“What! Go down to earth with this awful volcano spouting fire?” cried Mr. Damon. “Bless my comb and brush!”
“We can get well down the side of the mountain,” said Tom. “I won’t go into any danger, much less ask any one else to do so, and I certainly don’t want my ship damaged. We can land down there,” he said, pointing to a spot on the side of the volcanic mountain, that was some distance removed from the mouth of the crater. “It won’t take me long to get one reel of views, and then I’ll come up again.”
The two men finally gave in to Tom’s argument, that there was comparatively little danger, for they admitted that they could quickly rise up at the first sign of danger, and accordingly the Flyer descended. Tom quickly had a fresh reel of film inserted, and started his camera to working, standing it on a tripod some distance from the airship.
Once more the volcano was “doing its prettiest,” as Tom expressed it. He glanced around, as another big explosion took place, to see if any other picture men were on hand, but the terrible mountain seemed deserted, though of course someone might be on the other side.
“What’s that?” suddenly cried Ned, looking apprehensively at his chum. At the same time Tom jumped to his feet, for he had been kneeling near the camera.
“Bless my—” began Mr. Damon, but he got no farther, for suddenly the solid ground began to tremble and shake.
“An earthquake!” shouted Mr. Nestor. “Come, Tom! Get back to the ship!” The young inventor and Ned had been the only ones to leave it, as it rested on a spur of the mountain.
As Tom and Ned leaped forward to save the camera which was toppling to one side, there came a great fissure in the side of the volcano, and a stream of molten rock, glowing white with heat, gushed out. It was a veritable river of melted stone, and it was coming straight for the two lads.
“Run! Run!” cried Mr. Nestor. “We have everything ready for a quick flight. Run, Tom! Ned!”
The lads leaped for the Flyer, the molten rock coming nearer and nearer, and then with a cry Koku sprang overboard and made a dash toward his master.
CHAPTER XXV
THE EARTHQUAKE—CONCLUSION
“Here, Mr. Tom. Me carry you an’ Ned. You hold picture machine!” cried the giant. “Me run faster.”
As he spoke he lifted Ned up under one arm, and caught Tom in the other. For they were but as children to his immense strength. Tom held on to his camera, and, thus laden down, Koku ran as he had never run before, toward the waiting airship.
“Come on! Come on!” shouted Mr. Damon, for he could see what Tom, Ned and Koku could not, that the stream of lava was nearing them rapidly.
“It’s hot!” cried Ned, as a wave of warm air fanned his cheek.
“I should say so!” cried Tom. “The volcano is full of red-hot melted stone.”
There came a sickening shake of the earth. Koku staggered as he ran on, but he kept his feet, and did not fall. Again came a tremendous explosion, and a shower of fine ashes sifted over the airship, and on Koku and his living burdens.
“This is the worst ever!” gasped Tom. “But I’ve got some dandy pictures, if we ever get away from here alive to develop them.”
“Hurry, Koku! Hurry!” begged Mr. Nestor. “Bless my shoe laces!” yelled Mr. Damon, who was fairly jumping up and down on the deck of the Flyer. “I’ll never go near a volcano again!”
Once more the ground shook and trembled, as the earthquake rent it. Several cracks appeared in Koku’s path, but he leaped over them with tremendous energy. A moment later he had thrust Tom and Ned over the rail, to the deck, and leaped aboard himself.
“Let her go!” cried Tom. “I’ll do the rest of my moving picture work, around volcanoes and earthquakes, from up in the air!”
The Flyer shot upward, and scarcely a moment too soon, for, an instant after she left the ground, the stream of hot, burning and bubbling lava rolled beneath her, and those on board could feel the heat of it ascending.
“Say, I’m glad we got out of that when we did,” gasped Ned, as he looked down. “You’re all right, Koku.”
“That no trouble,” replied the giant with a cheerful grin. “Me carry four fellows like you,” and he stretched out his big arms. Tom had at once set his camera to working again, taking view after view.
