The Tom Swift Megapack

by Victor Appleton

  Finally all was ready for the trip and the night before the start Ned Newton stayed at Tom’s house so as to be in readiness for going off early in the morning. The day was all that could be desired, Tom noted, as he and his chum hurried down to the dock before breakfast to put their blankets in the boat. As the young inventor entered the craft he uttered an exclamation.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Ned.

  “I was sure I locked the sliding door of that forward compartment,” was the reply. “Now it’s open.” He looked inside the space occupied by the gasoline tank and cried out: “One of the braces is gone! There’s been some one at my boat in the night and they tried to damage her.”

  “Much harm done?” asked Ned anxiously.

  “No, none at all, to speak of,” replied Tom. “I can easily put a new block under the tank. In fact, I don’t really need all I have. But why should any one take one out, and who did it? That’s what I want to know.”

  The two lads looked carefully about the dock and boat for a sign of the missing block or any clues that might show who had been tampering with the Arrow, but they could find nothing.

  “Maybe the block fell out,” suggested Ned.

  “It couldn’t,” replied Tom. “It was one of the new ones I put in myself and it was nailed fast. You can see where it’s been pried loose. I can’t, understand it,” and Tom thought rapidly of several mysterious occurrences of late in which the strange man at the auction and the person he had surprised one night in the boathouse had a part.

  “Well, it needn’t delay our trip,” resumed the young inventor. “Maybe there’s a hoodoo around here, and it will do us good to get away a few days. Come on, we’ll have breakfast, get dad and start.”

  A little later the Arrow was puffing away up the lake in the direction of Sandport.

  CHAPTER IX

  MR. SWIFT IS ALARMED

  “Don’t you feel better already, dad?” asked Tom that noon as they stopped under a leaning, overhanging tree for lunch on the shore of the lake. “I’ll leave it to Ned if you don’t look more contented and less worried.”

  “I believe he does,” agreed the other lad. “Well, I must say I certainly have enjoyed the outing so far,” admitted the inventor with a smile. “And I haven’t been bothering about my gyroscope. I think I’ll take another sandwich, Tom, and a few more olives.”

  “That’s the way to talk!” cried the son. “Your appetite is improving, too. If Mrs. Baggert could see you she’d say so.”

  “Oh, yes, Mrs. Baggert. I do hope she and Garret will look after the house and shops well,” said Mr. Swift, and the old, worried look came like a shadow over his face.

  “Now don’t be thinking of that, dad,” advised Tom, “Of course everything will be all right. Do you think some of those model thieves will return and try to get some of your other inventions?”

  “I don’t know, Tom. Those men were unscrupulous scoundrels, and you can never tell what they might do to revenge themselves on us for defeating their plans.”

  “Well, I guess Garret and Mrs. Baggert will look out for them,” remarked his son. “Don’t worry.”

  “Yes, it’s bad for the digestion,” added Ned. “If you don’t mind, Tom, I’ll have some more coffee and another sandwich myself.”

  “Nothing the matter with your appetite, either,” commented the young inventor as he passed the coffee pot and the plate.

  They were soon on their way again, the Arrow making good time up the lake. Tom was at the engine, making several minor adjustments to it, while Ned steered. Mr. Swift reclined on one of the cushioned seats under the shade of the canopy. The young owner of the Arrow looked over the stretch of water from time to time for a possible sight of Andy Foger, but the Red Streak was not to be seen. The Lakeview Hotel was reached late that afternoon and the boat was tied up to the dock, while Tom and Ned accompanied Mr. Swift to see him comfortably established in his room.

  “Won’t you stay to supper with me?” invited the inventor to his son and the latter’s chum. “Or do you want to start right in on camp life?”

  “I guess we’ll stay to supper and remain at the hotel tonight,” decided Tom. “We got here a little later than I expected, and Ned and I hardly have time to go very far and establish a temporary camp. We’ll live a life of luxurious ease tonight and begin to be ‘wanderlusters’ and get back to nature tomorrow.”

