The Tom Swift Megapack

by Victor Appleton

  “But why do you want to get any information about that gang?”

  “Because,” answered Tom, and, as Mr. Damon at that moment started to come from the cabin of the airship, the lad leaped forward and whispered the remainder of the sentence into the ear of the balloonist.

  “You don’t mean it!” exclaimed Mr. Sharp, in a tense whisper. Tom nodded vigorously.

  “But how can you enter the building?” asked the other. “You can’t drop over the edge.”

  “Down the scuttle,” answered Tom. “There must be one on the roof, for they have to come up here at times. We can force the lock, if necessary. I want to enter the building and see where Morse had his office.”

  “All right. Go ahead. I’ll engage Mr. Damon here so he won’t follow you. It will be great news for him. Go ahead.”

  Under pretense of wanting the help of the eccentric man in completing the repairs he had started, Mr. Sharp took Mr. Damon back into the cabin. Tom, getting a big screwdriver from an outside toolbox, approached the scuttle on the roof. He could see it looming up in the semidarkness, a sort of box, covering a stairway that led down into the building. The door was locked, but Tom forced it, and felt justified. A few minutes later, cautiously flashing his light, almost like a burglar he thought, he was prowling around the corridors of the office structure.

  Was it deserted? That was what he wanted to know. He knew the office Morse had formerly occupied was two floors from the top. Tom descended the staircase, trying to think up some excuse to offer, in case he met the watchman or janitor. But he encountered no one. As he reached the floor where he knew Morse and his gang were wont to assemble, he paused and listened. At first he heard nothing, then, as the sound of the storm became less he fancied he heard the murmur of voices.

  “Suppose it should be some of them?” whispered Tom.

  He went forward, pausing at almost every other step to listen. The voices became louder. Tom was now nearly at the office, where Morse had once had his quarters. Now he could see it, and his heart gave a great thump as he noticed that the place was lighted. The lad could read the name on the door. “Industrial Development Company.” That was the name of a fake concern headed by Morse. As our hero looked he saw the shadows of two men thrown on the ground glass.

  “Some one’s in there!” he whispered to himself. He could now hear the voices much plainer. They came from the room, but the lad could not distinguish them as belonging to any of the gang with whom he had come in contact, and who had escaped from jail.

  The low murmur went on for several seconds.

  The listener could make out no words. Suddenly the low, even mumble was broken. Some one cried out “There’s got to be a divvy soon. There’s no use letting Morse hold that whole seventy-five thousand any longer. I’m going to get what’s coming to me, or—”

  “Hush!” some one else cried. “Be quiet!”

  “No, I won’t! I want my share. I’ve waited long enough. If I don’t get what’s coming to me inside of a week, I’ll go to Shagmon myself and make Morse whack up. I helped on the job, and I want my money!”

  “Will you be quiet?” pleaded another, and, at that instant Tom heard some one’s hand on the knob. The door opened a crack, letting out a pencil of light. The men were evidently coming out. The young inventor did not wait to hear more. He had a clue now, and, running on tiptoes, he made his way to the staircase and out of the scuttle on the roof.

  CHAPTER 21

  ON THE TRAIL

  “What’s the matter, Tom?” asked Mr. Sharp, as the lad came hurrying along the roof, having taken the precaution to fasten the scuttle door as well as he could. “You seem excited.””So would you, if you had heard what I did.”

  “What? You don’t mean that some of the gang is down there?”

  “Yes, and what’s more I’m on the trail of the thieves who robbed the Shopton Bank of the seventy-five thousand dollars!”

  “No! You don’t mean it!”

  “I certainly do.”

  “Then we’d better tell Mr. Damon. He’s in the cabin.”

  “Of course I’ll tell him. He’s as much concerned as I am. He wants to be vindicated. Isn’t it great luck, though?”

  “But you haven’t landed the men yet. Do you mean to say that the same gang—the Happy Harry crowd—robbed the bank?”

  “I think so, from what I heard. But come inside and I’ll tell you all about it.”

