken to me. It might have been greatly to his advantage. But I suppose I shall have to wait." "You want to see Master?" asked a voice be- hind Mr. Damon, and, turning, he beheld a veri- table giant. "Yes, Koku, I did," Mr. Damon answered, and he did not appear at all surprised at the sight of the towering form beside him. "I wanted to see Tom most particularly. But I shall have to wait. I'll go in and talk to Mr. Swift." "Yaas, an' I go talk to Radicate," said the giant. "Him diggin' up ground wherx. Master told me to make garden. Radicate not strong enough for dat!" "Huh ! there's trouble as soon as those two get to disputing," mused Mr* Damon, as he went to- ward the house. 14 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT Meanwhile, Mary was beginning to enjoy her- self. The sensation of moving rapidly through the air in a machine as skilfully guided as was the one piloted by Tom Swift was delightful. Up and up they went, and then suddenly Mary felt a lurch, and the plane, which was now about a thousand feet high, seemed to slip to one side. Mary screamed, and began reaching for the buckle of the safety belt that fastened her to her seat. She saw that something unusual had oc- curred, for Tom was working frantically at the mechanism in front of him. But, in spite of this, he seemed aware that Mary was in danger, not so much, perhaps, from what might happen to the machine, as what she might do in her terror. "Oh! Oh!" cried the girl, and Tom heard her above the terrific noise of the motor, for she was speaking with her lips close to the tube that served as a sort of inter-communicating tele- phone for the craft. "Oh, we are falling! I'm going to jump !" "Sit still! Sit still for your life!" cried Tom Swift. "I'll save you all right! Only sit still! Don't jump!" Mary, her red cheeks white, sank back, and the young inventor redoubled his efforts at the controls and other mechanisms. And that Tom was perfectly qualified to make A NEW IDEA 15 a safe landing, even with engine trouble, Mary Nestor well knew. Those of you who have read the previous books of this series know it also, but, for the benefit of my new readers, I shall state that this was by no means Tom's first ride in an aeroplane. He had operated and built gasoline engines ever since he was about sixteen years old. As related in the initial volume of this series, en- titled, 'Tom Swift and His Motorcycle/' he be- came possessed of this machine after it had started to climb a tree with Mr. Damon on board. After that experience the eccentric man blessing every- thing he could think of had no liking for the speedy motorcycle and sold it to Tom at a low price. That was the beginning of a friendship be- tween the two, and also started Tom on his ca- reer as an inventor and a possessor of many gasoline craft. For he was not content with merely riding the repaired motorcycle. He made improvements on it. Tom lived with his father in the town of Shopton, their home being looked after, since the death of Mrs. Swift, by Mrs. Baggert. Mr. Wakefield Damon lived in the neighboring town of Waterfield, and spent much time at Tom's home, often going on trips with him in various vehicles of the land, sea or air. 16 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT As related in the various volumes of this se- ries, Tom was not content to remain on earth. He built a speedy motor boat, and then secured an airship, following that with a submarine. He also made an electric runabout that was the speed- iest car on the road. Sending wireless messages, having thrilling experiences among 1 the diamond makers, journeying to the caves of ice, and mak- ing perilous trips in his sky racer took up part of the young inventor's time. With his electric rifle he did some wonderful shooting, and in the "City of Gold" made some strange discoveries, part of the fortune he se- cured enabling him to build his sky racer. It was in a land of giants that Tom was made captive, Jbut he succeeded in escaping, and brought two giants, of whom Koku was one, away with him. Following this achievement Tom invented a wizard camera and a great searchlight, which, with his giant cannon, was purchased by the United States Government. Work on his photo- telephone and his aerial warship, the problem of digging a big tunnel, and then traveling to the land of wonders, kept Tom Swift very busy, and he had just completed a wonderful piece of work when the present story opens. This last achievement was the perfecting of a machine to aid in the great World War and you will find the details set down in the volume which A NEW IDEA i% immediately precedes this. "Tom Swift and His War Tank," it is called, and in that is related how he not only invented a marvelous machine, but succeeded in keeping its secret from the plot- ters who tried to take it from him. In this Tom was helped by the inspiration of Mary Nestor, whom he hoped some day to marry, and by Ned Newton, a chum, who, though no inventor him- self, could admire one. Ned and Tom had been chums a long while, but Ned inclined more to financial and office matters than to machinery. At times he had managed affairs for Tom, and helped him finance projects. Ned was now an important bank offi- cial, and since the United States had entered the war had had charge of some Red Cross work, as well as Liberty Bond campaigns. Somehow, as she sat there in the craft whicli seemed disabled, Marj Nestor could not help thinking of Tom's many activities, in some of which she had shared. "Oh, if he falls now, and is killed!" she thought. "Oh, what will happen to us ?" "It's all right, Mary! Don't worry! It's all right!" cried Tom, through the speaking tube. "What's that? I can't hear you very well!" she called back. "No wonder, with the racket this motor is making," he answered. "Why can't something 18 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT be done so you can talk in an aeroplane as well as in a balloon? That's an idea! If I could tell you what was the matter now you wouldn't be a bit frightened, for it isn't anything. But, as it "What are you saying, Tom? I can't hear you!" cried Mary, still much frightened. "I say it's all right don't get scared. And (don't jump !" Tom shouted until his ears buzzed. "It's all nonsense having a motor making so much noise one can't talk!" he went on, irritat- edly. A strange idea had come to the young inven- tor, but there was no time to think of it now. Mentally he registered a vow to take up this idea and work on it as soon as possible. But, just now, the aeroplane needed all his attention. As he had told Mary, there was really nothing approaching any great danger. But it was rather an anxious moment. If Tom had been alone he would have thought little of it, but with Mary along he felt a double responsibility. What had happened was that the craft had suddenly gone into an "air pocket" or partial vacuum, and there had been a sudden fall and a slide slip. In trying to stop this too quickly Tom had broken one of his controls, and he was busily engaged in putting an auxiliary one in place and trying to reassure Mary at the same time, A NEW IDEA 19 "But it's mighty hard trying to do that through a speaking tube with a motor making a noise like a boiler factory," mused the young inventor. Tom worked quickly and to good purpose. In a few moments, though to Mary they seemed like hours, the machine was again gliding along on a level keel, and Tom breathed more easily. "And now for my great idea!" he told him* self. But it was some time before he could give hit attention to that. CHAPTER III THE BIG OFFER WORKING with all the skill he possessed, Tom had got the aeroplane in proper working order again. As has been said, the accident was a trivial one, and had he been alone, or with an experienced aviator, he would have thought little of it. Then, very likely, he would have volplaned to earth and made the repairs there. But he did not want to frighten Mary Nestor, so he fixed the control while gliding along, and made light of it. Thus his passenger was reassured. "Are we all right?" asked Mary through the tube, as they sailed along. "Right as a fiddle/' answered Tom, shouting through the same means of communication. "What's that about a riddle?" asked Mary, in surprise at his seeming flippancy at such a time. "I didn't say anything about a riddle I said we are as fit as a fiddle!" cried Tom. "Never mind. No use trying to talk with the racket this motor makes, and it isn't the noisiest of its kind, 20 THE BIG OFFER 21 either. I'll tell you when we get down. Do you like it?" "Yes, I like it better than- 1 did at first," an- swered Mary, for she had managed to under- stand the last of Tom's questions. Then he sailed a little higher, circled about, and, a little later, not to get Mary too tired and anxious, he headed for his landing field. "I'll take you home in the auto," he cried to his passenger. "We could go up to your house this way in style if there was a field near by large enough to land in. But there isn't. So it will have to be a plain, every-day auto." "That's good enough for me," said Mary. "Though this trip is wonderful glorious! I'll go again any time you ask me." "Well, I'll ask you," said Tom. "And when I do maybe it won't be so hard to hold a conver- sation. It will be more like this," and he shut off the motor and began to glide gently down. [The quiet succeeding the terrific noise of the motor exhaust was almost startling, and Tom and Mary could converse easily without using the tube. Then followed the landing on the soft, springy turf, a little glide over the ground, and the ma- chine came to a halt, while mechanics ran out of the hangar to take charge of it. "I'll just go in and change these togs," said 22 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT Mary, as she alighted and looked at her leather costume. "No, don't," advised Tom. "You look swell in 'em. Keep 'em on. They're yours, and you'll need 'em when we go up again. Here comes the auto. I'll take you right home in it. Keep the aviation suit on. "I wonder what Mr. Damon could have wanted," remarked Tom, as he drove Mary along the country road. "He seemed very much, excited," she replied. "Oh, he almost always is that way blessing everything he can think of. You know that. But this time it was different, I'll admit. I hope noth- ing is the matter. I might have stopped and spoken to him, but I was afraid if I did you'd back out and wouldn't come for a sky ride." "Well, I might have. But now that I've had one, even with an accident thrown in, I'll go any time you ask me, Tom," and Mary smiled at the young inventor. "Shucks, that wasn't a real accident!" he laughed. "But I do wonder what Mr. Damon wanted." "Better go back and find out, Tom," advised Mary, as they stopped in front of her house. "Oh, I want to come in and talk to you, Haven't had a chance for a good talk to-daj* > that motor made such a racket." THE BIG OFFER 23 "No, go along now, but come back and see me this afternoon if you like." "I do like, all right! And I suppose Mr. Da- mon will be fussing until he sees me. Well, glad you liked your first ride in the air, Mary that is, the first one of any account," for Mary had been in an aeroplane before, though only up a little way a sort of "grass-cutting stunt," Tom called it. Waving farewell to the pretty girl, the young aviator turned the auto about and speeded for his home and the shops adjoining it. His father had not been well, of late, and Tom was a bit anxious about him. "Mr. Damon may bother him, though he wouldn't mean to," thought Tom. "He seemed to have his mind filled with some new idea. I wonder if it is anything like mine? No, it couldn't be. Well, I'll soon find out," and, put- ting his foot on the accelerator, Tom sent the machine along at a pace that soon brought him within sight of his home. "Is father all right?" he asked Mrs. Baggert, who was out on the front porch, as though wait- ing for him. "Oh, yes, Tom, he's all right," the housekeeper answered. "Is Mr. Damon with him?" "No." 24 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT "He hasn't gone home, has he?" "No, he's around somewhere. But some ona else is with your father. Some visitors." "Any relations?" "No; strangers. They came to see you, and they're rather impatient. I came out to see if you were in sight. Your father sent me." "Are they bothering him talking business that I ought to attend to when he's ill? That mustn't be." "Well, I suppose it is business that the strangers are talking over with your father, Tom," said Mrs. Baggert, "for I heard sums of money spoken of. But your father seems to be all right, only a trifle anxious that you should come." "Well, I'm here now and I'll attend to things. [Where are the strangers, and who are they?" "I don't know," answered the housekeeper. "I never saw them before, but they're in the library with your father. Do you think they'll stay to dinner? If you do, I'll have Eradicate or Koku catch and kill a chicken." "If you let one do it don't tell the other about it," said Tom with a laugh, "or you'll have a chicken race around the yard that will make the visitors sit up and take notice." There was great rivalry between Eradicate Sampson, the aged colored man, and Koku, the giant, and they were continually disputing. THE BIG OFFER 35 Each one loved and served Tom in his own way, and there was jealousy between them. Koku, the giant Tom had brought with him from the land where the young inventor had been made cap- tive, was a big, powerful man, and could do things the aged colored servant could not attempt. But "Rad," as he was often called, and his mule "Boomerang" had long been fixtures on the Swift homestead. But old age crept on apace with Eradicate, though he hated to admit it, and Koku did many things the colored man had formerly attended to, and Rad was always on the lookout not to be supplanted. Hence Tom's warning to Mrs. Baggert about letting the two be entrusted with the same mission of catching a chicken for the pot. "Better get the fowl yourself and say nothing to either of them about it," Tom advised the housekeeper. "Mr. Damon will stay to dinner, as he always does when he comes, and as it's near twelve now, and as I may be delayed talking business to these strangers, you'd better get up a bigger meal than usual." "I will, Tom," promised Mrs. Baggert. And then the young inventor, having seen that one of the men took the automobile to the garage, went into the house. "Oh, here you are !" was his father's greeting, as he came out into the hall from the library. 