  In the morning Tom and his chum, full of enthusiasm for the pleasures before them, started off, promising to come back to the hotel in a few days to see how Mr. Swift felt. The trip had already done the man good and his face wore a brighter look.

  Tom and Ned, in the speedy Arrow, cruised along the lakeshores all that morning. At noon they, went ashore, made a temporary camp and arranged to spend the night there in the tent. After this was erected they got out their fishing tackle and passed the afternoon at that sport, having such good luck that they provided their own supper without having to depend on canned stuff.

  They lived this life for three days, making a new camp each night, being favored with good weather, so that they did not have to sleep in the boat to keep dry. On the afternoon of the third day Tom, with a critical glance at the sky, remarked:

  “I shouldn’t be surprised if it rained tomorrow, Ned.”

  “Me either. It does look sort of hazy, and the wind is in a bad quarter.”

  “Then what do you say to heading for the hotel? I fancy dad will be glad to see us.” “That suits me. We can start camp life again after the storm passes.”

  They started for Sandport that afternoon. When within about two miles of the hotel dock Tom saw, just ahead of them, a small motor-boat. Ned observed it too and called out:

  “S’pose that’s Andy looking for another race?”

  “No, the boat’s too small for his. We’ll put over that way and see who it is.”

  The other craft did not appear to be moving very rapidly and the Arrow was soon overhauling it. As the two chums came nearer they could hear the puffing of the motor. Tom listened with critical ears.

  “That machine isn’t working right,” he remarked to his chum.

  At that moment there sounded a loud explosion from the other boat and at the same time there came over the water a shrill cry of alarm. “That’s a girl in that boat!” exclaimed Ned. “Maybe she’s hurt.”

  “No, the motor only backfired,” observed Tom. “But we’ll go over and see if we can help her. Perhaps she doesn’t understand it. Girls don’t know much about machinery.”

  A little later the Arrow shot up alongside the other craft, which had come to a stop. The two lads could see a girl bending over the motor, twirling the flywheel and trying to get it started. “Can I help you?” asked Tom, shutting off the power from his craft.

  The young lady glanced up. Her face was red and she seemed ill at ease. At the sight of the young inventor she uttered an exclamation of relief.

  “Why, Mr. Swift!” she cried. “Oh, I’m in such trouble. I can’t make the machine work, and I’m afraid it’s broken; it exploded.”

  “Miss Nestor!” blurted out Tom, more surprised evidently to see his acquaintance of the runaway again than she was at beholding him. “I didn’t know you ran a motor-boat,” he added. “I don’t,” said she simply and helplessly. “That’s the trouble, it won’t run.”

  “How comes it that you are up here?” went on Tom.

  “I am stopping with friends, who have a cottage near the Lakeview Hotel. They have a motor-boat and I got Dick Blythe—he’s the owner of this—to show me how to run it. I thought I knew, and I started out a little while ago. At first it went beautifully, but a few minutes ago it blew up, or—or something dreadful happened.”

  “Nothing very dreadful, I guess,” Tom assured her. “I think I can fix it.” He got into the other boat and soon saw what the trouble was. The carburetor had gotten out of adjustment and the gasoline was not feeding properly. The young inventor soon had it in order, and, testing the motor, found that
it worked perfectly.

  “Oh, I can’t thank you enough,” cried Miss Nestor with a flash from her brown eyes that made Tom’s heart beat double time. “I was afraid I had damaged the boat, and I knew Dick, who is a sort of second cousin of mine, would never forgive me.”

  “There’s no harm done,” Tom assured her. “But you had better keep near us on your way back, that is, if you are going back.”

  “Oh, indeed I am. I was frightened when I found I’d come so far away from shore, and then, when that explosion took place—well, you can imagine how I felt. Indeed I will keep near you. Are you stopping near here? If you are, I wish you’d come and see me, you and Mr. Newton” she added, for Tom had introduced his chum.

  “I’ll be very glad to,” answered our hero, and he told how he happened to be in the neighborhood. “I’ll give you a few lessons in managing a boat, if you like,” he added.