  “Suppose we start the ship first? It’s ready to run. There wasn’t as much the matter with it as I feared. The storm is over now, and we’ll be safer up in the air than on this roof. Did you get all the information you could?”

  “All I dared to. The men were coming out, so I had to run. They were quarreling, and when that happens among thieves—”

  “Why honest men get their dues, everyone knows that proverb,” interrupted Mr. Damon, again emerging from the cabin. “But bless my quotation marks, I should think you’d have something better to do than stand there talking proverbs.”

  “We have,” replied Mr. Sharp quickly. “We’re going to start the ship, arid then we have some news for you. Tom, you take the steering wheel, and I’ll start the gas machine. We’ll rise to some distance before starting the propellers, and then we won’t create any excitement.”

  “But what news are you going to tell me?” asked Mr. Damon. “Bless my very existence, but you get me all excited, and then you won’t gratify my curiosity.”

  “In a little while we will,” responded Mr. Sharp. Lively now, Tom. Some one may see this airship on top of the building, as it’s getting so much lighter now, after the storm.”

  The outburst of the elements was almost over and Tom taking another look over the edge of the roof, could see persons moving about in the street below. The storm clouds were passing and a faint haze showed where a moon would soon make its appearance, thus disclosing the craft so oddly perched upon the roof. There was need of haste.

  Fortunately the Red Cloud could be sent aloft without the use of the propellers, for the gas would serve to lift her. It had been found that lightning had struck the big, red aluminum container, but the shock had been a comparatively slight one, and, as the tank was insulated from the rest of the ship no danger resulted to the occupants. A rent was made in two or three of the gas compartments, but the others remained intact, and, when an increased pressure of the vapor was used the ship was almost as buoyant as before.

  Into the cabin the three travelers hurried, dripping water at every step, for there was no time to change clothes. Then, with Tom and Mr. Sharp managing the machinery, the craft slowly rose. It was well that they had started for, when a few hundred feet above the roof, the moon suddenly shone from behind a bank of clouds and would most certainly have revealed their position to persons in the street. As it was several were attracted by the sight of some great object in the air. They called the attention of others to it, but, by the time glasses and telescopes had been brought to bear, the Red Cloud was far away.

  “Dry clothes now, some hot drinks, and then Tom will tell us his secret,” remarked Mr. Sharp, and, with the great ship swaying high above the city of Middleville Tom told what he had heard in the office building.

  “They are the thieves who looted the bank, and caused us to be unjustly accused,” he finished. “If we can capture them we’ll get the reward, and turn a neat trick on Andy Foger and his cronies.”

  “But how can you capture them?” asked Mr. Damon. “You don’t know where they are.”

  “Perhaps not where Morse and the men who have the money are. But I have a plan. It’s this: We’ll go to some quiet place, leave the airship, and then inform the authorities of our suspicions. They can come here and arrest the men who still seem to be hanging out in Morse’s office. Then we can get on the trail of this Shagmon, who seems to be the person in authority this time, though I never heard of him before.

  He seems to have the money, according to what one of the men in the office said, and he’s the man
we want.”

  “Shagmon!” exclaimed Mr. Damon. “Yes, Shagmon. The fellow I heard talking said he’d go to Shagmon and make Morse whack up. Shagmon may be the real head of the gang.”

  “Ha! I have it!” cried Mr. Damon suddenly. “I wonder I didn’t think of it before. Shagmon is the headquarters, not the head of the gang!”

  “What do you mean?” asked Tom, much excited.

  “I mean that there’s a town called Shagmon about fifty miles from here. That’s what the fellow in the office meant. He is going to the town of Shagmon and make Morse whack up. That’s where Morse is! That’s where the gang is hiding! That’s where the money is! Hurrah, Tom, we’re on the trail!”

  CHAPTER 22

  THE SHERIFF ON BOARD

  The announcement of Mr. Damon came as a great surprise to Tom and Mr. Sharp. They had supposed that the reference to Shagmon was to a person, and never dreamed that it was to a locality. But Mr. Damon’s knowledge of geography stood them in good stead.