26 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT "I've been waiting anxiously for you, my boy. I couldn't think what was keeping you." "Oh, I had a little trouble with the air machine nothing serious." A moment later Tom was standing before twG well-dressed, prosperous-looking business men who smiled pleasantly at him. "Mr. Thomas Swift?" interrogated one, the elder, as he held out his hand. "That's my name," answered Tom, pleasantly. "I'm Peton Gale, and this gentleman is Boland Ware," went on the man who had taken Tom's hand. "I'm president and he's treasurer of the Universal Flying Machine Company, of New York." "Oh, yes," said Tom, as he shook hands with Mr. Ware. "I have heard of your concern. You are doing a lot of government work, are you not?" "Yes ; war orders. And we're up to our neck in them. This war is going to be almost as much fought in the air as on the ground, Mr. Swift." "I can well believe that," agreed Tom. "Won't you have a chair?" "Well, we didn't come to stay long," said Mr. Gale with a laugh, which, somehow or other, grated on Tom and seemed to him insincere. "Our business is such a rushing one that we don't spend much time anywhere. To get down to THE BIG OFFER 27 brass tacks, we have come to see you to put a certain proposition before you, Mr. Swift. You are open to a business proposition, aren't you?" "Oh, yes," answered Tom. "That's what I'm here for." "I thought so. Well, now I'll tell you, in brief, what we want, and then Mr. Ware, our treasurer, can elaborate on it, and give you facts and figures about which I never bother myself. I attend to the executive end and leave the details to oth- ers," and again came that laugh which Tom did not like. "You came here to make me an offer?" asked the young inventor, wondering to which of his many machines the visitors had reference. "Yes," went on Mr. Gale, "we came here to make you a big offer. In short, Mr. Swift, we want you to work for our company, and we are willing to pay you ten thousand dollars a year for the benefit of your advice and your inventive abilities. Jen thousand dollars a year ! Do you accept?" CHAPTER IV MR. DAMON'S WHIZZER CHARACTERISTIC it was of Tom Swift that he did not seem at all surprised at what most young men would call a liberal offer. Certainly not many youths of Tom's age would be sought out by a big manufacturing concern, and offered ten thousand dollars a year "right off the reel," as Ned Newton expressed it later. But Tom only smiled and shook his head in negation. "What !" cried Mr. Gale, "you mean you won't accept our offer?" "I can't," answered Tom. "You can't!" exclaimed the treasurer, Mr. Ware. "Oh, I see. Mr. Gale, a word with you. Excuse us a moment," he added to Tom and his father. The two men consulted in a corner of the li- brary for a moment, and then, with smiles on their faces, once more turned toward the young inventor. , perhaps you are right, Tom Swift," said 28 MR. DAMON'S WHIZZER 2$ AT. Gale. "Of course, we recognize your tal- ents and ability, but you cannot blame us for trying to get talent, as well as material for our airships, in the cheapest market. But we are not hide-bound, nor sticklers for any set sum. We'll make that offer fifteen thousand dollars a year, if you will sign a five-year contract and agree that we shall have first claim on anything and every- thing you may patent or invent in that time. Now, how does that strike you? Fifteen thou- sand dollars a year paid weekly if you wish, and our Mr. Ware, here, has a form of contract which can be fixed up and signed within ten minutes, if you agree." "Well, I don't like to be disagreeable," said Tom with a smile ; "but, really, as I said before, can't accept your very kind offer. I may say liberal offer. I appreciate that." "You can't accept !" cried Mr. Gale. "Are you sure you don't mean 'won't' ?" asked Mr. Ware, in a half growl. "You may call it that if you like," replied Tom, a bit coolly, for he did not like the other's tone, "Only, as I say, I cannot accept. I have other plans." "Oh, you " began the brusk treasurer, but Mr. Gale, the president of the Universal Flying Machine Company, stopped his associate with a warning look. 30 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT "Just a moment, Mr. Swift," begged the presi- dent. "Don't be hasty. We are prepared to make you a last and final offer, and I do not be- lieve you can refuse it." "Well, I certainly will not refuse it without hearing it," said Tom, with a smile he meant to make good-natured. Yet, truth to tell, he did not at all like the two visitors. There was some- thing about them that aroused his antagonism, and he said later that even if they had offered him a sum which he felt he ought not, in justice to him- self and his father, refuse, he would have felt a distaste in working for a company represented by the twain. "This is our offer," said Mr. Gale, and he spoke in a pompous manner which seemed to say: "K you don't take it, why, it will be the worse for you." He looked at his treasurer for a confirma- tory nod and, receiving it, went on. "We are prepared to offer and pay you, and will enter into such a contract, with the stipulation about the inventions that I mentioned before we are prepared to pay you twenty thousand dollars a year! Now what do you say to that, Tom Swift? "Twenty-thousand-dollars-a-year !" repeated Mr. Gale unctiously, rolling the words off his tongue. "Twen-ty-thou-sand-dol-lars-a-year! Think of it!" MR. DAMON'S WH1ZZER jf *I am thinking of it," said Tom Swift gently, "and I thank you for your offer. It is, indeed, very generous. But I must give you the same an- swer. I cannot accept." "Tom!" exclaimed his aged father. "Mr. Swift !" exclaimed the two visitors. Tom smiled and shook his head. "Oh, I know very well what I am saying, and what I am turning down," he said. "But I simply cannot accept. I have other plans. I am sorry you have had your trip for nothing," he added to the visitors, "but, really, I must refuse." "Is that your final answer?" asked Mr. Gale. "Yes." "Don't you want to take a day or two to think it over?" asked the treasurer. "Don't be hasty. Remember that very few young men can com- mand that salary, and I may say you will find us liberal in other ways. You would have some time to yourself." "That is what I most need," returned Tom. "Time to myself. No, thank you, gentlemen, I cannot accept." "Be careful !" warned Mr. Gale, and it sounded as though there might be a threat in his voice. "This is our last offer, and your last chance. We will not renew this. If you do not accept our twenty thousand dollars now, you will never get it again." 32 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT "I realize that," said Tom, "and I am pre- pared to take the consequences." "Very well, then," said Mr. Gale. "There seems nothing for us to do, Mr. Ware, but to go back to New York. I bid you good-day," and he bowed stiffly to Tom, "I hope you will not regret your refusal of our offer." "I hope so myself," said Tom, lightly. When the visitors had gone Mr. Swift turned toward his son, and, shaking his head, remarked : "Of course, you know your own business best, Tom. Yet I cannot but feel you have made a mistake." "How?" asked Tom. "By not taking that money? I can easily make that in a year, with an idea I have in mind for an improvement on an airship. And your new electric motor will soon be ready for the market. Besides, we don't really need the money." "No, not now, Tom, but there is no telling when we may," said Mr. Swift, slowly. "This big war has made many changes, and things that brought us in a good income before, hardly sell at all, now." "Oh, don't worry, Dad! We still have a few shots left in the locker in other words, the bank I'm expecting Ned Newton over any moment now, to give us the annual statement of our account, and then we'll know where we stand. I'm not MR. DAMON'S WH1ZZER 33 afraid from the money end. Our business has done iftll, and it is going to do better. I have a ne^jidea." it's all very well, Tom" said Mr. Swift, who seemed oppressed by something. "As you say, money isn't everything, and I know we shall always have enough to live on. But there is some- thing about those two men I do not like. They were very angry at your refusal of their offer. I could see that. Tom, I don't want to be a croaker, but I think you'll have to watch out for those men. They're going to be your enemies your rivals in the airship field," and Mr. Swift shook his head dolefully. "Well, rivalry, when it's clean and above board, is the spice of trade and invention," returned pTom, lightly. "I'm not afraid of that." "No, but it may be unfair and underhand," said Mr. Swift. "I think it would have been better, Tom, to have accepted their offer. Jwenty thousand a year, clear money, is a good sum." "Yes, but I may make twice that with some- thing that occurred to me only a little while ago. Forget about those men, Dad, and I'll tell you my new idea. But wait, I want Mr. Damon to hear it, too. Where is he?" "He was here a little while ago. He went out when those two men came and-^- " 34 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCO At that moment, from the garden at file side of the library, the sound of voices in dispute could be heard. "Now yo' all g'wan 'way from yeah!" ex- claimed some one who could be none other than Eradicate Sampson. "Whut fo' yo' all want to clutter up dish yeah place f o' ? Massa Tom said I was to do de garden wuk, an* I'se gwine to do it ! G'wan 'way, Giant !" "Ho! You want me to get out, s'pose you put me, black face !" cried a big voice, that of Koku, the giant. "There they go ! At it again !" cried Tom with a smile. "Might have known if I told Rad to do anything that Koku would be jealous. Well, I'll have to go out now and give that giant something to do that will tax his strength." But as Tom was about to leave the room an- other voice was heard in the garden. "Now, boys, be nice," said some one sooth- ingly. "The garden is large enough for you both to work in. Rad, you begin at the lower end and spade toward the middle. Koku, you begin at the upper end and work down. Whoever gets to the middle first will win." "Ha! Den Til show dat giant some spade wuk as is spade wuk!" cried the colored man. "Garden wuk is mah middle name." "Be careful, Rad!" laughed Mr. Damon, foe MR. DAMON'S WHIZZER 35 he it was who was trying to act as peacemaker. "Remember that Koku is very strong." "Yas, sah! He may be strong, but he's clumsy!" chuckled Eradicate. "You watch me beat him!" "Ho! Black man get stuck in mud!" chal- lenged Koku. "I show him!" Then there was silence, and Tom and his father, looking out, saw the two disputants be- ginning to spade the soil while Mr. Damon, sat- isfied that he had, for the time being, stopped a quarrel, turned toward the house. "I was just coming to look for you," said Tom. "Sorry I had to go off in such a hurry and leave you, but I had promised to take Mary for a ride, and as it was her first one, for a distance, I didn't want her to back out." "That's all right, Tom, that's all right!" said Mr. Damon genially. "Ladies first every time. But I do want to see you, and it's about some- thing important." "No trouble, I hope?" queried Tom, for the manner of the eccentric man was rather grave. "Trouble ? Oh, no ! Bless my frying pan, no trouble, Tom ! In fact, it may be the other way about. Tom, I have an idea, and there may be millions in it! That's it millions!" "Good !" cried the young inventor. "Might as well bite off a bi# lump while you're at it. So 36 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT you have a new idea! Well, I have myself, but I'll listen to yours first. What is it, Mr. Damon?" "It's a new kind of airship, Tom. I haven't got it all worked out yet, but I can give you a rough outline. On my way over I got to think- ing about balloons, aeroplanes and the like, and it occurred to me that the present principles are all wrong. "So I evolved a new type of machine. I'm go- ing to call it the Damon Whizzer. Maybe Demon Whizzer would be more appropriate, but we won't decide on that now. Anyhow, it's going to be a whizzer, and I want to talk to you about it. There is an entirely new principle of elevation and pro- pulsion involved in my Whizzer, and I " At that moment there came a crash and clatter of steel and wood from the garden, out of sight of which Tom and Mr. Damon had walked while talking. Then followed a jangle of words. "They're at it again!" cried Tom, as he ran toward the side of the house. "I guess it's a fight this time!" CHAPTER V TOM'S PROJECT CURIOUS was the sight that met the gaze of [Tom Swift and Mr. Wakefield Damon as they rounded the corner of the house and looked into the newly spaded garden. There stood the giant, Koku, holding aloft in the air, by one hand, the form of the struggling colored man, Eradicate Sampson. And Eradicate was vainly trying to get at his enemy and rival, but was prevented by the long-distance hold the giant had on him. " Yo' let me go, now ! Yo' let me go, big man !" cried Eradicate. "Ef yo' don't I'll bust yo' wide open, dat's whut I'll do! An' 'sides, I'll tell Massa Tom on yo', dat's whut I'll do!" "Ho! You tell I let you fall!" threatened Koku. His threat was dire enough, for such was his size and strength that he held the colored man nearly nine feet from the ground, and a fall from that distance would seriously jar Eradicate, if it did nothing else. The colored man's eyes 37 38 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT opened wide as he heard what Koku said, and then he cried : "Let me down! Let me down, an* I won't say nuffin !" "An* you let me scatter dirt?" asked Koku, for such was the giant's idea of working in the garden. "Yes, yo' kin scatter de dirt seben ways from Sunday fo' all I keers!" conceded Eradicate. Then, as he was lowered to the ground, he and the giant turned and saw Mr. Damon and Tom approaching. "What's wrong?" asked the young inventor. "'Scuse me, Massa Tom," began Eradicate, "but didn't yo' tell me to spade de garden ?" "I guess I did," admitted Tom Swift. "An' you tell me help yes ?" questioned Koku. "Well, I thought it would be a little too much for you, Rad," said Tom, gently. "I thought perhaps you'd like help." "Hu! Not him, anyhow!" declared the col- ored man in great disgust. "When I git so old dat I cain't spade a garden, den me an* Boom- erang, we-all gwine to die, dat's all I got to say. I was a-spadin' my part ob de garden, Massa Tom, same laik Mr. Damon done tole me to, an' dish yeah big mess ob bones steps on my side ob de middle an " "Him too slow. Koku scatter dirt twice times TOM'S PROJECT 39 so fast!" declared the giant, whose English was not much better than Eradicated. "Yes, I see," said Tom. "You are so strong, Koku, that you finished your part before Eradi- cate did. Well, it was good of you to want to help him." At this the giant grinned at his rival. "At the same time," went on Tom, winking an eye at Mr. Damon, "Eradicate knows a little more about garden work, on account of having done it so many years." "Ha! Whut I tell yo', Giant!" boasted the colored man. It was his turn to smile. "And so," went on Tom, judicially, "I guess I'll let Rad finish spading the garden, and you, Koku, can come and help me lift some heavy en- gine parts. Mr. Damon wants to explain some- thing to me." "Ha ! Nothing what so heavy Koku not lift !" boasted the giant. "Go on! Lift yo'se'f 'way from heah!" mut- tered Eradicate as he picked up his dropped spade. And then, with a smile of satisfaction, he fell to work in the mellow soil while Tom led Koku to one of the shops where he set him to lifting heavy motor parts about in order to get at a certain machine that was stored away in the back of one of the rooms. "That will keep him busy," said the young in- gd TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT yentor. "And now, Mr. Damon, I can listen to you. Do you really think you have a new idea in airships?" "I really think so, Tom. My Whizzer is bound to revolutionize travel in the air. Let me tell you what I mean. Now cast your mind back. How many ways are now used to propel an airship or a dirigible balloon through the air? How many ways?" "Two, as far as I know," said Tom. "At least there are only two that have proved to be prac- tical." "Exactly," said Mr. Damon. "One with the propeller, or propellers, in front, and that is the tractor type. The other has the propeller in the rear, and that is the pusher type. Both good as far as they go, but I have something better." "What?" asked Tom with a smile. "It's a Whizzer" said the eccentric man. "Bless my gold tooth ! but that is the best name I can think of for it. And, really, the propeller I'm thinking of inventing does whizz around." "But are you going to use a tractor or pusher type?" Tom wanted to know. "It's a combination of both," answered Mr. Damon. "As it is now, Tom, you have to get an aeroplane in pretty speedy motion before it will rise from the ground, don't you?" "Yes, of course. That's the principle on whidi TOM'S PROJECT 41 an aeroplane rises and keeps aloft, by its speed in the air. As soon as that speed stops it begins to fall, or volplane, as we call