  “Oh, will you? That will be lovely! I won’t tell Dick about it, and I’ll surprise him some day by showing him how well I can run his boat.”

  “Good idea,” commented Tom.

  He started the motor for Miss Nestor, having stopped it after his first test, and then, with the Dor, which was the name of the small boat Miss Nestor was in, following the larger Arrow, the run back to the hotel was made. The young lady turned off near the Lakeview dock to go to the cottage where she was stopping and the lads tied up at the hotel boathouse.

  “Yes, we are in for a storm,” remarked Tom as he and his chum walked up toward the hotel. “I wonder how dad is? I hope the outing is doing him good.”

  “There he comes now,” observed Ned, and, looking up, Tom saw his father approaching. The young inventor was at once struck by the expression on his parent’s face. Mr. Swift looked worried and Tom anxiously hastened forward to meet him.

  “What’s the matter dad?” he asked as cheerfully as he could. “Have you been figuring over that gyroscope problem again, against my express orders?” and he laughed a little.

  “No, Tom, it’s not the gyroscope that’s worrying me.”

  “What is it then?”

  “Those scoundrels are around again, Tom!” and Mr. Swift looked apprehensively about him.

  “You mean the men who stole the turbine model?”

  “Yes. I was walking in the woods near the hotel yesterday and I saw Anson Morse. He did not see me, for I turned aside as quickly as I had a glimpse of him. He was talking to another man.”

  “What sort of a man?”

  “Well, an ordinary enough individual, but I noticed that he had tattooed on the little finger of his left hand a blue ring.”

  “Happy Harry, the tramp!” exclaimed Tom. “What can he and Morse be doing here?”

  “I don’t know, Tom, but I’m worried. I wish I was back home. I’m afraid something may happen to some of my inventions. I want to go back to Shopton, Tom.”

  “Nonsense, dad. Don’t worry just because you saw some of your former enemies. Everything is all right at home. Mrs. Baggert and Garret Jackson will look after things. But, if you like, I, can find out for you how matters are.”

  “How, Tom?”

  “By taking a run down there in my motor-boat. I can do it tomorrow and get back by night, if I start early. Then you will not worry.”

  “All right, Tom; I wish you would. Come up to my room and we will talk it over. I’d rather leave you go than telephone, as I don’t like to talk of my business over the wire if I can avoid it.”

  CHAPTER X

  A CRY FOR HELP

  “Now, dad, tell me all about it,” requested Tom when he and Ned were in Mr. Swift’s apartment at the hotel, safe from the rain that was falling. “How did you happen to see Anson Morse and Happy Harry?” My old readers will doubtless remember that the latter was the disguised tramp who was so vindictive toward Tom, while Morse was the man who endeavored to sneak in Mr. Swift’s shop and steal a valuable invention.

  “Well, Tom,” proceeded the inventor, “there isn’t much to tell. I was out walking in the woods yesterday, and when I was behind a clump of bushes I heard voices. I looked out and there I saw the two men.”

  “At first I thought they were trailing me, but I saw that they had not seen me, and I didn’t see how they could know I was in the neighborhood. So I quietly made my way back to the hotel.”

  “Could you hear what they were saying?”

  “Not all, but they seemed angry over something. The man with the blue ring on his finger asked the other man whether Murdock had been heard from.”

  “Who is Murdock?”

  “I don’t know, unless he is another member of the gang or unless that is an assumed name.”

  “It may be that. What else did you hear?”

  “The man we know as Morse replied that he hadn’t heard from him, but that he suspected Murdock was playing a double game. Then the tramp—Happy Harry—asked this question: ‘Have you any clue to the sparkler?’ And Morse answered: ‘No, but I think Murdock has hid it somewhere and is trying to get away with it without giving us our share.’ Then the two men walked away, and I came back to the hotel,” finished Mr. Swift.

  “Sparkler,” murmured Tom. “I wonder what that can be?”

  “That’s a slang word for diamonds,” suggested Ned.

  “So it is. In that case, dad, I think we have nothing to worry about. Those fellows must be going to commit a diamond robbery or perhaps it has already taken place.”