It was a terrifying but magnificent sight that our friends beheld, for the earth was trembling and heaving. Great fissures opened in many places. Into some of them streams of lava poured, for now the volcano had opened in several places, and from each crack the melted rocks belched out. The crater, however, was not sending into the air such volumes of smoke and ashes as before, as most of the tremendous energy had passed, or was being used to spout out the lava.
The earthquake was confined to the region right about the volcano, or there might have been a great loss of life in the city. As it was, the damage done was comparatively slight.
Tom continued to take views, some showing the earth as it was twisted and torn, and other different aspects of the crater. Then, as suddenly as the earthquake had begun, it subsided, and the volcano was less active.
“My! I’m glad to see that!” exclaimed Mr. Damon. “I’ve had about enough of horrors!”
“And I have too,” added Tom. “I’m on my last roll of film, and I can’t take many more pictures. But I guess I have all Mr. Period needs, and we’ll start for home, as soon as I finish the next roll. But I’m going to save that for a night view. That will be a novelty.”
The volcano became active again after dark, and presented a magnificent though terrifying aspect. As the airship hovered above it, Tom got some of his best pictures, and then, as the last bit of film slipped along back of the lens, the airship was headed north.
“Now for Shopton!” cried Tom. “Our trip is ended.”
“It’s too had you didn’t have more film,” said Ned. “I thought you had plenty.”
“Well, I used more than I counted on, but there are enough pictures as it is.”
“Plenty,” agreed Mr. Nestor. “I’m sure our company will be very well satisfied with them, Tom. We can’t get home any too soon to suit me. I’ve had enough excitement.”
“And we didn’t see anything of those other fellows whom we heard about,” spoke Mr. Damon, as the big airship flew on.
“No,” said Tom. “But I’m not worrying about them.”
They made another stop in Lima, on their homeward trip, to renew their supply of gasolene, and there learned that the rival picture men had arrived at the volcano too late to see it in operation. This news came to a relative of one of the two men who lived in Lima.
“Then our views of the earthquake and the smoking mountain will be the only ones, and your company can control the rights,” said Tom to Mr. Nestor, who agreed with him.
In due time, and without anything out of the ordinary happening the Flyer reached Shopton, where Tom found a warm welcome awaiting him, not only from his father, but from a certain young lady, whose name I do not need to mention.
“And so you got everything you went after, didn’t you, Tom,” exclaimed Mr. Period, a few days later, when he had come from New York to get the remainder of the films.
“Yes, and some things I didn’t expect,” replied Tom. “There was—”
“Yes! Yes! I know!” interrupted the odd picture man. “It was that jungle fire. That’s a magnificent series. None better. And those scoundrels took your camera; eh?”
“Yes. Could you connect them with Turbot and Eckert?” asked Tom.
“No, but I’m sure they were acting for them just the same. I had no legal evidence to act on, however, so I had to let it go. Turbot and Eckert won’t be in it when I start selling duplicates of the films you have. And these last ought to be the best of all. I didn’t catch that fellow when I raced after him on the dock. He got away, and has steered clear of me since,” finished Mr. Period.
“And our rivals didn’t secure any views like ours,” said Tom.
“I’m glad of it,” s
poke Mr. Period. “Turbot and Eckert bribed one of my men, and so found out where I was sending messages to you. They even got a copy of my cablegram. But it did them no good.”
“Were all the films clear that I sent you?” asked our hero.
“Every one. Couldn’t be better. The animal views were particularly fine. You must have had your nerve with you to get some of ’em.”
“Oh, Tom always has his nerve,” laughed Ned.
“Well, how soon will you be ready to start out again?” asked the picture man, as he packed up the last of the films which Tom gave him. “I’d like to get some views of a Japanese earthquake, and we haven’t any polar views. I want some of them, taken as near the North Pole as you can get.”
Tom gently shook his head.
“What! You don’t mean to say you won’t get them for me?” cried Mr. Period. “With that wonderful camera of yours you can get views no one else ever could.”
“Then some one else will have to take them,” remarked the young inventor. “I’ll lend you the camera, and an airship, and you can go yourself, Mr. Period. I’m going to stay home for a while. I did what I set out to do, and that’s enough.”