it." "Exactly. Now, instead of having to depend on the speed of the aeroplane for this, why not depend on the speed of the propeller in other words, the whizzer?" "Well, we do," said Tom, a bit puzzled as to what his friend was trying to get at. "If the propeller didn't move the airship wouldn't rise that is, unless it's of the balloon type." "What I mean," said Mr. Damon, "is to have an aeroplane that will move in the air the same as a boat moves in the water. You don't have to get the propeller of a boat racing around at the rate of a million revolutions a minute, more or less, before your boat will travel, do you? If the engine turns the screw, or propeller, just over say fifty times a minute you would get some mo- tion of the boat, wouldn't you?" "Why, yes, some," admitted Tom. "And what causes it?" asked Mr. Damon, an- ticipating a triumph. "The resistance of the water to the blades of the screw, or propeller," answered Tom. "Exactly! And it's the resistance of the air to the blades of an airship propeller that sends the craft along, isn't it?" "Yes. And because of the difference in den- 42 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT , sity between air and water it becomes necessary to revolve an aeroplane propeller many times faster than a boat propeller. It's the density that makes the difference, Mr. Damon. If air were as dense as water we could have comparatively slow-moving motors and propellers and " "Ha! There you have it, Tom! And there is where my Whizzer Wakefield Damon's Whiz- zer is going to revolutionize air travel!" cried the eccentric man. "The difference in density! If air were as dense as water the problem would be solved. And I have solved it! I'm going to turn the trick, Tom ! One more question. How can air be made as dense as water, Tom Swift?" "Why, by condensation or compression, I sup- pose," was the rather slow answer. "You know they have condensed, or compressed, air until it is liquid. I've done it myself, as an experiment/ 1 "That's it, Tom ! That's it !" cried Mr. Damon in delight. "Compressed air will do the trick! Not compressed to a liquid, exactly, but almost so. I'm going to revolve the propellers of my new airship in compressed air, so dense that they will not have to have a speed of more than seven hundred revolutions a minute. What's that com- pared to the three to ten thousand revolutions of the propellers now used? The propellers of Damon's Whizzer will be of the pusher type, and will revolve in dense, compressed air, almost like TOM'S PROJECT 43 water, and that will do away with high speed motors, with all their complications, and make traveling in the clouds as simple as taking out a little one-cylinder motor boat. How's that, Tom Swift? How's that for an idea?" To Mr. Damon's disappointment, Tom was not enthusiastic. The young inventor gazed at his eccentric friend, and then said slowly: "Well, that's all right in theory, but how is it going to work out in practice?" "That's what I came to see you about, Tom/' was the reply. "Bless my tall hat ! but that's just why I hurried over here. I wanted to tell you when I saw you going off on a trip with Miss Nestor. That's my big idea Damon's Whizzer propellers revolving in compressed air like water. Isn't that great?" "I'm sorry to shatter your air castle," said Tom; "but for the life of me I can't see how it will work. Of course, in theory, if you could re- volve a big-bladed propeller in very dense, or in liquid, air, there would be more resistance than in the rarefied atmosphere of the upper regions. And, if this could be done, I grant you that you could use slower motors and smaller propeller blades more like those of a motor boat. But how are you going to get the condensed air?" "Make it!" said Mr. Damon promptly. "Air pumps are cheap. Just carry one or two on board 44 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT the aeroplane, and condense the air as you go along. That's a small detail that can easily be worked out. I leave that to you." "I'd rather you wouldn't," said Tom. "That's the whole difficulty compressing your air. L Wait! I'll explain it to you." Then the young inventor went into details. He told of the ponderous machinery needed to con- dense air to a form approximating water, and spoke of the terrible pressure exerted by the liquid atmosphere. "Anything that you would gain by having a slow-speed motor and smaller propeller blades, would be lost by the ponderous air-condensing machinery you would need," Tom told Mr. Da- mon. "Besides, if you could surround your pro- pellers with a strata of condensed air, it would create such terrible cold as to freeze the pro- peller blades and make them as brittle as glass. "Why, I have taken a heavy piece of metal, dipped it into liquid air, and I could shatter the steel with a hammer as easily as a sheet of ice. The cold of liquid air is beyond belief. "Attempts have been made to make motors run with liquid air, but they have not succeeded. fTo condense air and to carry it about so that propellers might revolve in it, would be out of the question." "You think so, Tom?" asked Mr. Damon. TOWS PROJECT 5 "I'm sure of it!" "Oh, dear! That's too bad. Bless my over- shoes, but I thought I had a new idea. Well, you ought to know. So Damon's Whizser goes on the scrap heap before ever it's built. Well, we'll say no more about it. You ought to know jbest, Tom. I wasn't thinking of it so much for myself as for you. I thought you'd like some new idea to work on." "Much obliged, Mr. Damon, but I have a new idea," said Tom. "You have? What is it? Tell me that is, if it isn't a secret," went on the eccentric man, as much delighted over Tom's new plan as he had been over his own Whizzer, doomed to fail- ure so soon. "It isn't a secret from you," said Tom. "I got the idea while I was riding with Mary. I wanted to talk to her to tell her not to jump out when we had a little accident but I had trouble making myself understood because of the noise of the motor." "They do make a great racket," conceded Mr. Damon. "But I don't suppose anything can be done about it." "I don't see why there can't !" exclaimed Tom. "And that's my new idea to make a silent air- craft motor perhaps silent propeller blades, though it's the motor that makes the most noise* 46 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT And that's what I'm going to do invent a silent aeroplane. Not because I want so much to talk when I take passengers up in the air, but I be- lieve such a motor would be valuable, especially for scouting planes in war work. To go over the enemy's lines and not be heard would be valuable many times. "And that's what I'm going to do work on a silent motor for Uncle Sam. I've got the germ of an idea and now " "Excuse me," said a voice behind Mr. Damon and Tom, and, turning, the young inventor be- held the form of Mr. Peton Gale, president of, the Universal Flying Machine Company. CHAPTER VI MAKING PLANS TOM SWIFT had drawn pencil and paper from his pocket, and, as he and Mr. Damon were sit- ting on the steps of one of the shops, the young inventor was about to demonstrate by a drawing part of his new project, when the interruption came in the shape of one of the men who had, an hour before, made a business offer to Tom. "Excuse me," went on Mr. Peton Gale, "but Mr. Ware and I got to talking it over on our way to the station the matter of having you in our company, Mr. Swift and we concluded that it was worth twenty-five thousand dollars a year for us to have you. So I came back- " "It isn't of the slightest use, Mr. Gale, I as- sure you," said Tom, a bit heatedly, for he did not like the persistency of this man, nor did he! like his coming on the factory grounds unan- nounced and in this secret manner. "I told you I could not accept your offer. It is not altogether a matter of money. My word was final." 47 48 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT "Oh very well, if you put it that way," said Mr. Gale stiffly, "of course there is nothing more to say. But I thought perhaps you did not con- sider we had offered you enough and " "Your offer is fair enough from a financial standpoint/' said Tom; "but I simply cannot ac- cept it. I have dther plans. Jackson !" he called to one of his mechanics who was passing, "kindly see Mr. Gale to the gate, and then let me know how it was any one came in here without a per- mit." | "Yes, sir," said the mechanic, as he stood sig- nificantly waiting. "There was no one at the gate when I came in," said Mr. Gale, and his manner was antagonizing. "I wanted to speak to you to ask you to recon- sider your offer so I came back." "It is against the rules to admit strangers to the shop grounds," said Tom. "Good-day !" The president of the Universal Flying Machine Company did not respond, but there was a look on his face as he turned away that, had Tom seen it, might have caused him some uneasiness. But he did not see. Instead, he resumed his talk with Mr. Damon, "Tom, your idea is most interesting," declared the eccentric man. "I hope you will be able to work it out!" *Tm going to try," said the young inventor. MAKING PLANS 49 "I hope that man Mr. Gale didn't hear any- thing of what I was saying. He sneaked up on us before I was aware any one was near but our- selves." "I don't imagine he heard very much, Tom," said Mr. Damon. "He may have heard you men- tion a silent motor " "That's just what I wish he hadn't heard," broke in Tom. "That's the germ of the idea, and once it becomes known that I am working onj that Well, there's no use crying over spilled) milk," and he smiled at the homely proverb. "I'll have to work in secret, once I've started." "Do you think the government would use it, Jom?" asked his friend. "I should think it would be glad to. Consider what a wonderful part airships are playing in the present war. It really is a struggle to see which will be the master of the sky the Allies or the Germans and, up to recently, the Huns had the advantage. Then the Allies, recognizing how vital it was, began to forge ahead, and now Uncle Sam with his troops under General Pershing is leading everything, or will lead shortly. We have been a bit slow with our aircraft production, but now we are booming along. Uncle Sam will soon have the mastery of the sky." "I hope so," sighed Mr. Damon. "We must beat the Germans!" 50 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT Briefly, Tom spoke of what Pershing's men were doing with their aeroplanes in France, and mention was made of what the French and Brit- ish had done prior to the entrance of the United States into the World War. j "While we were yet neutral, Americans had made gallant names for themselves flying for France, and with my silent motor they ought to do better," declared Tom. "Is silence its chief recommendation?" asked Mr. Damon. "Yes," replied Tom. "Or rather, it will be when I have it perfected. Aeroplane motors now are about as compact and speedy as they can be made. It is only the terrific noise that is a handi- cap. It is a handicap to the pilots and observers in the craft, as they cannot communicate except through a special speaking tube, and this is not always satisfactory or sure. Then, too, the noise of an airship proclaims its approach to the enemy, sometimes long before it can be seen. "With a silent motor all this would be done away with. With my new craft, in case I can per- fect it, the enemy's lines can be approached as silently as the Indians used to approach the log cabins of the white settlers. That will be its great advantage not that conversation can be more easily carried on, for that is, after all, an unimportant detail. But to approach the enemy's. MAKING PLANS 51 lines in the silence of the night would be a dis- tinct gain." "I believe it would, Tom !" exclaimed Mr. Da- mon. "And I should think, too, that Uncle Sam would be glad to get such a motor," he added. "Well, he'll have one to take if he wants it, if I can make my plans a success," declared Tom. "That is, unless those other fellows get ahead of me." "What other fellows?" asked Mr. Damon. "Gale, Ware and their crowd," was the an- swer. "I fancy they are provoked because I wouldn't agree to work for them, and now, that Gale overheard as he must have what I pur- pose working on, they may try that game them- selves." "You mean try to turn out a silent motor?" "Yes. It would be a big feather in their cap; for their company, so far, hasn't been very suc^ cessful on government orders. That's why they came to me, I guess." "I shouldn't be surprised, Tom," conceded Mr. Damon. "Since the government accepted your giant cannon and your great searchlight, you have come into greater prominence than ever before. And those two things are a wonderful success." "Yes," admitted Tom, modestly enough, "the big electric light seems to have been of some ben- efit on the European battle front, and though 52 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT they haven't been able to make and transport as many of my giant cannons as I'd like to see over there, it is progressing, I understand." And this is true. For the details of these two inventions of Tom Swift's I refer my readers to the books bearing those titles. Sufficient to state here that the government was using these two inventions, and there had been no necessity for commandeering them either, since Tom had freely offered them at the declaration of war with Ger- many. "Well, since I can't help you with my 'Wldz- zer' " said Mr. Damon, with a smile, "let me do ;what I can toward your silent motor, Tom. What are you going to call it?" "Oh, I don't know hadn't thought of a name. I guess 'Air Scout* would be as good as any. [That's what it will be a machine for silently scouting in the air. And now to get down to Jbrass tacks, as the poet says, I believe I will " "Gentleman to see you, Mr. Swift," interrupted Jackson. "Bless my penwiper!" cried Mr. Damon. "More visitors ! I hope it isn't Gale or Ware come back to see what they can spy on!" CHAPTER VII A PROBLEM IN SOUND TOM SWIFT looked up with a distinct appear- ance of being annoyed that was unusual with him, for he was, nearly always, good-natured. But the frown that had replaced the pleasant look on his face while he was talking to Mr. Damon about the projected new air scout was at once wiped away as he looked at the card Jackson held out to him. "Bring him in right away!" he ordered. "He needn't have stood on that ceremony." "Well, he said it was a business call," returned the mechanician with a cheerful grin, "and he said he wanted it done according to form. So he gave me his card to bring you." "Who is it?" asked Mr. Damon, with the privi- lege of an old friend. "It's Ned Newton," Tom answered; "though why he's putting on all this formality I can't fathom." Jackson went back to the main gate and told 53 54 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT the man on guard there to admit Ned, who hac so formally sent in his card. "Ah, Mr. Swift, I believe?" began the bank employee with that suave, formal air which usually precedes a business meeting. "That is my name," said Tom, with a sup* pressed grin, and he spoke as stiffly as though to a perfect stranger. "Mr. Tom Swift, the great inventor?" went on Ned. "Yes." "Ah, then I am at the right place. Just sign here, please, on the dotted line," and he held out a blank form, and a fountain pen to Tom, who took them half mechanically. "Huh? What's the big idea, Ned?" asked the young inventor, unable longer to carry on the joke. "Is this a warrant for my arrest, or merely a testimonial to you. If it's the latter, and con* cerns your nerve, I'll gladly sign it." "Well, it's something like that!" laughed Ned. "That's your application for another block of Liberty Bonds, Tom, and I want you, as a per- sonal favor to me, as a business favor to the bank, and as your plain duty to Uncle Sam, to double your last