CHAPTER XI
THE BLAZING TREE
Tom Swift hesitated a moment before giving the final word that wouldsend the metal container of powerful chemicals down into the midst ofthe crackling flames. He wanted to make sure, in his own mind, that hehad done everything possible to insure the success of his undertaking.The young inventor never attempted the solution of any problem withoutgoing into it with his whole energy. So he wanted this experiment tosucceed.
He quickly reviewed, mentally, the composition of the chemicalcompound. He had made it as strong as possible, and he had spared nopains to insure a hot fire, so that the test would not be too simple.
"What's the matter, Tom?" asked Ned, as his chum appeared to hesitateabout giving the word that would send the chemicals hurtling down intothe fire.
"Nothing. I was just making sure I hadn't forgotten anything," Tomanswered. "I guess I haven't."
He paused a moment, looked up at his assistant on the overhanging armof the tower, glanced down at the flames, now at their height, and thensuddenly cried:
"Let her go!"
"Right!" came back the man's voice, and then a dark object, like abomb, was seen descending from the skeleton framework above the flames.
There was a scattering of the fire in the pit as the extinguisher bombfell among the blazing embers. Then followed a slight explosion whenthe bomb broke, as it was intended it should.
Tom and Ned leaned forward to peer through the pall of smoke whichswirled this way and that. Here was to come the real test of thedevice. Would the fumes of the liberated chemicals choke the fire, orwould it burn on in spite of them? That was the question to be settledfor Tom Swift.
Almost immediately he had his answer. For after a fierce burst of thetongues of fire following the fall of the bomb, there was a distinctdying down of the conflagration in the pit. Great clouds of smokearose, but the fire was quenched in a great measure, and as thefire-blanketing gas continued to be generated from the chemicalsliberated from the bomb, there was a further dying down of thecrackling fire.
"Tom, you've struck it!" yelled Ned in delight. "You have the rightcombination this time!"
Tom did not answer. He leaned forward and looked eagerly down into thepit. He was about to join with Ned in agreeing that he had, indeed,solved the problem, when, to his surprise, the flames started up again.
"What's this?" asked the young financial manager. "Are you going tohave a second test, Tom?"
"Not that I know of," was the puzzled answer. "I don't exactlyunderstand this myself, Ned. By all calculations this fire ought tohave died a natural death, but now it is breaking out again. I thinkwhat must have happened is that a quantity of the oil they poured oncollected in a pool and didn't get all the effects of the chemicalsfrom the bomb. Then the oil started to blaze."
"What can you do about it?" Ned wanted to know.
"Oh, I've got another bomb up there," and Tom pointed to his helper whowas still perched on the overhanging arm. "I was prepared for some suchemergency as this. Drop the other one!" Tom yelled, and again a darkobject fell, bursting in the pit and again liberating the gas that wassupposed to choke any fire.
The flames that had started up for the second time instantly died down,and Ned, leaning over the edge of the pit, cried:
"Hurray, Tom! That does the business!" But the young inventor shook hishead. "I'm not quite satisfied," he remarked. "It didn't work quicklyenough. What I want is a chemical combination that will choke the fireoff first shot."
"Well, you pretty nearly have it," observed Ned.
"Yes. But 'good enough' isn't what I want," Tom said. "I've got to workon that chemical compound again. I think I know where I can improve it."
"Well, if I were a fire, and I had this happen to me," remarked Ned,laughing and pointing to the heap of blackened embers in the pit, "Ishould feel very much discouraged."
"But not enough," declared Tom. "I want the fire to be out more quicklythan this one was. I think I can improve that chemical compound, andI'm going to do it."
"All right! Come on down!" he called to his helper, who was stillperched on the overhanging arm. "We won't do any more today."
"What is your next move?" asked Ned, as Tom started for his small,private laboratory.
"Oh, I'm going to fiddle around among those sweet-smelling chemicals,"answered the young inventor.
"Bless my vest buttons! then I'm not coming in, exclaimed a voice whichcould proceed from none other than Mr. Damon. And he it proved to be.He had driven over from Waterford in his automobile and had arrivedjust as the fire test was concluded.
"Oh, come on in!" called Tom. "You can visit with dad, and Eradicatewill be glad to see you."
"Poor Rad! How is he?" asked Mr. Damon, walking along with Tom and Ned.
"No change," was the sad answer of the young inventor, for he feltresponsible for the mishap to the colored man. "They can't operate onhis eyes yet."
"And when they do will he be able to see?" asked Mr. Damon.
"That is what we are all hoping," answered Tom with a sigh. "But do goin to see him, Mr. Damon. It will cheer him up."
"I will," promised the eccentric man. "At any rate I'll not venturenear your perfume shop, Tom Swift!"
"And I don't see that I can be of any service," added Ned, "so I'm offto my work."
"All right," assented Tom. "I've got several new schemes to try. Someof them ought to work."
Tom Swift was very busy for the next few days--so busy, in fact, thateven Mary saw little of him. He was closeted with Mr. Baxter more thanonce, and that individual seemed to lose some of his bitter feelingsover the loss of his formulae as he found he could be of service to theyoung inventor. For he was of service in suggesting new ways ofcombining fire-fighting chemicals, gained by his association with thefireworks concern.
"And that's about all the benefit I derived from being with thosescoundrels, Field and Melling," said Mr. Baxter gloomily.
"You still think they took your dye formulae?" asked Tom.