  “Well, what’s the first thing to do?” asked Tom, after a pause.

  “The first thing would be to go to Shagmon, or close to it, I should say,” remarked Mr. Sharp. “In what direction is it, Mr. Damon?”

  “Northwest from where we were. It’s a county seat, and that will suit our plans admirably, for we can call on the sheriff for help.”

  “That is if we locate the gang,” put in Tom. “I fancy it will be no easy job, though. How are we going about it?”

  “Let’s first get to Shagmon,” suggested the balloonist. “We’ll select some quiet spot for a landing, and then talk matters over. We may stumble on the gang, just as you did, Tom, on the men in the office.”

  “No such good luck, I’m afraid.”

  “Well, I think we’ll all be better for a little sleep,” declared the eccentric man. “Bless my eyelids but I’m tired out.”

  As there was no necessity for standing watch, when the airship was so high up as to be almost invisible, they all turned in, and were soon sleeping soundly, though Tom had hard work at first to compose himself, for he was excited at the prospect of capturing the scoundrels, recovering the money for the bank, and clearing his good name, as well as those of his friends.

  In the morning careful calculations were made to enable the travelers to tell when they had reached a point directly over the small city of Shagmon, and, with the skill of the veteran balloonist to aid them, this was accomplished. The airship was headed in the proper direction, and, about ten o’clock, having made out by using telescopes, that there was plenty of uninhabited land about the city, the craft was sent aloft again, out of a large crowd that had caught sight of it. For it was the intention of the travelers not to land until after dark, as they wanted to keep their arrival quiet. There were two reasons for this. One was that the whole country was eager to arrest them, to claim the reward offered by the bank, and they did not want this to happen. The other reason was that they wanted to go quietly into town, tell the sheriff their story, and enlist his aid.

  All that day the Red Cloud consorted with the masses of fleecy vapor, several miles above the earth, a position being maintained, as nearly as could be judged by instruments, over a patch of woodland where Mr. Sharp had decided to land, as there were several large clearings in it. Back and forth above the clouds, out of sight, the airship drifted lazily to and fro; sometimes, when she got too far off her course, being brought back to the right spot by means of the propellers.

  It was tedious waiting, but they felt it was the only thing to do. Mr. Sharp and Tom busied themselves making adjustments to several parts of apparatus that needed it. Nothing could be done toward repairing the hole in the aluminum container until a shop or shed was reached, but the ship really did not need these repairs to enable it to be used. Mr. Damon was fretful, and “blessed” so many things during the course of the day that there seemed to be nothing left. Dinner and supper took up some time, really good meals being served by Tom, who was temporarily acting as cook. Then they anxiously waited for darkness, when they could descend.

  “I hope the moon isn’t too bright,” remarked Mr. Sharp, as he went carefully over the motor once more, for he did not want it to balk again. “If it shines too much it will discover us.”

  “But a little light would be a fine thing, and show us a good place to land,” argued Tom.

  Fortune seemed to favor the adventurers. There was a hazy light from the moon, which was covered by swiftly moving dark clouds, now and then, a most effective screen for the airship, as its great, moving shape, viewed from the earth, resembled nothing so much as one of the clouds.

  They made a good landing in a little forest glade, the craft, under the skillful guidance of Mr. Sharp and Tom, coming down nicely.

  “Now for a trip to town to notify the sheriff,” said Mr. Sharp. “Tom, I think you had better go alone. You can explain matters, and Mr. Damon and I will remain here until you come back. I should say what you had best do, would be to get the sheriff to help you locate the gang of bank robbers. They’re in this vicinity and he ought to be able, with his deputies, to find them.”

  “I’ll ask him,” replied Tom, as he set off.

  It was rather a lonely walk into the city, from the woods where the airship had landed, but Tom did not mind it, and, reaching Shagmon, he inquired his way to the home of the sheriff, for it was long after office hours. He heard, as he walked along the streets, many persons discussing the appearance of the airship that morning, and he was glad they had planned to land after dark, for more than one citizen was regretting that he had not had a chance to get the five thousand dollars reward offered for the arrest of the passengers in the Red Cloud.