subscription." Tom looked at the sum Ned had filled in on the blank form, and uttered a slight whistle of surprise. A PROBLEM IN SOUND 55 "That's all right now," said Ned, with the air of a professional salesman. "You can stand that and more, too. I'm letting you off easy. Why, I got Mary's father Mr. Nestor for twice what he took last time, and Mary herself hard as she's working for the Red Cross gave me a nice ap- plication. So it's up to you to " "Nuff said !" exclaimed Tom, sententiously, as he signed his name. "I may have to reconsider my recent refusal of the offer of the Universal Flying Machine Company, though, if I haven't money enough to meet this subscription, Ned." "Oh, you'll meet it all right! Much obliged," and Ned folded the Liberty Bond subscription paper and put it in his pocket. "But did you turn down the offer from those people?" "I did," answered Tom. "But how did you know about it, Ned ?" "First let me say that I'm glad you decided to have nothing to do with them. They're a rich firm, and have lots of money, but I wouldn't trust 'em, even if they have some government con- tracts. The way I happened to know they were likely to make you an offer is this," continued Ned Newton. "They do business with one of the New York banks with which my bank notice the accent on the my, Tom is connected. The other day I happened to see some correspondence about you. 56 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT These flying machine people asked our bank to find out certain things about you, and, as a mat- ter of business, we had to give the information. Sort of a commercial agency report, you know, nothing unusual, and it isn't the first time it's been done since your business got so large. But that's how I happened to know these fellows con- templated dickering with you." "Do you know Gale or Ware?" Tom asked. "Not personally. But in a business way, Tom, I'd warn you to look out for them, as they're sharp dealers. They put one over on the govern- ment all right, and there may be some unpleasant publicity to it later. But they're putting up a big bluff, and pretending they can turn out a lot of flying machines for use in Europe. Why don't you get busy on that end of the game, Tom? "I know you've more than done your bit, with Liberty Bonds, subscriptions to the Y. M. C. A. and other war wprk, besides your war tank and other inventions. But you're such a shark on flying machines I should think you'd offer your factory to the government for the production of aeroplanes." "I would in a minute, Ned, and you know it; but the fact of the matter is my shops aren't equipped for the production of anything in large numbers. We do mostly an experimenting busi- ness here, making only one or two of a certain A PROBLEM IN SOUND 57. machine. I have told the government officials they can have anything I've got, and you know they wouldn't let me enlist when I was working $n the war tank." "Yes, I remember that," said Ned. "You're ho slacker ! I wanted to shoulder a rifle, too, but they keep me at this Liberty Loan work. Well, Uncle Sam ought to know." "That's what I say," agreed Tom, "and that's why I haven't gone to the front myself. And now, as it happens, I've got something else in mind that may help Uncle Sam." "What is it?" "A silent flying machine for scout work on the battle front," Tom told his friend, and then he gave a few details, such as those he had been tell- ing Mr. Damon. "Then I don't wonder you turned down the offer of the Universal people," remarked Ned, at the conclusion of the recital. "This will be a heap more help to the government, Tom, than working for those people, even at twenty-five thousand dollars a year. And if you get short, and can't meet your newest Liberty Bond pay- ments, why, I guess the bank will stretch your credit a little." "Thanks!" laughed Tom, "but I'll try not to ask them." [The friends talked together a little longer, an "But he done look so funny, Massa Tom!" pleaded the colored man. "He done squirm laik " But Eradicate did not finish what he intended to say. Once free from the powerful current, the giant looked at his numb hands, and then, THROUGH THE ROOF 63 seeming to think that Eradicate was the cause of it all, he sprang at the colored man with a yell. But Eradicate did not stay to see what would happen. With a howl of terror, he raced out of the door, and, old and rheumatic as he was, he managed to gain the stable of his mule, Boom- erang, over which he had his humble but com- fortable quarters. "Well, I guess he's safe for a while !" laughed Tom, as he saw the giant turn away, shaking his fist at the closed door, for Koku, big as he was, stood in mortal terror of the mule's heels. Tom locked the door of the electrical shop and went back to his interrupted problem. From Jackson he learned that Koku and Eradicate had merely happened to stroll into the forbidden place, which had been left open by accident. JThere, it appeared, Koku had handled some of the machinery, ending by switching on the cur- rent of the machine the handles of which he later unsuspectingly picked up. Then he received a shock he long remembered, and for many days he believed Eradicate had been responsible for it, and there was more than the usual hostile feel- ing between the two. But Eradicate was innocent of that trick, at all events. "Though," said Tom, telling his father about it later, "Rad would have turned on the current if he had known he could make trouble for Koku 64 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT by it. I never saw their like for having disagree- ments !" "Yes, but they are both devoted to you, Tom/' said the aged inventor. "But what is this you hinted at a silent motor you called it, I believe? Are you really serious in trying to invent one?" "Yes, Dad, I am. I think there's a big field for an aeroplane that could travel along over the enemy's lines particularly at night and not be heard from below. Think of the scout work that could be done." "Well, yes, it could be done if you could get a silent motor, or propellers that made no noise, [Tom. But I don't believe it can be done." "Well, maybe not, Dad. But I'm going to try!" and Tom, after a further talk with his father, began work in earnest on the big prob- lem. That it was a big one Tom was not dis- posed to deny, and that it would be a valuable in- vention even his somewhat sceptical father ad- mitted. "How are you going to start, Tom?" asked Mr. Swift, several days after the big idea had come to the young man. "I'm going to experiment a bit, at first. I've got a lot of old motors, that weren't speedy enough for any of my flying machines, and I'm going to make them over. If I spoil them the loss won't amount to anything, and if I succeed THROUGH THE ROOF 65 well, maybe I can help out Uncle Sam a bit more." As Tom had said he would do, he began at the very foundation, and studied the fundamental principles of sound. "Sound," the young inventor told Ned New- ton, in speaking about the problem, "is a sensa- tion which is peculiar to the ear, though the vi- brations caused by sound waves may be felt in many parts of the body. But the ear is the great receiver of sound." "You aren't going to invent a sort of muffler r for the ears, are you, Tom?" asked Ned. "That would be an easy way of solving the problem, j)ut I doubt if you could get the Germans to wear your ear-tabs so they wouldn't hear the sound of the Allied aeroplanes." "No, I'm not figuring on doing the trick that way," said Tom with a laugh. "I've really got to cut down the sound of the motor and the pro- peller blades, so a person, listening with all his ears, won't hear any! noise, unless he's within a few feet of the plane." "Well, I can tell you, right off the reel, how to do it," said the bank employee. "How?" asked Tom eagerly. "Run your engine and propellers in a vacuum,^ the prompt reply. Hum !" said Tom, musingly. "Yes, thai 66 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT would be a simple way out, and I'll do it, if you'll tell me how to breathe in a vacuum." "Oh, I didn't agree to do that," laughed Ned. But he had spoken the truth, as those who have studied physics well know. There must be an atmosphere for the transmission of sound, which is the reason all is cold and silent and still at the moon. There is no atmosphere there. Sound implies vibration. Something, such as liquid, gas, or solid, must be set in motion to produce sound, and for the purpose of science the air we breathe may be considered a gas, being composed of two. Not only must the object, either solid, liquid, or gaseous, be in motion to produce sound, but the air surrounding the vibrating body must also be moving in unison with it. And lastly there must be some medium of receiving the sound waves the ear or some part of the body. To- tally deaf persons may be made aware of sound through the vibrations received through their hands or feet. They receive, of course, only the more intense, or largest, sound waves, and can not hear notes of music nor spoken words, though they may feel the vibration when a piano is played. And, as Ned has said, no sound is produced in a vacuum. "But," said Tom, "since I can't run my aero- jplane in a vacuum, or even have the propellers THROUGH THE ROOF 07 revolve in one, it's up to me to solve the problem some other way. The propellers don't really make noise enough to worry about when they're high in the air. It's the exhaust from the motor, and to get rid of that will be my first attempt." "Can it be done?" asked Ned. "I don't know," was Tom's frank answer. "They do it on an automobile to a great ex- tent," went on Ned. "Some of 'em you can hardly hear." "Yes, but an aeroplane engine runs many, many times faster than the motor of an auto," said Tom, "and there are more explosions to muffle. I doubt if the muffler of an auto would cut down the sound of an aero engine to any appreciable extent But, of course, I'll try along those lines." "They have mufflers or silencers for guns and rifles," went on Ned. "Couldn't you make a big one of those contraptions and put it on an aeroplane ?" "I doubt it," said Tom, shaking his head. "Of course it's the same principle as that in an auto muffler, or on a motor boat a series of baffle plates arranged within a hollow cylinder. But all such devices cut down power, and I don't want to do that. However, I'm going to solve the problem or bust !" And .Torn came near "busting," Ned remarked (68 TOM SWIFT 'AND HIS AIR SCOUT later, when he and his friend talked over the progress of the invention. Two weeks had passed since the start of his evolution of his new idea, and following the vis- iting of the representatives of the Universal Fly- ing Machine Company. Since then neither Gale nor Ware had communicated with Tom. "But I must be on the watch against them," thought the young inventor. "I'm pretty sure Gale heard me mention what I was ~oing to try to invent, and he may get ahead ot me, and put a silent motor on the market first. Not that I'm afraid of being done out of any profits, but I simply don't want to be beaten." ( !1ie details of Tom's invention cannot be gone into, but, roughly, it was based on the principle of not only a muffler but also of producing less noise when the charges of gasoline exploded in the cylinders. It is, of course, the explosion of gasoline mixed with air that causes an internal combustion engine to operate. And it is the ex- pulsion of the burned gases that causes the ex- haust and makes the noise that is heard. .Tom was working along the well-known line of the rate of travel of sound, which progresses at the rate of about 1090 feet a second when air is at the freezing point. And, roughly, with every degree increase in the atmosphere's tem- perature the velocity of sound increases by one THROUGH THE ROOF 69 foot. Thus at a temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or 68 degrees above freezing, there would be added to the 1090 feet the 68 feet, mak- ing sound travel at 100 degrees Fahrenheit about 1158 feet a second. Tom had set up in his shop a powerful, but not very speedy, old aeroplane engine, and had attached to it the device he hoped would help him toward solving his problem of cutting down the noise. He had had some success with it, and, after days and nights of labor, he invited his father and Ned, as well as Mr. Damon, over to see what he hoped would be a final experiment. His visitors had assembled in the shop, and Eradicate was setting out some refreshments which Tom had provided, the colored man being in his element now. "What's all this figuring, Tom?" asked Mr. Damon, as he saw a series of calculations on some sheets of paper lying on Tom's desk. "That's where I worked out how much faster sound traveled in hydrogen gas than in the ordi- nary atmosphere," was the answer. "It goes about four times as fast, or nearly four thousand two hundred feet a second. You remember the rule, I suppose. 'The speed of sonorous vibra- tions through gases varies inversely as the squares of the weights of equal volumes of the gases/ or, in other words " 70 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT "Give it to us chiefly in 'other words/ if you please, Tom !" pleaded Ned, with a laugh. "Let that go and do some tricks. Start the engine and let's see if we can hear it" "Oh, you can hear it all right/' said Tom, as he approached the motor, which was mounted on a testing block. "The thing isn't perfected yet, but I hope to have it soon. Rad ! Where is that black rascal? Oh, there you are! Come here^ Rad!" "Yaas sah, Massa Tom! Is I gwine to help yo' all in dish yeah job?" "Yes. Just take hold of this lever, and when I say so pull it as hard as you can." "Dat's whut I will, Massa Tom. Golly! ef dat no 'count giant was heah now he'd see he ain't de only one whut's got muscle. I'll pull good an' hard, Massa Tom." "Yes, that's what I want you to. Now I guess we're all ready. Can you see, Dad and Ned and Mr. Damon?" "Yes," they answered. They stood near the side wall of the shop, while Tom and Eradicate were at the testing block, on which the motor, with the noise-eliminating devices attached, had been temporarily mounted. "All ready," called the young inventor, as he turned on the gas and threw over the electrical switch. "All ready! Pull the starting lever, Rad THROUGH THE ROOF 71 And when it's been running a little I'll throw on the silencer and you can see the difference." The motor began to hum, and there was a deafening roar, just as there always is when the engine of an aeroplane starts. It was as though half a dozen automobile engines were being run with the mufflers cut out "Now I'll show you the difference!" yelled |Tom, though such was the noise that not a word could be heard. "This shows you what my si- lencer will do." Tom pulled another lever. There was at once a cessation of the deafening racket, though it was not altogether ended. Then, after a moment or two, there suddenly came a roar as though a blast had been let off in the shop. Tom and Eradicate were tossed backward, head over heels, as though by the giant hands of Koku himself, and Mr. Damon, Ned, and Tom's father saw the motor fly from the testing block and shoot through the roof of the building with a rending, crashing, and splintering sound that could be heard for a mile. (CHAPTER IX AFTER A SPY CURIOUS as it may seem, Eradicate, the oldest and certainly not the most energetic of the party assembled in the experiment room, was the first to recover himself and arise. Tottering to his feet he gave one look at the testing block, whence the motor had torn itself. Then he looked at the prostrate figures around him, none of them hurt, Jbut all stunned and very much startled. Then the gaze of Eradicate traveled to the hole in the roof. It was a gaping, ragged hole, for the motor was heavy and the roof of flimsy material. And then the colored man exclaimed : "Good land