  The inventor seemed relieved at this theory of his son. His face brightened and he said: “If they are going to commit a robbery, Tom, we ought to notify the police.”

  “But if they said that ‘Murdock,’ whoever he is, had the sparkler and was trying to get away with it without giving them their share, wouldn’t that indicate that the robbery had already taken place?” asked Ned.

  “That’s so,” agreed Tom. “But it won’t do any harm to tell the hotel detective that suspicious characters are around, no matter if the has been committed. Then he can be on the lookout. But I don’t think we have anything to worry about, dad. Still, if you like, I’ll take a run down to the house to see that everything is all right, though I’m sure it will be found that we have nothing to be alarmed over.”

  “Well, I will be more relieved if you do,” said the inventor, “However, suppose we have a good supper now and you boys can stay at the hotel tonight. Then you and Ned can start off early in the morning.”

  “All right,” agreed Tom, but there was a thoughtful look on his face and he appeared to be planning something that needed careful attention to details.

  After supper that night Tom took his chum to one side and asked: “Would you mind very much if you didn’t make the trip to Shopton with me?”

  “No, Tom, of course not, if it will help you any. Do you want me to stay here?”

  “I think it will be a good plan. I don’t like to leave dad alone if those scoundrels are around. Of course he’s able to look after himself, but sometimes he gets absent minded from thinking too much about his inventions.”

  “Of course I’ll stay here at the hotel. This is just as good a vacation as I could wish.”

  “Oh, I don’t mean all the while. Just a day or so—until I come back. I may be here again by tomorrow night and find that my father is needlessly alarmed. Then something may have happened at home and I would be delayed. If I should be, I’d feel better to know that you were here.”

  “Then I’ll stay, and if I see any of those men—”

  “You’d better steer clear of them,” advised Tom quickly. “They are dangerous customers.”

  “All right. Then I’ll go over and give Miss Nestor lessons on how to run a motor-boat,” was the smiling response. “I fancy, with what she and I know, we can make out pretty well.”

  “Hold on there!” cried Tom gaily. “No trespassing, you know.”

  “Oh, I’ll just say I’m your agent,” promised Ned with a grin. “You can’t object to that.”

  “No, I s’pose not. Well
, do the best you can. She is certainly a nice girl.”

  “Yes, but you do seem to turn up at most opportune times. Luck is certainly with you where she is concerned. First you save her in a runaway—”

  “After I start the runaway,” interrupted Tom.

  “Then you take her for a ride in your motor-boat, and, lastly, you come to her relief when she is stalled in the middle of the lake. Oh you certainly are a lucky dog!”

  “Never mind, I’m giving you a show. Now let’s get to bed early, as I want to get a good start.”

  Tom awoke to find a nasty, drizzling rainstorm in progress, and the lake was almost hidden from view by a swirling fog. Still he was not to be daunted from his trip to Shopton by the weather, and, after a substantial breakfast, he bade his father and Ned good-by and started off in the Arrow.

  The canopy he had provided was an efficient protection against the rain, a celluloid window in the forward hanging curtains affording him a view so that he could steer.

  Through the mist puffed the boat, the motor being throttled down to medium speed, for Tom was not as familiar with the lake as he would like to have been, and he did not want to run aground or into another craft.

  He was thinking over what his father had told him about the presence of the men and vainly wondering what might be their reference to the “sparkler.” His thoughts also dwelt on the curious removal of the bracing block from under the gasoline tank of his boat.

  “I shouldn’t be surprised but what Andy Foger did that,” he mused. “Some day he and I will have a grand fight, and then maybe he’ll let me alone. Well, I’ve got other things to think about now. The hotel detective can keep a lookout for the men around the hotel, after the, warning I gave him, and I’ll see that all is right at home.”

  The fog lifted somewhat and Tom put on more speed. As he was steering the boat along near shore he heard, off to the woods at his right, the report of a gun. It came so suddenly that he jumped involuntarily. A moment later there sounded, plainly through the damp air, a cry for help.