“I’m glad you’ll stay home, Tom,” said his father. “Now perhaps I’ll get my gyroscope finished.”
“And I, my noiseless airship,” went on our hero. “No, Mr. Period, you’ll have to excuse me this time. Why don’t you go yourself?” he asked. “You would know just what kind of pictures you wanted.”
“No, I’m a promoter of the moving picture business, and I sell films, but I don’t know how to take them,” was the answer. “Besides I—er—well, I don’t exactly care for airships, Tom Swift,” he finished with a laugh. “Well, I can’t thank you enough for what you did for me, and I’ve brought you a check to cover your expenses, and pay you as I agreed. All the same I’m sorry you won’t start for Japan, or the North Pole.”
“Nothing doing,” said Tom with a laugh; and Mr. Period departed.
“Have you any idea what you will do next?” asked Ned, a day or so later, when he and Tom were in the workshop.
“I can’t tell until I finish my noiseless airship,” was the answer. “Then something may happen.”
Something did, as I shall have the pleasure of telling you about in the next volume of this series, to be called, “Tom Swift and His Great Searchlight; or, On the Border for Uncle Sam,” and in it will be given an account of a great lantern our hero made, and how he baffled the smugglers with it.
“Oh, Tom, weren’t you dreadfully frightened when you saw that burning river of lava coming toward you?” asked Mary Nestor, when the young inventor called on her later and told her some of his adventures. “I should have been scared to death.”
“Well, I didn’t have time to get scared,” answered Tom. “It all happened so quickly, and then, too I was thinking of my camera. Next I knew Koku grabbed me, and it was all over.”
“But those wild beasts! Didn’t they frighten you, especially when the rhinoceros charged you?”
“If you won’t let it get out, I’ll make a confession to you,” said Tom, lowering his voice. “I was scared stiff that time, but don’t let Ned know it.”
“I won’t,” promised Mary with a laugh. And now, when Tom is in such pleasant company, we will take leave of him for a while, knowing that, sooner or later, he will be seeking new adventures as exciting as those of the past.
TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT SEARCHLIGHT
Or, ON THE BORDER FOR UNCLE SAM
CHAPTER I
A SCRAP OF PAPER
“Tom, did you know Andy Foger was back in town?”
“Great Scott, no, I didn’t Ned! Not to stay, I hope.”
“I guess not. The old Foger homestead is closed up, though I did see a man working around it today as I came past. But he was a carpenter, making some repairs I think. No, I don’t believe Andy is here to stay.”
“But if some one is fixing up the house, it looks as if the family would come back,” remarked Tom, as he thought of the lad who had so long been his enemy, and who had done him many mean turns before leaving Shopton, where our hero lived.
“I don’t think so,” was the opinion of Ned Newton, who was Tom Swift’s particular chum. “You know when Mr. Foger lost all his money, the house was supposed to be sold. But I heard later that there was some flaw in the title, and the sale fell through. It is because he couldn’t sell the place that Mr. Foger couldn’t get money to pay some of his debts. He has some claim on the house, I believe, but I don’t believe he’d come back to live in it.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s too expensive a place for a poor man to keep up, and Mr. Foger is now poor.”
“Yes, he didn’t get any of the gold, as we did when we went to the underground city,” remarked Tom. “Well, I don’t wish anybody bad luck but I certainly hope the Fogers keep poor enough to stay away from Shopton. They bothered me enough. But where did you see Andy?”
“Oh, he was with his crony, Sam Snedecker. You know Sam said, some time ago, that Andy was to pay him a visit, but Andy didn’t come then, for some reason or other. I suppose this call makes up for it. I met them down near Parker’s drug store.”
“You didn’t hear Andy say anything about coming back here?” and the young inventor’s voice was a trifle anxious.
“No,” replied Ned. “What makes you so nervous about it?”