ob massy! Did I do dat?" His tone was one of such startled contrition, and so tragic, that Tom Swift, rueful as he felt over the failure of his experiment and the dan- ger they had all been in, could not help laughing. "I take it, hearing that from you, Tom, that we're all right/' said Ned Newton, as he recoy- 72 AFTER A SPY 73 ered himself and brushed some dirt off his coat ; Ned was a natty dresser. "Yes, we seem to be all right," replied Ton! slowly. "I can't say what damage the flying motor has done outside, but " "Bless my insurance policy! but what hap- pened?" asked Mr. Damon. "I saw Eradicate pull on that lever as you told him to, Tom, and then things all went topsy-turvy ! Did he pull the wrong handle?" "No, it wasn't Rad's fault at all," said Tom, "The trouble was, as I guess Til find when I in- vestigate, that I put too much power into the motor, and the muffler didn't give any chance for the accumulated exhaust gases to expand and es- cape. I didn't allow for that, and they simply backed up, compressed and exploded. I guess that's the whole explanation." "I'm inclined to agree with you, Son," said Mr. Swift dryly. "Don't try to get rid of all the noise at once. Eliminate it by degrees and it will be safer." "I guess so," agreed Tom. By this time a score of workmen from tHe other shops had congregated around the one through the roof of which the motor had been blown. Tom opened the door to assure Jackson and the others that no one was hurt, and then the young inventor saw the exploded motor; half 74 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT buried in the dirt a short distance away from the experiment building. "Lucky none of us were standing over it when it went up," said Tom, as he made an inspection of the broken machine. "We'd have gone through the roof with it." "She certainly went sailing!" commented Ned. "Must have been a lot of power there, Tom." And this was evidenced by the bent and twisted rods that had held the motor to the testing block, and by the cylinders, some of which were torn apart as though made of paper instead of heavy steel. But for the fact that all the force of the explosion was directly upward, instead of at the sides, none might have been left alive in the shop. All had escaped most fortunately, and they realized this. "Well," queried Ned, as Tom gave orders to have the damaged machine removed and the roof repaired, "does this end the wonderful silent motor, Tom?" "End it! What do you mean?" "I mean are you going to experiment any fur- ther?" "Why, of course! Just because I've had one failure doesn't mean that I'm going to give up. Especially when I know what the matter was not leaving any vent for the escaping gases. \Vliy, this isn't anything. When I was perfect- AFTER A SPY 75 ing my giant cannon I was nearly blown up more than once, and you remember how we got stuck in the submarine." "I should say I did!" exclaimed Ned with a shudder. "I don't want any more of that. But as between being blown through a roof and held at the bottom of the sea, I don't know that there's much choice." "Well, perhaps not," agreed Tom. "But as for ending my experiments, I wouldn't dream of such a thing! Why, I've only just begun! I'll have a silent motor yet !" "And a non-explosive one, I hope," added Mr. Damon dryly. "Bless my shoe buttons, pTom, but if my wife knew what danger I'd been in she'd never let me come over to see you any more." "Well, the next time I invite you to a test I'll )be more careful," promised the young inventor. "There isn't going to be any next time as far as I'm concerned!" laughed Ned. "I think it's safer to sell Liberty Bonds." And, though they joked about it, they all real- ized the narrow escape they had had. As for Eradicate, once he knew he had not been the one who caused the damage, he felt rather proud of the part he had taken in the mishap, and for many days he boasted about it to Koku. True to his determination, Tom Swift did not 6 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT give up his experimental work on the silent motor. [The machine that had been blown through the roof was useless now, and it was sent to the scrap heap, after as much of it as possible had been salvaged. Then Tom got another piece of ap- paratus out of his store room and began all over again. He worked along the same lines as at first* providing a chamber for the escaping gases of the exhaust to expend their noise and energy in, at the same time laboring to cut down the con- cussion of the explosions in the cylinder without reducing their force any. And that it was no easy problem to do either of these, Tom had to admit as he progressed. All previous types of mufflers or silencers had to be discarded and a new one evolved. "Jackson, I need some one to help me/ 1 said |Tom to his chief mechanician one day. "Haven't you a good man who is used to experimental work that you can let me take from the works ?" "Why, yes," was the answer. "Let me see. Roberts is busy on the new bomb you got up, but I could take him off that " "No, don't!" interposed Tom. "I want that work to go on. Isn't there some one else you can let me have?" "Well, there's a new man who came to me recommended. I took him on last week, and AFTER A SPY 77 he's a wonderful mechanic. Knows a lot about gas engines. I could let you have him Bower his name is. The only thing about it, though, is that I don't like to give you a man of whom I am not dead certain, when you're working on a new device." "Oh, that will be all right," said Tom. "There won't be any secrets he can get, if you mean you think he might be up to spy work." "That's what I did mean, Tom. You never can tell, you know, and you have some bitter enemies." "Yes, but I'll take care this man doesn't see the plans, or any of my drawings. I only want some one to do the heavy assembling work on the experimental muffler I'm getting up. We can let him think it's for a new kind of automobile." "Oh, then I guess it will be all right I'll send Bower to you." Tom rather liked the new workman, who seemed quiet and efficient. He did not ask ques- tions, either, about the machine on which he was engaged, but did as he was told. As Tom had said, he kept his plans and drawing under lock and key in a safe to be exact and he did not think they were in any danger from his new helper. But Tom Swift held into altogether too slight regard the powers of those who were opposed to 78 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT him. He did not appreciate the depths to which they would stoop to gain their ends. He had been working hard on his new device, and had reached a point further along than when the other motor had exploded. He began to see success ahead of him, and he was jubilant. Whether this made him careless does not matter, but the fact was that he left Bower more to him- self, and alone in the experimental shop several times. And it was on one of these occasions, when Tom had been for some time in one of the other shops, where he and Jackson were in consultation over a new machine, that as he came back to the test room unexpectedly, he saw Bower move hastily away from in front of the safe. More- over, Tom was almost certain he had heard the steel door clang shut as he approached the build- ing. And then, before he could ask his helper a question, Tom looked from a window and saw a stranger running hastily along the side of the building where his trial motor was being set up. "Who's that? Who is that man? Did he come in here? Was he tampering with my safe?" cried Tom. He saw Bower hesitate and change color, and Tom knew it was time to act. The window was open, and with one bound the young inventor was out and running after the AFTER A SPY 79 stranger he had seen departing in such a hurry. The man was but a short distance ahead of him, and Tom saw he was stuffing some papers into his pocket. "Here! Come back! Stop!" ordered Tom, but the man ran on the faster. "That's a spy as sure as guns !" reflected Tom Swift. "And Bower is in with him!" he added. "I've got to catch that fellow!" and he speeded his pace as he ran after the fellow. CHAPTER X A BIG SPLASH THERE was no question in the mind of Tom Swift but that the man he was running after was guilty of some wrong-doing. In the first place he was a stranger, and had no right inside the big fence that surrounded the Swift machine plant. Then, too, the very fact that he ran away was suspicious. And this, coupled with the confusion on the part of Bower, and his proximity to the safe, made Tom fear that some of his plans had been stolen. These he was very anxious to recover if this strange man had them, and so he raced after him with all speed. "Stop ! Stop !" called Tom, but the on-racing stranger did not heed. The cries of the young inventor soon attracted the attention of his men, and Jackson and some of the others came running from their various shops to give whatever aid was needed. But they were all too far away to give effective chase. 80 A BIG SPLASH "Bower might have come with me if he had Jwanted to help," thought Tom. But a backward glance over his shoulder did not show that the new helper was engaging in the pursuit, and he could have started almost on the same terms as [Tom himself. The runaway, looking back to see how near the young inventor was to him, suddenly changed his course, and, noting this, Tom Swift thought : "I've got him now! He'll be bogged if he runs that way," for the way led to a piece of swampy land that, after the recent rains, was a veritable bog which was dangerous for cattle at least; and more than one man had been caught there. "He can't run across the swamp, that's sure," reflected Tom with some satisfaction. "I'll get him all right!" But he wanted to capture the man, if pos- sible, before he reached the bog, and, to this end, Tom increased his speed to such good end that presently, on the firm ground that bordered the swamp, Tom was almost within reaching dis- tance of the stranger. But the latter kept up running, and dodged and turned so that Tom could not lay hands on him. Suddenly, turning around a clump of trees the fleeing man headed straight for a veritable mud hole that lay directly in his path. It was part of 82 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT the swamp the most liquid part of the bog j and a home of frogs and lizards. Too late, the man, who was evidently unaware of the proximity of the swamp, saw his danger. His further flight was cut off by the mud hole, but it was too late to turn back. Tom Swift was at his heels now, and seeing that it was impossible to grab the man, Tom did the next best thing. He stuck out his foot and tripped him, and tripped him right on the edge of the mud hole, so that the man fell in with a big splash, the muddy water flying all around, some even over the young in- ventor. For a moment the man disappeared completely beneath the surface, for the mud hole was rather deep just where Tom had thrown him. Then there was another violent agitation of the sur- face, and a very woebegone and muddy face was raised from the slough, followed by the rest of the figure of the man. Slowly he got to his feet, mud and water dripping from him. He cleared his face by rubbing his hands over it, not that it made his countenance clean, but it removed masses of mud from his eyes, nose, and mouth, so that he could see and speak, though his first operation was to gasp for breath. "What what are you doin' ?" he demanded of Tom, and as the man opened his mouth to speak Tom was aware of a glitter, which disclosed the A BIG SPLASH 83 fact that the man had a large front tooth of gold. "What am I doing?" repeated Tom. "I think it's up to you to answer that question, not me. What are you doing?" "You you tripped me into this mud hole!" declared the man. "I did, yes ; because you were trespassing on my property, and ran away instead of stopping when I told you to," went on Tom. "Who are you and what are you doing? What were you doing with Bower at my shop?" "Nothin' ! I wasn't doin' nothin' !" "Well, we'll inquire into that. I want to see what you have in your pockets before I believe you. Come on out!" "You haven't any right to go through my pockets!" blustered the strange* '. "Oh, haven't I? Well, I'm going to take the right. Jackson Koku just see that he doesn't get away. We'll take him back and search him," and Tom motioned to his chief machinist and the giant, who had reached the scene, to take charge of the man. But Koku was sufficient for this purpose, and the mud-bespattered stranger seemed to shrink as he saw the big creature ap- proach him. There was no question of running away after that. "Bring him along," ordered Tom, and Koku, 84 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT taking a tight grip on the man by the slaclc of his garments behind, walked him along toward the office, the mud and water splashing and oozing from his shoes at every step. "Now you look here!" the gold-toothed man cried, as he was forced along, "you ain't got any right to detain me. I ain't done nothin' !" And each time he spoke the bright tooth in his moutK glittered in the sun. "I don't know whether you've done anything or not," said Tom. "I'm going to take you back and see what you and Bower have to say. He may know something about this." "If he does I don't believe he'll tell," said Jackson. "Why not?" asked Tom, quickly. "Because he's gone." "Gone! Bower gone?" "Yes," answered Jackson. "I saw him running out of the experiment shop as we raced along to help you. I didn't think, at the time, that he was doing more than go for aid, perhaps. But I see the game now." "Oh, you mean him?" and Tom pointed to the dripping figure. "Yes," said Jackson in a low voice, as Koku went on ahead with his prisoner. "If, as you say, this man was in league with Bower, the latter has smelled a rat and skipped. He has run away, 'A BIG SPLASft 8$ atid I only hope he hasn't done any damage or got hold of any of your plans." "We'll soon know about that," said Tom. "I wonder who is at the bottom of this?" "Maybe those men you wouldn't work for/* suggested the machinist. "You mean Gale and Ware of the Universal Flying Machine Company ?" j "Yes." "Oh, I don't believe they'd stoop to any sucK measures as this sending spies around," replied Tom. "But I can't be too careful. We'll inves- tigate." The first result of the investigation was to dis- close the fact that Bower was gone. He had taken his few possessions and left the Swift plant while Tom was racing after the stranger. A hasty examination of the safe did not reveal anything missing, as Tom's plans and papers were intact. But they showed evidences of hav- ing been looked over, for they were out of the regular order in which the young inventor kept them. "I begin to see it," said Tom, musingly. "Bower must have managed to open the safe while I was gone, and he must have made a hasty copy of some of the drawings of the silent motor, and passed them out of the window to this gold- tooth man, who tried to make off with them. 86 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT Did you find anything on him?" he asked, as one of the men who had been instructed to search the stranger came into the office just then. "Not a thing, Mr. Swift! Not a thing!" was the answer. "We took off every bit of his clothes and wrapped him in a blanket. He's in the en- gine room getting dry now. But there isn't a thing in any of his pockets." "But I saw him stuffing some papers in as he ran away from me," said Tom. "We must be sure about this. And don't let the fellow get away until I question him." "Oh, he's safe enough," answered the man. "Koku is guarding him. He won't get away." "Then I'll have a look at his clothes," decided Tom. "He may have a secret pocket." But nothing like this was disclosed, and the most careful search did not reveal anything in- criminating in the man's garments. "He