"I'm positive of it, but I can't prove anything. They threatened to getthe best of me when I would not sell them, for a ridiculously low sum,an interest in the secrets. And I believe they did get the best of meduring that fire."
"I believe the same!" exclaimed Tom.
"How is that? What do you know? Can you help me prove anything againstthem?" eagerly asked the chemist.
"Well, I don't know," answered Tom slowly. "I'll tell you what I heard."
Thereupon he related the conversation he had overheard while with Maryat the wayside inn. The eyes of Josephus Baxter gleamed as he listenedto this recital.
"So that was their game!" he cried, as he smote the table with hisfist, thereby nearly upsetting a test tube of acid, which Tom caughtjust in time. "I knew something crooked was going on, and they thoughtI'd be so badly overcome in the fire that I wouldn't know, or wouldn'tremember, what happened."
"What did happen?" asked Tom. "All I know is that you were overcome inthe laboratory room."
"It's too long a story to tell in detail now," said Mr. Baxter. "Butthe main facts are that through misrepresentations I was induced toassociate myself with Field and Melling. They had a good factory forthe making of fireworks, and some of the chemicals used in thatindustry also enter into the manufacture of the kind of dyes I have inmind to make. So I associated myself with them, they agreeing to let meuse their laboratory.
"One night they came to see me as I was working there over my formulae.They pretended to have discovered something in an expired patent thatnullified what I had. I did not believe this to be so, and I broughtout my formulae to compare with theirs--or what they said they had. Thenext thing I remember was that the fire broke out and my formulaedisappeared. Then I was overcome, and I did not care what happened tome, for, having lost the valuable dye formulae, I did not think lifeworth living.
"Perhaps I was foolish," said Mr. Baxter, "but I had tried so manythings and failed, and I counted so much on these formulae tha
t itseemed as if the bottom dropped out of everything when I lost them."
"I know," said Tom sympathetically. "I've been in the same boat myself.But are you sure they took the papers which meant so much to you?"
"I don't see who else could," answered the chemist. "The papers were ina tin box on the table in the room where I was overcome by fire gases,or where, perhaps, they drugged me. I am not clear on this point. Andafterward the tin box could not be found. There wasn't enough fire inthat room to have melted it."
"No," agreed Tom, "it was mostly smoke in there, and smoke won't melttin. Nor did I see any box on the table when we carried you out."
"Then the only other surmise is that Field and Melling got away with myformulae during the excitement and when I was half unconscious," Wenton Mr. Baxter bitterly. "But you can see how foolish I would be toaccuse them in court. I haven't a bit of proof."
"Not much, for a fact," agreed Tom. "Well, with what I heard and whatyou tell me, perhaps we can work up a case against them later. I'll goover it with Ned. He has a better head for business than I."
"Yes, we inventors need some business brains; or at least the time togive to business problems," agreed the chemist. "But enough of mytroubles. Let's get at this chemical compound of yours."
Tom and Mr. Baxter spent many days and nights perfecting thefire-extinguisher chemical, and, after repeated tests, Tom felt that hewas nearer his goal.
One afternoon Ned called, and Tom invited him to go for a ride in asmall but speedy aeroplane.
"Anything special on?" asked the young manager.
"In a way, yes," Tom answered. "I'm having a firm in Newmarket make mesome different containers, and they have promised me samples today. Ithought I'd take a fly over and get them. I have the chemical compoundall but perfected now, and I want to give it another test."
"All right, I'm with you," assented Ned. "Newmarket," he addedmusingly. "Isn't that where Field and Melling are now?"
"Yes. They have a factory on the outskirts of the place, and theiroffices are in the Landmark Building. But we aren't going to see them,though we may call on them later, when you have that case better workedup." For Ned's services had been enlisted to aid Mr. Baxter.
"I shall need a little more time," remarked Ned. "But I think we can atleast bluff them into playing into our hands. I have a report to hearfrom a private detective I have hired."
"I hope we can do something to aid Baxter," remarked Tom. "He has doneme good service in this chemical fire extinguisher matter."
A little later Tom and Ned were speeding through the air on their wayto Newmarket. The rapid flier was making good time at not a greatheight when Ned, leaning forward, appeared to be gazing at something inthe near distance.
"What's the matter?" asked Tom, for he had his silencer on this craftand it was possible for the occupants to converse. "Do you hear one ofthe cylinders missing, Ned?"
"No. But what's that smoke down there?" and Ned pointed. "It looks likea fire!"
"It is a fire!" exclaimed Tom, as he took an observation. "Not a bigone, but a fire, just the same. If only--"
He did not finish what he started to say, but changed the direction ofhis air craft and headed directly toward a pall of smoke about a mileaway.
In a few seconds they were near enough to make out the character of theblaze.
"Look, Tom!" cried Ned. "It's an immense tree on fire!"
"A tree!" exclaimed Tom, half incredulously, for he was leaning forwardto look at one of the aeroplane gages and did not have a clear view ofwhat Ned was looking at.
"Yes, as sure as Mr. Damon would bless something if he were here! It'sa tree on fire up near the top!"
"That's strange!" murmured Tom. "But it may give me just the chanceI've been looking for."
Ned wondered at this remark on the part of his chum as the airship drewnearer the blazing monarch in the patch of woods over which they werethen hovering.
Tom Swift Among the Fire Fighters; Or, Battling with Flames from the Air Page 11