  Tom found the sheriff, Mr. Durkin by name, a genial personage. At the mention of the airship the official grew somewhat excited.

  “Are you one of the fellows that looted the bank?” he inquired, when Tom told him how he and his friends had arrived at Shagmon.

  The young inventor denied the impeachment, and told his story. He ended up with a request for the sheriff’s aid, at the same time asking if the officer knew where such a gang as the Happy Harry one might be in hiding.

  “You’ve come just at the right time, young man,” was the answer of Sheriff Durkin, when he was assured of the honesty of Tom’s statements. “I’ve been on the point, for the last week, of raiding a camp of men, who have settled at a disused summer resort about ten miles from here. I think they’re running a gambling game. But I haven’t been able to get any evidence, and every time I sent out a posse some one warns the men, and we can find nothing wrong. I believe these men are the very ones you want. If we could only get to them without their suspecting it, I think I’d have them right.”

  “We can do that, Sheriff.”

  “How?”

  “Go in our airship! You come with us, and we’ll put you right over their camp, where you can drop down on their heads.”

  “Good land, I never rode in an automobile even, let alone an airship!” went on the officer. “I’d be scared out of my wits, and so would my deputies.”

  “Send the deputies on ahead,” suggested Tom.

  The sheriff hesitated. Then he slapped his thigh with his big hand.

  “By golly! I’ll go you!” he declared. “I’ll try capturing criminals in an airship for the first, time in my life! Lead the way, young man!”

  An hour later Sheriff Durkin was aboard the Red Cloud, and plans were being talked of for the capture of the bank robbers, or at least for raiding the camp where the men were supposed to be.

  CHAPTER 23

  ON TO THE CAMP

  “Well, you sure have got a fine craft here,” remarked Sheriff Durkin, as he looked over the airship after Tom and his friends had told of their voyage. “It will be quite up-to-date to raid a gang of bank robbers in a flying machine, but I guess it will be the only way we can catch those fellows. Now I’ll go back to town, and the first thing in the morning I’ll round up my posse and start it off. The me
n can surround the camp, and lay quiet until we arrive in this ship. Then, when we descend on the heads of the scoundrels, right out of the sky, so to speak, my men can close in, and bag them all.”

  “That’s a good plan,” commented Mr. Sharp, “but are you sure these are the men we want? It’s pretty vague, I think, but of course the clue Tom got is pretty slim; merely the name Shagmon.”

  “Well, this is Shagmon,” went on the sheriff, “and, as I told your young friend, I’ve been trying for some time to bag the men at the summer camp. They number quite a few, and if they don’t do anything worse, they run a gambling game there. I’m pretty sure, if the bank robbers are in this vicinity, they’re in that camp. Of course all the men there may not have been engaged in looting the vault, and they may not all know of it, but it won’t do any harm to round up the whole bunch.”

  After a tour of the craft, and waiting to take a little refreshment with his new friends, the sheriff left, promising to come as early on the morrow as possible.

  “Let’s go to bed,” suggested Mr. Sharp, after a bit. “We’ve got hard work ahead of us tomorrow.”

  They were up early, and, in the seclusion of the little glade in the woods, Tom and Mr. Sharp went over every part of the airship.

  The sheriff arrived about nine o’clock, and announced that he had started off through the woods, to surround the camp, twenty-five men.

  “They’ll be there at noon,” Mr. Durkin said, “and will close in when I give the signal, which will be two shots fired. I heard just before I came here that there are some new arrivals at the camp.”

  “Maybe those are the men I overheard talking in the office building,” suggested Tom. “They probably came to get their share. Well, we must swoop down on them before they have time to distribute the money.”

  “That’s what!” agreed the county official. Mr. Durkin was even more impressed by the airship in the daytime than he had been at night. He examined every part, and when the time came to start, he was almost as unconcerned as any of the three travelers who had covered many hundreds of miles in the air.