might have thrown away any papers Bower gave him," said Tom. "Maybe they're at the bottom of the mud hole! If they're there they're safe enough. But have a search made of the ground where this man ran." This was done, but without result. Some of the workmen even dragged the mud hole without finding anything. Then Tom and his father had a talk with the stranger, who refused to give his name. The man was sullen and angry. He talked 'A BIG SPLASH 87 loudly about his innocence and of "having the law on" Tom for having tripped him into the mud. "All right, if you want to make a complaint, go ahead," said the young inventor. "I'll make one against you for trespass. Why did you come on my grounds ?" "I was going to ask for work. I'm a good ma- chinist and I wanted a job." "How did you get in? Who admitted you at the gate?" "I I jest walked in," said the man, but Tom knew this could not be true, as no strangers were admitted without a permit and none had been issued. The man denied knowing anything about Bower, but the latter's flight was evidence enough that something was wrong. Not wishing to go to the trouble of having the man arrested merely as a trespasser, Tom let him go after his clothes had been dried on a boiler in one of the shops. "Take him to the gate, and tell him if he comes back he'll get another dose of the same kind of medicine," ordered Tom to one of the guards at the plant, and when the latter had re- ported that this had been done, he added in an earnest tone : "He went off talking to himself and saying he'd get even with you, Mr. Swift" 88 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT "All right," said Tom easily. "I'll be on the watch." The young inventor made a thorough examina- tion of his experiment shop and the test motor. No damage seemed to have been done, and Tom began to think he had been too quick for the con- spirators, if such they were. His plans and drawings were intact, and though Bower might have given a copy to the stranger with the gold tooth, the latter did not take any away with him. t That he had some papers he wished to conceal and escape with, seemed certain, but the splash into the mud hole had ended this. No trace was found of Bower, and an effort .Tom made to ascertain if the man was a spy in the employ of Gare and Ware came to naught. PThe machinist had come well recommended, and the firm where he was last employed had nothing but good to say of him. "Well, it's a mystery," decided Tom. "How- ever, I got out of it pretty well. Only if that gold-tooth individual shows up again he won'< get off so easily. CHAPTER xi A NIGHT TRIP TAKING a lesson from what had happened, Tom was very much more careful in the follow- ing experiments on his new, silent motor. He made some changes in his shop, and took Jack- son in to help on the new machine, thus insur- ing perfect secrecy as the apparatus developed. Tom also changed the safe in which he kept his plans, for the one he had used previous to the episode in which Bower and the stranger who took the mud bath figured, was one the combination of which could easily be ascertained by an expert. The new safe was more compli- cated, and Tom felt that his plans, specifications, and formulae which he had worked out were in less danger. "I can just about figure out what happened," said Ned Newton to Tom, when told of the cir- cumstances. "These Universal people were pro- voked because you wouldn't give them the benefit of your experience on their flying machines, and 89 90 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT so they sent a spy to get work with you. They, perhaps, hoped to secure some of your ideas for their own, or they may have had a deeper mo- tive." "What deeper motive could they have, Ned?" "They might have hoped to disable you, or some of your machines, so that you couldn't com- pete with them. They're unscrupulous, I hear, and will do anything to succeed and make money. So be on your guard against them." "I will," Tom promised. "But I don't believe there's any more danger now. Anyhow, I have to take some chances." "Yes, but be as careful as you can. How is the silent motor coming on?" "Pretty good. I've had a lot of failures, and the thing isn't so easy as I at first imagined it would be. Noise is a funny thing, and I'm just beginning to understand some of the laws of acoustics we learned at high school. But I think I'm on the right track with the muffler and the cutting down of the noise of the explosions in the cylinders. I'm working both ends, you see making a motor that doesn't cause as much racket as those now in use, and also providing means to take care of the noise that is made. It isn't possible to make a completely silent motor of an explosive gas type. The only thing that can be done is to kill the noise after it is made." A NIGHT TRIP gi "What about the propeller blades?" "Oh, they aren't giving me any trouble. The noise they make can't be heard a hundred feet in the air, but I am also working on improvements to the blades. Take it altogether, I'll have an al- most silent aeroplane if my plans come out all right." "Have you said anything to the government yet?" "No; I want to have it pretty well perfected before I do. Besides, I don't want any publicity about it until I'm ready. If these Universal peo- ple are after me I'll fool 'em." "That's right, Tom! Well, I must go. An- other week of this Liberty Bond campaign !" "I suppose you'll be glad when it's over." "Well, I don't know," said Ned slowly. "It's part of my small contribution to Uncle Sam. I'm not like you I can't invent things." "But you have an awful smooth line of talk, Ned!" laughed his chum. "I believe you could sell chloride of sodium to some of the fishes in the Great Salt Lake that is if it has fishes." "I don't know that it has, Tom. And, any- how, I'm not posing as a salt salesman," and Ned grinned. "But I must really go. Our bank hasn't reached its quota in the sale of Liberty Bonds yet, and it's up to me to see that it doesn't fall down." 92 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT "Go to it, Ned! And I'll get busy on my silent motor." v /'Getting bus/' was Tom Swift's favorite oc- -cupation, and when he was working on a new idea, as was the case now, he was seldom idle, night or day. "I have hardly seen you for two weeks," Mary Nestor wrote him one day. "Aren't you ever coming to see me any more, or take me for g ride?" "Yes," Tom wrote back. "I'll be over soon. And perhaps on the next ride we take I won't have to shout at you through a speaking tube because the motor makes so much noise." From this it may be gathered that Tom was on the verge of success. While not altogether satisfied with his progress, the young inventor felt that he was on the right track. There were certain changes that needed to be made in the apparatus he was building certain refinements that must be added, and when this should be done Tom was pretty certain that he would have what would prove to be a very quiet aeroplane, if not an absolutely silent one. The young inventor was engaged one day witH some of the last details of the experiment. The new motor, with the silencer and the changed cylinders, had been attached to one of Tom's speedy aeroplanes, and he was making some in- A NIGHT TRIP 93 tricate calculations in relation to a new cylinder block, to be used when he started to make a completely new machine of the improved type. CTom had set down on paper some computa- tions regarding the cross-section of one of the cylinders, and was working out the amount of stress to which he could subject a shoulder strut, when a shadow was cast across the drawing board he had propped up in his lap. In an instant Tom pulled a blank sheet over his mass of figures and looked up, a sudden fear coming over him that another spy was at hand. But a hearty voice reassured him. "Bless my rice pudding!" cried Mr. Damon, "you shut yourself up here, Tom, like a hermit in the mountains. Why don't you come out and enjoy life?" "Hello! Glad to see you!" cried Tom, joy- fully. "You're just in time!" "Time for what dinner?" asked the eccentric man, with a chuckle. "If so, my reference to rice pudding was very proper." "Why, yes, I imagine there must be a dinner in prospect somewhere, Mr. Damon," said Tom with a smile. "We'll have to see Mrs. Baggert about that. But what I meant was that you're just in time to have a ride with me, if you want to go." "Go where?" 94 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT "Oh, up in cloudland. I have just finished my first sample of a silent motor, and I'm going to try it this evening. Would you like to come along?" "I would !" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "Bless my onion soup, Tom, but I would ! But why fly at night? Isn't it safer by daylight?" "Oh, that doesn't make much difference. It's safe enough at any time. The reason I'm going to make my first flight after dark is that I don't want any spies about." "Oh, I see ! Are they camping on your trail?" "Not exactly. But I can't tell where they may be. If I should start out in daylight and be forced to make a landing Well, you know what a crowd always collects to see a stranded airship." "That's right, Tom." "That decided me to start off after dark. Then if we have to come down because of some sort of engine trouble or because my new attachment doesn't work right, we sha'n't have any prying eyes." "I see! Well, Tom, I'll go with you. Fortu- nately I didn't tell my wife where I was going when I started out this afternoon, so she won't worry until after it's over, and then it won't hurt her. I'm ready any time you are." "Good! Stay to dinner and I'll show you A NIGHT TRIP 95 what I've made. Then we'll take a flight after dark/' This suited the eccentric man, and a little later, after he had eaten one of Mrs. Baggert's best meals, including rice pudding, of which he was very fond, Mr. Damon accompanied Tom to one of the big hangars where the new aeroplane had been set up. "So that's the Air Scout, is it, Tom?" asked Mr. Damon, as he viewed the machine. "Yes, that's the girl. 'Air Scout' is as good a name as any, until I see what she'll do." "It doesn't look different from one of your regular craft of the skies, Tom." "No, she isn't. The main difference is here," and Tom showed his friend where a peculiar ap- paratus had been attached to the motor. This was the silencer the whole secret of the invert tion, so to speak. To Mr. Damon it seemed to consist of an amazing collection of pipes, valves, baffle-plates, chambers, cylinders and reducers, which took the hot exhaust gases as they came from the motor and "ate them up," as he expressed it. "The cylinders, too, and the spark plugs are differently arranged in the motor itself, if you could see them," said Tom to his friend. "But the main work of cutting down the noise is done right here," and he put his hand on the steel case 96 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT attached to the motor, the case containing the apparatus already briefly described. "Well, I'm ready when you are, Tom," said Mr. Damon. "We'll go as soon as it's dark," was the re- ply. "But first I'll give you a demonstration. Start the motor, Jackson!" Tom called to his chief helper. Mr. Damon had 'ridden in aeroplanes before, and had stood near when Tom started them ; so he was prepared for a great rush of air as the propellers whirled about, and for deafening ex- plosions from the engine. The big blades, of new construction, were turned until the gas in the cylinders was suffi- ciently compressed. Then Jackson stepped back out of danger while Tom threw over the switch. "Contact!" cried the young inventor. Jackson gave the blades a quarter pull, and, a moment later, as he leaped back out of the way, they began to revolve with the swiftness of light. There was the familiar rush of air as the wooden wings cut through the atmosphere, but there was scarcely any noise. Mr. Damon could hardly be- lieve his ears. "I'm not running her at full speed," said Tom. "If I did she'd tear loose from the holding blocks. But you can see what little racket she makes." ^ 'A NIGHT TRIP 97^ "Bless my fountain pen!*' cried Mr. Damon. "You are right, Tom Swift! Why, I can hear you talk almost as easily as if no engine were going. And I don't have to shout my head off, either." This was perfectly true. Tom could converse with Mr. Damon in almost ordinary tones. The exhaust from the motor was nearly completely muffled. "Out in the air it will seem even more quiet," said Tom. "I'll soon give you a chance to verify that statement." He ran the engine a little longer, the aero- plane quivering with the vibrations, but remain- ing almost silent. "I'm anxious to see what she'll do when in motion," said Tom, as he shut off the gas and spark. Soon after supper, when the shades of evening were falling, he and Mr. Damon took their places in the first of the Air Scouts, to give it the preliminary test in actual flying. Would Tom's hopes be justified or would he }>e disappointed? CHAPTER XII THE CRY FOR HELP "ALL ready, Mr. Damon?" asked Tom, as he looked to see that all the levers, wheels, valves, and other controls were in working order on his Air Scout. "As ready as I ever shall be, Tom," was the answer. "I don't know why it is, but somehow I feel that something is going to happen on this trip." "Nonsense!" kughed Tom. "You're nervous; that's all" "I suppose so. Don't think I'm going to back out, or anything like that, but I wish it were successfully over with, Tom Swift, I most cer- tainly do." "It will be in a little while," returned Tom, as he settled himself comfortably in his seat and pulled the safety strap tight. "You've gone up in this same plane before, when it didn't have the silent motor aboard." "Yes, I know I have. Oh, I dare say it will 98 THE CRY FOR HELP 99 be all right, Tom. And yet, somehow, I can't help feeling " But Tom Swift felt that the best way to set Mr. Damon's premonitions to rest was to start the motor, and this he gave orders to have done, Jackson and some others of the men from the shops congregating about the craft to see the be- ginning of the night flight. Mr. Swift was there also, and Eradicate. Mary Nestor had been in- vited, but her Red Cross work engaged her that evening, she said. Ned Newton was away from town on Liberty Bond business, and he could not be present at the test. However, as Tom expected to have other trials jvhen his motor was in even better shape, he was not exactly sorry for the absence of his friends. "Contact!" called the young inventor, when Jackson had stepped back, indicating it was time to throw over the switch. "Let her go!" cried Tom, and the next mo- ment the motor was in operation, but so silently that his voice and that of Mr. Damon's could easily be heard above the machinery. "Good, Tom! That's good!" cried Mr. Swift, and Tom easily heard his father's voice, though under other, and ordinary, circumstances this would have been impossible. True, the hearing of Tom and Mr. Damon was muffled to a certain extent by the heavy 100 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT leather and fur-lined caps they wore. But Toni had several small eyelet holes set into the flaps just over the opening of the ears, and these holes were sufficient to admit sounds, while keeping out most of the cold that obtains in the upper regions. The aeroplane moved swiftly along the level starting ground, and away from the lighted han- gars. Faster and faster it swung along as Tom headed it into the wind, and then, as the speed of the motor increased, the Air Scout suddenly left the earth and went soaring aloft as she had done before. But there was this difference. She moved al- most as silently as a great owl which swoops down out of the darkness a bit of the velvety blackness itself. Up and up, and onward and onward, went the Air Scout. Tom Swift's im- proved, silent motor