Tom Swift Among the Fire Fighters; Or, Battling with Flames from the Air

by Victor Appleton

  CHAPTER XVI

  VIOLENT THREATS

  Tom Swift's companion in the automobile was sufficiently acquaintedwith this old expression to understand readily what it meant. And as hedirected his car as close as was safe to the blazing car, Mr. Damonasked:

  "Are you going to put out that fire for them, Tom?"

  "I'm going to try," was the grim answer.

  The young inventor was rapidly taking out of wrapping paper a metalcylinder with a short nozzle on one end and a handle on the other. Itwas, obviously, a hand fire extinguisher of a type familiar to all.

  "Wait Tom, I'll slow up a little more," said Mr. Damon, as he appliedthe brakes with more force. "Bless my court plaster! don't jump andinjure yourself."

  But Tom Swift was sufficiently agile to leap from the automobile whenit was still making good speed. He did not want Mr. Damon to approachtoo close to the burning car, for there might be an explosion. At thesame time, he rather discounted the risk to himself, for he ran rightin, while the two men, who had leaped from the blazing machine, hurriedto a safe distance.

  Tom held in readiness a small hand extinguisher. It was one he hadconstructed from an old one found in the shop, but it contained some ofhis own chemicals, the original solution having been used at some timeor other. It was the intention of the young inventor to put on themarket a house-size extinguisher after he had disposed of his bigairship invention.

  "Look out there! The gasoline tank may go up!" cried Field, the smallman with the big voice.

  Tom did not answer, but ran in as close as was necessary and began toplay a small stream from his hand extinguisher on the blazing car. Hewas thus able to direct the white, frothy chemical better than when hehad shot it from the airship, and in a few seconds only some wisps ofcurling smoke remained to tell of the presence of the fire. Theautomobile was badly charred, but the damage was not past redemption.

  "Bless my check book! you did the trick, Tom," cried Mr. Damon, as healighted and came up to congratulate his companion.

  "Yes. But this wasn't much," Tom said. "I didn't use half the charge.Short circuit?" he asked Field and Melling who were now returning,having seen that the danger was passed.

  "I--I guess so," replied Melling, in his squeaky voice. "We--we aremuch obliged to you."

  "No thanks necessary," said Tom, a bit shortly, as he turned to go backwith Mr. Damon to their car. "It's what any one would do under likecircumstances."

  "Only you did it very effectively," observed Field.

  Tom was wondering if they knew who he was and of his association withJosephus Baxter. He did not believe the men recognized him as theperson who had been at the Meadow Inn one day with Mary. They hadhardly glanced at him then, he thought.

  "That's a mighty powerful extinguisher you have there, young man," saidMelling. "May I ask the make of it? We ought to carry one like it onour car," he told his companion.

  "It is the Swift Aerial Fire Extinguisher," said Tom gravely, with aglance at Mr. Damon.

  "The Swift--Tom Swift?" exclaimed Melling. "Do you mean--"

  "I am Tom Swift," put in the young inventor quickly. "And this is oneof my inventions. I might add," he said slowly, looking first Mellingand then Field full in the face, "that I was aided in perfecting thechemical extinguisher by Josephus Baxter."

  The effect on the two men, whom Tom believed were scoundrels, wasmarked.

  "Baxter!" cried Field.

  "Is he associated with you?" demanded Melling.

  "Not officially," Tom answered, delighted at the chance to "rub it in,"as he expressed it later. "I have been helping him, and he has beenhelping me since he lost his dye formulae in--in your fire!"

  "Does he say he lost them in the fire of our factory?" demanded Fieldaggressively.

  "He believes he did," asserted Tom. "I helped carry him out of thelaboratory of your place when he was almost dead from suffocation. Heremembers that he had the formulae then, but since has been unable tofind them."

  "He'd better be careful how he accuses us!" blustered Field, in his bigvoice.

  "We could have the law on him for that!" squeaked the bigger Melling.

  "He hasn't accused you," said Tom easily. "He only says the formulaedisappeared during the fire in your place, and he is just wondering,that is all--just wondering!"

  "Well, he--we, I--that is, we haven't anything from Baxter that wedidn't pay for," declared Field. "And if he goes about saying suchthings he'd better be careful. I am going--"

  But he suddenly became silent as his companion's elbow nudged him. Andthen Melling took up the talk, saying:

  "We're much obliged to you, Mr. Swift, for putting out the fire in ourcar. But for you it would have been destroyed. And if you ever want tosell the extinguisher process of yours, you'll find us in the market.We are going into the dye business on a large scale, and we can alwaysuse new chemical combinations."

  "My extinguisher is not for sale," said Tom dryly. "Come on, Mr. Damon.We can take you into town, I suppose," Tom went on, looking at hiseccentric friend for confirmation, and finding it in a nod. "But Idoubt if we could tow you, as we are in a hurry, and--"

  "Oh, thank you, we'll look over our machine before we leave it," saidMelling. "It may be that we can get it to go."

  Tom doubted this, after a look at the charred section, but he easilyunderstood the dislike of the men, upon whose heads he had heaped coalsof fire, to ride with him and Mr. Damon.

  So Field and Melling were left standing in the road near their strandedcar, which, but for Tom Swift's prompt action, would have been only aheap of ruins.

  Tom first visited the man who had a candy machine, in which the ownerwanted to interest Mr. Damon. After seeing a demonstration and givinghis opinion, he attended to his own affairs, in which his handextinguisher played a part. Then he called on Mary Nestor at herrelative's home.

  "Oh, but it's good to see you again, Tom!" cried Mary, after the firstgreeting. "What have you been doing, and what's all that white stuff onyour coat?"

  "Fire extinguisher chemical," Tom answered, and he related what hadhappened.

  "What's the matter with your aunt, Mary? She seems worried aboutsomething," he said, after the aunt with whom Mary was staying had comein, greeted Tom briefly, and gone out again.

  "Oh, she and Uncle Jasper are worried over money matters, I believe,"Mary said. "Uncle Jasper invested heavily in the Landmark Buildinghere, and now, I understand, it is discovered that it was put up inviolation of the building laws--something about not being fire-proof.Uncle Jasper is likely to lose considerable money.

  "It isn't that it will make him so very poor," Mary went on. "ButUncle Barton Keith--you remember you went on the undersea search withhim--Uncle Barton warned Uncle Jasper not to go into the LandmarkBuilding scheme."

  "And Uncle Jasper did, I take it," said Tom.

  "Yes. And now he's sorry, for not only may he lose money, but UncleBarton will laugh at him, and Uncle Jasper hates that worse than losinga lot. But tell me about yourself, Tom. What have you been doing? Andis Eradicate going to get better?"

  "I hope so," Tom said. "As for me--"

  But he was interrupted by loud voices in the hall. He recognized thetones of Mary's Uncle Jasper saying:

  "They're scoundrels, that's what they are! Just plain scoundrels! WhenI accuse them of swindling me and others in that Landmark Building dealthey have the nerve to ask me to invest money in some secret dyeformulae they claim will revolutionize the industry! Bah! They'rescoundrels, that's what they are--Field and Melling are scoundrels, andI'm going to have them arrested!"