“Well, Ned, you know what Andy is—always trying to make trouble for me, even sneaking in my shop sometimes, trying to get the secret of some of my airships and machinery. And I admit I think it looks suspicious when they have a carpenter working on the old homestead. Andy may come back, and—”
“Nonsence, Tom! If he does you and I can handle him. But I think perhaps the house may be rented, and they may be fixing it up for a tenant. It’s been vacant a long time you know, and I heard the other day that it was haunted.”
“Haunted, Ned! Get out! Say, you don’t believe in that sort of bosh, do you?”
“Of course not. It was Eradicate who told me, and he said when he came past the place quite late the other night he heard groans, and the clanking of chains coming from it, and he saw flashing lights.”
“Oh, wow! Eradicate is getting batty in his old age, poor fellow! He and his mule Boomerang are growing old together, and I guess my colored helper is ‘seeing things,’ as well as hearing them. But, as you say, it may be that the house is going to be rented. It’s too valuable a property to let stand idle. Did you hear how long Andy was going to stay?”
“A week, I believe.”
“A week! Say, one day would be enough I should think.”
“You must have some special reason for being afraid Andy will do you some harm,” exclaimed Ned. “Out with it, Tom.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what it is, Ned,” and Tom led his chum inside the shop, in front of which the two lads had been talking. It was a shop where the young inventor constructed many of his marvelous machines, aircraft, and instruments of various sorts.
“Do you think some one may hear you?” asked Ned.
“They might. I’m not taking any chances. But the reason I want to be especially careful that Andy Foger doesn’t spy on any of my inventions is that at last I have perfected my noiseless airship motor!”
“You have!” cried Ned, for he knew that his chum had been working for a long time on this motor, that would give out no sound, no matter at how high a speed it was run. “That’s great, Tom! I congratulate you. I don’t wonder you don’t want Andy to get even a peep at it.”
“Especially as I haven’t it fully patented,” went on the young inventor. He had met with many failures in his efforts to perfect this motor, which he intended to install on one of his airships. “If any one saw the finished parts now it wouldn’t take them long to find out the secret of doing away with the noise.”
“How do you do it?” asked Ned, for he realized that his chum had no secrets from him.
“
Well, it’s too complicated to describe,” said Tom, “but the secret lies in a new way of feeding gasolene into the motor, a new sparking device, and an improved muffler. I think I could start my new airship in front of the most skittish horse, and he wouldn’t stir, for the racket wouldn’t wake a baby. It’s going to be great.”
“What are you going to do with it, when you get it all completed?”
“I haven’t made up my mind yet. It’s going to be some time before I get it all put together, and installed, and in that time something may turn up. Well, let’s talk about something more pleasant than Andy Foger. I guess I won’t worry about him.”
“No, I wouldn’t. I’d like to see the motor run.”
“You can, in a day or so, but just now I need a certain part to attach to the sparker, and I had to send to town for it. Koku has gone after it.”
“What, that big giant servant? He might break it on the way back, he’s so strong. He doesn’t realize how much muscle he has.”
“No, that’s so. Well, while we’re waiting for him, come on in the house, and I’ll show you some new books I got.”
The two lads were soon in the Swift homestead, a pleasant and large old-fashioned residence, in the suburbs of Shopton. Tom brought out the books, and he and his chum poured over them.
“Mr. Damon gave me that one on electricity,” explained the young inventor, handing Ned a bulky volume.
“‘Bless my bookmark!’ as Mr. Damon himself would say if he were here,” exclaimed Ned with a laugh. “That’s a dandy. But Mr. Damon didn’t give you this one,” and Ned picked up a dainty volume of verse. “‘To Tom Swift, with the best wishes of Mary—’” but that was as far as he read, for Tom grabbed the book away, and closed the cover over the flyleaf, which bore some writing in a girl’s hand. I think my old readers can guess whose hand it was.
“Wow! Tom Swift reading poetry!” laughed Ned.
“Oh, cut it out,” begged his chum. “I didn’t know that was among the books. I got it last Christmas. Now here’s a dandy one on lion hunting, Ned,” and to cover his confusion Tom shoved over a book containing many pictures of wild animals.
The Tom Swift Megapack Page 178