urged it onward, and as the young inventor listened to catch the noise of the machinery, his heart gave a bound of hope. For he could detect only very slight sounds. "She's a success!" exulted Tom to himself. "She's a success, but she isn't perfect yet," he added. "I've got to make the muffler bigger and put in more baffle-plates. Then I think I can turn the trick." He swung the machine out over the open coun- try, and then, when they were up at a THE CRY FOR HELP 101 height and sailing along easily, he called back to Mr. Damon in the seat behind him: "How do you like it?" "Great !" exclaimed the eccentric man. "Bless my postage stamp, but it's great! Why, there's hardly a sound, Tom, and I can hear you quite easily." "And I can hear you," added Tom. "I don't believe, down below there," and he nodded toward the earth, though Mr. Damon could not see this, as the airship, save for a tiny light over the in- strument board, was in darkness, "they know that we're flying over their heads." "I agree with you," was the answer. "Tom, my boy, I believe you've solved the trick! You have produced a silent aeroplane, and now it's up to the government to make use of it." "I'm not quite ready for that yet," replied the young inventor. "I have several improvements to make. But, when they are finished, I'll let Uncle Sam know what I have. Then it's up to him." "And you must be careful, Tom, that some of your rivals don't hear of your success and get it away from you," warned Mr. Damon, as Tom guided the Air Scout along the aerial way an unlighted and limitless path in the silent dark- ness. "Oh, they'll have to get up pretty early in the 102 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT morning to do that!" boasted Tom, and after- ward he was to recall those words with a bit of chagrin. On and on they sailed, and as Tom increased the speed of the motor, and noted how silently it ran, he began to have high hopes that he had builded better than he knew. For even with the motor running at almost full speed there was not noise enough to hinder talk between himself and Mr. Damon. Of course there was some little sound. Even the most perfect electric motor has a sort of hum which can be detected when one is close to it. But at a little distance a great dynamo in oper- ation appears to be silence itself. "I can go this one better, though," said Tom as he sailed along in the night. "I see where Fve made a few mistakes in the baffle plate of the silencer. I'll correct that and " As he spoke the machine gave a lurch, and the motor, instead of remaining silent, began to cough and splutter as in the former days. "Bless my rubber boots, Tom ! what's the mat- ter?" cried Mr. Damon. "Something's gone wrong," Tom answered, barely able to hear and make himself heard above the sudden noise. "I'll have to shut off the power and glide down. We can make a landing in this big field," for just then the moon THE CRY FOR HELP 103 came out from behind a cloud, and Tom saw, below them, a great meadow, not far from the home of Mary Nestor. He had often landed in this same place. "Something has broken in the muffler, I think, letting out some of the exhaust," he said to Mr. Damon, for, now that the motor was shut off, Tom could speak in his ordinary tones. "I'll soon have it fixed, or, if I can't, we can go back in the old style with the machine making as jnuch racket as it pleases." So Tom guided the machine down. It went silently now, of course, making, with the motor shut off, no more sound than a falling leaf. Down to the soft, springy turf in the green meadow Tom guided the machine. As it came to a stop, and he and Mr. Damon got out, there was borne to their ears a wild cry,: "Help! Help!" CHAPTER XIII 'SOMETHING QUEER "Dio you hear that?" asked Tom Swift of his companion. "Hear it? Bless my ear drums, I should say I did hear it! Some one is in trouble, Tom. Caught in a bog, most likely, the same as that spy chap who was at your place. That's it * caught in a bog!" "There isn't any bog or swamp around here, Mr. Damon. If there was I shouldn't have tried a landing. No, it's something else besides that. Hark!" Again the cry sounded, seeming to come from a point behind the landing place of the silent airship. It was clear and distinct: "Help! Help! They are " The voice seemed to die away in a gurgle, as though the person's mouth had been covered quickly. "He's sinking, Tom! He's sinking!" cried Mr. Damon. "I once heard a man who almost 104 SOMETHING QUEER 105 drowned cry out, and it sounded exactly like that!" "But there isn't any water around here for any one to drown in," declared Tom. "It's 9 big, dry meadow. I know where we are." "Then what is it?" "I don't know, but we're going to find out. Some one attacked by some one else or some- thing, I should say," ventured the young invent- or. "Something! do you mean a wild beast, Tom?" "No, for there aren't any of those here any tnore than there is water. Though it may be that some farmer's bull or a savage dog has got loose and has attacked some traveler. But, in that case I think we would hear bellows or barks, and all I heard was a cry for help." "The same with me, Tom. Let's investigate." "That's what I intend doing. Come on. The airship will be all right until we come back." "Better take a light hadn't you? It's dark, even if the moon does show now and then," sug- gested Mr. Damon. "Guess you are right," agreed Tom. Aboard his airship there were several small but powerful portable electric lights, and after securing one of these Tom and Mr. Damon started for the spot whence the call for help had come. As they walk- ed along, their feet making no noise OB the soft 106 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT turf, they listened intently for a repetition of the call for aid. "I don't hear anything," said Tom, after a bit. "Nor I," added Mr. Damon. "We don't know exactly which way to go, Tom." "That's right. Guess we'd better give him a hail ; whoever it is." Tom came to a halt, and raising his voice to a shout called : "Hello there! What's the matter ? We'll help you if you can tell us which way to come!" They both listened intently, but no voice an- swered them. At the same time, however, they were aware of a sound as of hurrying feet, and there seemed to be muttered imprecations not far away. Tom and Mr. Damon looked in the direc- tion of the sound, and the young inventor flashed his light. But there was a clump of bushes and trees at that point and the electrical rays did not penetrate very far. "Some one's over there !" exclaimed Tom in f d whisper. "We'd better go and see what it is." "All right," agreed Mr. Damon, and he, too, spoke in a low voice. Why they did this when their previous talk had been in ordinary tones, and when Tom had shout- ed so loudly, they did not stop to reason about or explain just then. But later they both ad- mitted that they whispered because they thought SOMETHING QUEER 107 there was something wrong on foot because they feared a crime was being committed and they wanted to surprise the perpetrators if they could. And it was this fact of their whispering that enabled the two to hear something that, other- wise, they might not have heard. And this was the sound of some vehicle hurrying away an automobile, if Tom was any judge. The cries for help had been succeeded by stifled vocal sounds, and these, in turn, by the noise of wheels on the ground. "What does it all mean?" asked Mr. Damon in a whisper. "I don't know," answered Tom, resolutely, "but we've got to find out. Come on !" They advanced toward the dark clump of trees and low bushes. There was no need to be especially cautious in regard to being silent, as their feet made little, if any, sound on the deep grass. And, as Tom walked in advance, now and then flashing his light, Mr. Damon suddenly caught him by the coat. "What is it?" asked the young inventor. "Look! Just over the top of that hill, where the moon shines. Don't you see an automobile outlined?" Tom looked quickly. "I do," he answered. "There's a road from here, just the other side of those trees, to that hill 108 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT [The auto must have gone that way. Well, there's no use in trying to follow it now. Whoever it was has gotten away." "But they may have left some one behind, Tom. [We'd better look in and around those trees." "I suppose we had, but I don't believe we'll find anything. I can pretty nearly guess, now, ;what it was." "What?" asked Mr. Damon. "Well, some chauffeur was out for a ride in his employer's car without permission. He got here, had an accident maybe some friends he took for a ride were hurt and they called for help. The chauffeur knew if there was any publicity he'd be blamed, and so he got away as quickly as he could. Guess the accident if that's what it was didn't amount to much, or they couldn't have run the car off. We've had our trouble for our pains." "Well, maybe you're right, Tom Swift, but^ all the same, I'd like to have a look among those trees," said Mr. Damon. "Oh, we'll look, all right," assented Tom, "but I doubt if we find anything." And he was right. They walked in and about the little grove, flashing the light at intervals, but beyond marks of auto wheels in the dust of .the road, which was near the clump of maples, there was nothing to indicate what had happened. "Though there was some sort of fracas," de SOMETHING QUEER 109 clared Tom. "Look where the dust is trampled down. There were several men here, perhaps skylarking, or perhaps it was a fight." "Some one must have been hurt, or they wouldn't have cried for help," said Mr. Damon. "Well, that's so. But perhaps it was some one not used to riding in autos, and he may have imagined the accident was worse than it was, and called for help involuntarily. There is no evi- dence of any serious accident having happened no spots of blood, at any rate," and Tom laughed at his own grimness. "It was a new car, too, or at least one with new tires on." "How do you know ?" asked Mr. Damon. "Tell by the plain marks of the rubber tread in the dust," was the answer. "Look," and Tom pointed to the wheel marks in the focus of his electric lamp. "If s a new tire, too, with square protuberences on the tread instead of the usual diamond or round ones. A new kind of tire, all right." He and Mr. Damon remained for a few minutes looking about the pl?ce whence had come the calls for help, and then the eccentric man remarked: "Well, as long as we can't do anything here, Tom, we might as well travel on; what do you say?" "I agree with you. There isn't any use in staying. We'll get the Air Scout fixed up and 1 10 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT travel back home. But this was something queer," mused Tom. "I hope it doesn't turn out later that a crime has been committed, and we didn't show enough gumption to prevent it." "We couldn't prevent it. We heard the cries as soon as we landed." "Yes, but if we had rushed over at once we might have caught the fellows. But I guess it was only a slight accident, and some one was more frightened than hurt. We'll have to let it go at that." But the more he thought about it the more Tom Swift thought there was something queer in that weird cry for help on the lonely meadow in the darkness of the night CHAPTER XIV THE TELEPHONE CALL THE defect in the motor which had caused Tom Swift to shut off the power and drift down to earth was soon remedied, once the young in- ventor began an examination of the craft. One of the oil feeds had become choked and this auto- matically cut down the gasoline supply, causing one or more cylinders to miss. It was a safety device Tom had installed to prevent the motor running dry, and so being damaged. Once the clogged oil feed was cleared the motor ran as before, and just as silently, though, as Tom had said, he was not entirely satisfied with the quietness, but intended to do further work toward perfecting it. "I'll start the propellers now, Mr. Damon," said Tom, when the trouble had been remedied. "You know how to throw the switch, don't you ?" "I guess so," was the answer. Mr. Damon and Tom had traveled so often together in gas- oline craft that the young inventor had taught his in TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT friend certain fundamentals about them, and in an emergency the eccentric man could help start an aeroplane. This he now did, taking charge of the controls which could be operated from his seat as well as from Tom's. Tom whirled the propellers, and soon the motor was in motion. Mr. Damon, once the big wooden blades were revolving, slowed down the apparatus until Tom could jump aboard, after which the latter took charge and soon speeded up the machine, send- ing it aloft. As the green meadow, dimly seen in the light of the moon, seemed to drop away below them, and the clump of trees vanished from sight, both Tom and Mr. Damon wondered who it was that had called for help, and if the matter were at all serious. They were inclined to think it was not, but Tom could not rid himself of a faint suspicion that there might have been trouble. However, thoughts of his new silent Air Scout soon drove everything else from his mind, and as he guided the comparatively silent machine on its quiet way toward his own home he was think- ing how he could best improve the muffler. "Well, here we are again, safe and sound," remarked Tom, as he brought the craft to a stop in front of the hangar, and Jackson and his help- ers, who were awaiting the return, hurried out to take eharge. THE TELEPHONE CALL "Yes, everything seems to point to success, Tom," agreed Mr. Damon. "That is, unless the slight accident we had means trouble." "Oh, no, that had nothing to do with the oper- ation of the silencer. But I'm going to do better yet. Some day I'll take you for a ride in a silent machine which will make so little noise that you can hear a pin drop." "Well," remarked Mr. Damon with a laugh, "I don't know that listening to falling pins will give me any great amount of pleasure, Tom, but I appreciate your meaning." "Everything all right?" asked Mr. Swift, as he came out to hear the details from his son. "Do you think you have solved the problem ?" "Not completely, but I'll soon be able to write Q. E. D. after it. Some refinements are all that are needed, Dad." "Glad to hear it I was a bit anxious/' Mr. Swift questioned his son about the tech- nical details of the trip, asking how the motor had acted under the pressure caused by so com- pletely muffling the exhaust, and for some minutes the two inventors, young and old, indulged in talk which was not at all interesting to Mr. Da- mon. They went into the house, and Tom asked to have a little lunch, which Mrs. Baggert set out for him. "It's rather late to eat," said the young in* 114 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT ventor, ''but I always feel hungry after I test a new machine and find that it works pretty well. Will you join me in a sandwich or two, Mr. Damon?" "Why, bless my ketchup bottle, I believe I will." And so they ate and talked. Tom was on the point of telling his father something of the queer cry for help they had heard on the lonely meadow when Mrs. Baggert produced a letter which she said had come for Tom that afternoon, but had been mislaid by a new maid who had been en- gaged to help with the housework. "She took it to the shop after you had left, and only now told me about it," explained Mrs. Bag- gert. "So I sent Eradicate for it." "How long ago was that?" asked Tom, as he jtook the missive. "Oh, an hour ago," answered Mrs. Baggert, with a smile. "But don't blame poor Rad for that. He wanted to deliver the letter to you per- sonally, and so did Koku. The result was your giant kept after Rad, trying to get the letter from him, and Rad kept hiding and slinking about for a chance to see you himself until I saw what was going on, a little while ago, and took the letter myself. Else you might never have gotten it, so jealous are those two," and Mrs. Baggert laughed. "Guess it isn't of much importance," Tom THE TELEPHONE CALL 115 said, as he tore open the envelope. "It's from the Universal Flying Machine Company, of New York, and I imagine they're trying to get me to reconsider my refusal to link up with them. "Yes," he went on, as he read the missive, "that's it. They've raised the amount to thirty thousand a year now, Dad, and they say they feel sure I shall regret it if I do not accept "This is a bit queer, though," went on the young inventor. "This letter was written three days ago, but it reached Shopton only to-day. And it says that unless they hear from me at once they will have to take steps that will cause me great inconvenience. They have nerve, at any rate, and impudence, too! I won't even bother to answer. But I wonder what they mean, and why this letter was delayed?" "The mails are all late on account of the trans- portation congestion caused by moving troops to the camps," said Mr. Damon. "Some of my let- ters are delayed a week. But, as you say, Tom, these fellows are very impudent to threaten that way." "It's all bluff," declared Tom. "I'm not worry- ing. And now, Dad, since I've almost reached the top of the hill with my Air Scout, I may be able to help you on that new electric motor you're puzzling over." "I wish you would, Tom. I am trying to in- H6 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT vent a new system of interchangeable brush con-* tacts, but so far I've been unable to make them work. However, there is no great hurry about that. If you are going to offer your silent ma- chine to the government finish that first. We need all the aircraft we can get. The battles on the other side seem to be all in favor of the Ger- mans, so far." "We haven't got into our stride yet," declared Mr. Damon. "Once Uncle Sam gets the boys over there in force, there'll be a different story to tell. I only wish" At that moment the telephone set up an insist- ent ringing, breaking in on Mr. Damon's re- marks. "I'll answer," said Tom, as Mrs. Baggert moved toward the instrument, which was an ex- tension from the main one. "Hello!" called the young inventor into the transmitter, and as he received an answer a look of pleasure came over his face. "Yes, Mary, this is Tom," he said. He re- mained silent a moment, while it was evident he was listening to the voice at the other end o the wire. Then he suddenly exclaimed : "What's that? Tell him to come home? Why, he isn't here. I just came in and what wait a minute!" With a ratherj strange look on his face Ton| THE TELEPHONE CALL covered the mouth-piece of the instrument witK his hand, and, turning to his father, asked : "Is Mr. Nestor here?" *'No," replied Mr. Swift slowly, "He was here, though. He came a little while after you and Mr. Damon started off in the Air Scout. But he didn't stay. Said he wanted to see you about something and would call again." "Oh," remarked the young man. "I didn't know he had been there." "I meant to tell you," said Mrs. Baggert; "but getting the lunch made me forget it, I guess." Tom uncovered the transmitter of the tele- phone again, and spoke to Mary Nestor. "Hello," he said. "I was wrong, Mary. Your father was here, but he left when he found I wasn't at home. How long ago? Wait a min- ute and I'll inquire. "How long ago did Mr. Nestor leave?" asked ihe young inventor of the housekeeper. "Nearly an hour," he said into the instrument, after he had received the answer. Then, after listening a moment, he added : "Yes, I guess he'll be home soon now. Probably stopped down town to see some of his friends. Yes, Mr. Damon and I tried out the Air Scout. Yes, she worked pretty well, for a starter, but there is something yet to be done. Oh, yes, now I'll have time to come over to see you, and take you for a ride toot Il8 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT won't have to talk through a speaking tube* either. Tell your father I am sorry I was out when he called. I'll come to see him to-morrow, if he wants me to. Yes yes. I guess so !" and Tom laughed, it being evident that his remarks at the end of the conversation had to do with per- sonal matters. "A telegram has come for Mr. Nestor and the) were anxious that he should get it," Tom ex- plained to his little audience as he hung up tht receiver and put aside the telephone. "I wondei what he wanted to see me about?" "He didn't say," replied Mrs. Baggert. Mr. Damon, Tom, and his father remained in conversation a little while longer, and the eccen- tric man was thinking that it was about time iot him to return home, when the telephone rang again. "Hello," answered Tom, as he was nearest the instrument. "Oh, yes, Mary, this is he. What's that? Your father hasn't reached home yet? And your mother is worried? Oh tell her there is no cause for alarm. As I said, he probably stopped on his way to see some friends." Tom listened for perhaps half a minute to a talk that was inaudible to the others in the room, and they noticed a grave look come over his face. he said : I'll be right over, Mary. Yes, I'll come a* THE TELEPHONE CALL 119 $nce. And tell your mother not to worry. I'm sure nothing could have happened. I'll be with you in a jiffy!" As Tom Swift hung up the receiver he said: "Mr. Nestor hasn't reached home yet, and as he promised to return at once in case he didn't find me, his wife is much worried. I'll go over and see what I can do." "I'll come along!" volunteered Mr. Damon. "It /sn't late yet." "Yes, do come," urged Tom. "But I suppose when we get there we'll find our friend has ar- rived safely. .We'll go over in the electric runa- bout'* CHAPTER XV A VAIN SEARCH? SWIFT'S speedy little electric car was soon at the door in readiness to take him and Mr. Damon to the Nestor home. The electric runa- Jbout was a machine Tom had evolved in his early inventive days, and though he had other auto- mobiles, none was quite so fast or so simple to run as this, which well merited the name of the most rapid machine on the road. In it Tom had once won a great race, as has been related in the book bearing the title, "Tom Swift and His Elec- tric Runabout." "Mary didn't telephone again, did she?" Tom asked his father, as he stopped at the house to get Mr. Damon, having gone out to see about getting the electric runabout in readiness. "No," was the answer. "The telephone hasn't rung since." "Then, I guess, Mr. Nestor can't have arrived home," said Tom. "It's a bit queer, his delay, j>ut I'm sure it will be explained naturally. Only 120 A VAIN SEARCH 121, Mary and her mother are alone and, very likely, the/ re nervous. I'll telephone to let you know everything is all right as soon as I get there," iTom promised his father and Mrs. Baggert as he drove off down the road, partly illuminated by the new moon. Rapidly and almost as silently as his Air Scout iTom Swift drove the speedy car down the high- way. It was about three miles from his home to that of Mary Nestor, and though the distance was quickly covered, to Tom, at least, the space seemed interminable. But at length he drove up to the door. There were lights in most of the rooms, which was unusual at this time of night ,The sound of the wheels had not ceased echo- ing on the gravel of the drive before Mary was out on the porch, which she illuminated by an overhead light. "Oh, Tom," she cried, "he hasn't come yet, and we are so worried! Did you see anything of father as you came along?" "No," was Tom's answer. "But we didn't look for him along the road, as we came by the turnpike, and he wouldn't travel that way. But he will be along at any moment now. You must remember it's quite a walk from my house, and" "But he was on his bicycle," said Mary. "We 122 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT wanted him to go in the auto, but he said he wanted some exercise after supper, and he went over on his wheel. He said he'd be right back, but he hasn't come yet." "Oh, he will!" said Tom reassuringly. "He may have had a puncture, or something like that. Bicyclists are just as liable to them as autoists," he added with a laugh. "Well, I'm sure I hope it will be all right, H sighed Mary. "I wish you could convince mother to that effect. She's as nervous as a cat. Come in and tell us what to do." "Oh, he'll be all right," declared Mr. Damon, adding his assurances to Tom's. fThey found Mrs. Nestor verging on an attack of hysteria. Though Mr. Nestor often went out during the evening, he seldom stayed late. "And he said he'd be right back if he found you weren't at home, Tom," said Mrs. Nestor. "I'm sure I don't know what can be keeping him!" "It's too soon to get worried yet," replied the young inventor cheerfully. "I'll wait a Kttle while, and then, if he doesn't come, Mr. Damon and I will go back over the road and look care- fully. He may have had a slight fall sprained his ankle or something like that and not be able to ride. ,We came by the turnpike, a road A VAIN SEARCH I2 3 he probably wouldn't take on his wheel. He's all right, you may be sure of that/' Tom tried to speak reassuringly, but somehow, he did not believe himself. He was beginning to think more and more how strange it was that Mr. Nestor did not return home. "We'll wait just a bit longer before setting out on a search/' he told Mary and her mother. "But I'm sure he will be along any minute now." They went into the library, Mary and her mother, Tom and Mr. Damon. And there they sat waiting. Tom tried to entertain Mary and Mrs. Nestor with an account of his trial trip in the Air Scout, but the two women scarcely heard What he said. All sat watching the clock, and looking from that to the telephone, which they tried to hope would ring momentarily and transmit to them good news. Then they would listen for the sound of footsteps or bicycle wheels on the gravel walk. But they heard nothing, and as the sec- tmds were ticked off on the clock the nervousness of Mrs. Nestor increased, until she exclaimed : "I can stand it no longer! We must notify the police or do something!" "I wouldn't notify the police just yet," coun- seled Tom. "Mr. Damon and I will start out and look along the road. If it should happen, as will probably turn out to be the case, that Mr. 124 TOM SWIFT 'AND HIS AIR SCOUT Nestor; has met with only a simple accident, he would not like the notoriety, or publicity, of hav- ing the police notified." "No, I am sure he would not," agreed Mary. "Tom's way is best, Mother." "All right, just as you say, only find my hus* band," and Mrs. Nestor sighed, and turned her head away. "Even if Mr. Nestor had had a fall," reasoned [Tom, "he could call for help, and get some one to telephone, unless " And as he reasoned thus Tom Swift gave a mental start at his own use of the word "help." That weird cry on the lonely meadow came back to him with startling distinctness. "Come on, Mr. Damon!" cried Tom, in a voice he tried to make cheerful. "We'll find that Mr. Nestor is probably walking along, carrying his disabled bicycle instead of having it carry him. .We'll soon have him safe back to you," he called to the two women. "I wish I could go with you, and help search," observed Mary. "Oh, I couldn't bear to be left alone!" ex- claimed her mother. "We'll telephone as soon as we find him," called Tom to Mrs. Nestor, as he and Mr. Damon again got into the runabout and started away from the place. 4 VAIN SEARCH 12.5 "What do you think of it, Tom?" asked the eccentric man, when they were once more on the road. "Why, nothing much as yet," Tom said, "That is, I think nothing more than a simple accident has happened, if, indeed, it is anything more than that he has delayed to talk to some friends." "Would he delay this long?" "I don't know." "And then, Tom bless my spectacles! what of that cry we heard? Could that have been Mr, Nestor?" There! It was out! The suspicion that Tom had been trying to keep his mind away from came to the fore. Well, he might as well face the issue now as later. "I've been thinking of that," he told Mr. Damon, "It might have been Mary's father call- ing for help." "But we looked, Tom, near the trees, and couldn't discover anything. If he had been call- ing for help " , Mr. Damon did not finish. "He may have fallen from his wheel and been hurt," said Tom, as he turned the electric runa- bout into the highway that Mr. Nestor would, most likely, have taken on his way from Shop- ton. "Then he may have called for help, and some 126 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT autoists, passing, may have heard and taken him away. 1 * "Yes, But where, Tom? Whoever called for Kelp was taken away, that's sure. But where ?" "To some hospital, I suppose.'* "Then hadn't we better inquire there? There are only two hospitals of any account around here. The one in Shopton and the one in Water- field. My wife is on the board of Lady Managers there. We could call that hospital up and " "We'll look along the road first," said Tom. "If we begin; to make inquiries at the hospitals there will be a lot of questions asked, and a gen- eral alarm may be sent out. Mr. Nestor wouldn't like that, if he isn't in any danger. And it may turn out that he has met an old friend, and has been talking with him all this while, forgetting all about the passage of time." They were now driving along the highway that led from the little suburb where Mr. Nestor lived, to the main part of Shopton, just beyond which was Tom's home. This section was coun- try-like, with very few houses and those placed at rather infrequent intervals. The road was a good one, though not the main-traveled one, and Mr. Nestor, as was known, frequently used it when he rode his bicycle, an exercise of which he was very fond. As [Tom and Mr. Damon drove along, they A VAIN SEARCH 127 scanned, as best they could in the light from the young moon and the powerful lamps on the runa- about, every part of the highway. They were looking for some dark blot which might indicate where a man had fallen from his wheel and was lying in some huddled heap on the road. But they saw nothing like this, much to their relief. "Do you know, Tom," said Mr. Damon, when they were nearing the town, and their search, thus 'far, had been in vain, "I think we're going at this the wrong way." "Why, so?" "Because Mr. Nestor may have fallen, and been hurt, and have been carried into any one of a dozen houses along the road. In that case we wouldn't see him. We've passed over the most lonely part of the journey and haven't seen him. If the accident occurred near the houses his cries would have brought some one out to help him. He is well known around here, and, even if he were unconscious and couldn't tell who he was, he could be identified by papers in his pockets. [Then his family would be notified by telephone." "Perhaps you are right, Mr. Damon. We may Jfe wasting time this ;way. What do you sug- gest?" asked Tom. "That we don't delay any longer, but call up the hospitals at once. If he isn't in either of those he must be in some house, and in such con- 128 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT dition that his identity cannot be established. In that event it is a case for the police. We haven't found him, and I think we had better give the alarm." Tom Swift thought it over for a moment Then he came to a sudden decision. "You're right!" he told Mr. Damon. "We mustn't waste any more time. He isn't along the road he ought to have traveled in coming from my house to his home that's sure. But before I call up the hospitals I want to try out one more idea." "What's that, Tom?" "I want to go to the place where we heard that *ry for help." "Do you think that could have been Mr. Nestor?" "It may have been. We'll go and take another look around there. Some man was evidently hurt there, and was taken away. We may get a