The Tom Swift Megapack

by Victor Appleton

  “Yes, it—it was so—so sudden!” gasped her companion. “What happened?”

  “The wash from that big boat upset you,” explained Tom. “That fellow ought to be ashamed of himself, rushing along the way he did. Now, can I take you girls anywhere? Your canoe seems to have drifted off.”

  “I have it!” someone called. “It’s turned over, but I can tow it to shore.”

  “And I’ll take the girls home,” offered a gentleman in a large rowboat. “My wife will look after them. They live near us,” and he mentioned his own name and the names of the two girls Tom had saved. The young inventor did not know them, but he introduced himself and Ned.

  “This is the annual moonlight outing of our little boat club,” explained the man who had offered to look after the girls, “and it is the first time we ever had an accident. This was not our fault, though.”

  “Indeed it was not,” agreed Tom, after he had helped the two dripping young ladies into the rowboat. “It was due to Mr. Peters’s speed mania.”

  “I shall make a complaint against him to the navigation authorities,” said Mr. Ralston, who was looking after the girls. “He must think he, alone, has any rights on this lake.”

  With renewed thanks to Tom and Ned, the rescued girls were rowed off to their homes, while the interrupted water carnival was continued.

  “Some little excitement; eh, Tom?” remarked Ned, when they were once more under way.

  “Yes. We seem to run into that fellow Peters, or some of his doings, quite often lately.”

  “And it isn’t a good sign, either,” murmured Ned.

  For some minutes after that Tom did not speak. In fact he was so silent that Ned at last inquired:

  “What’s the matter, Tom—in love?”

  “Far from it. But, Ned, I’ve got an idea.”

  “And I’ve got a wet suit of clothes where that nice young lady fainted in my arms. I’m soaked.”

  “That’s what gave me the idea—the water, I mean. I noticed how everything was reflected in it, and, do you know, Ned, I believe I have been working on the wrong principle for my photo telephone.”

  “Wrong, Tom, how is that?”

  “Why, I’ve been using a dry plate, and I think I should have used a wet one. You know how even in a little puddle of water on the sidewalk you can see yourself reflected?”

  “Yes, I’ve often seen that.”

  “Well then, ‘bless my watch chain!’ as Mr. Damon would say, I think I’ve got just what I want. I’m going to try a wet plate now, and I think it will work. Come on now. Speed up! I’m in a great big hurry to get home and try it!”

  “Well, Tom, I sure will be glad if you’ve got the right idea,” laughed Ned. “It will be worth getting wet through for, if you strike something. Good luck!”

  Tom could hardly wait to fasten up his boat for the night, so eager was he to get to his shop laboratory and try the new idea. A gleam of hope had come to him.

  It was still early evening, and Tom, when enticed out by Ned, had left his photo telephone apparatus in readiness to go on with his trials as soon as he should have come back.

  “Now for it, Ned!” exclaimed the young inventor, as he took off his coat. “First I’ll sensitize a selenium plate, and then I’ll wet it. Water is always a good conductor of electricity, and it’s a wonder that I forgot that when I was planning this photo telephone. But seeing the sparkle of lights, and the reflection of ourselves in the lake tonight, brought it back to me. Now then, you haven’t anything special to do; have you?”

  “Not a thing, Tom.”

  “That’s good. Then you get in this other telephone closet—the one in the casting shop. I’ll put a prepared plate in there, and one in the booth where I’m to sit. Then I’ll switch on the current, and we’ll see if I can make you out, and you notice whether my image appears on your plate.”

  It took some little time to make ready for this new test. Tom was filled with enthusiasm, and he was sure it was going to be successful this time. Ned watched him prepare the selenium plates—plates that were so sensitive to illumination that, in the dark, the metal would hardly transmit a current of electricity, but in the light would do so readily, its conductivity depending on the amount of light it received.

  “There, I guess we’re all ready, Ned,” announced Tom, at last. “Now you go to your little coop, and I’ll shut myself up in mine. We can talk over the telephone.”

  Seated in the little booth in one of the smaller of Tom’s shops, Ned proceeded with his part in the new experiment. A small shelf had been fitted up in the booth, or closet, and on this was the apparatus, consisting of a portable telephone set, and a small box, in which was set a selenium plate. This plate had been wet by a spray of water in order to test Tom’s new theory.

  In a similar booth, several hundred feet away, and in another building, Tom took his place. The two booths were connected by wires, and in each one was an electric light.

  “All ready, Ned?” asked Tom, through the telephone.

  “All ready,” came the answer.

  “Now then, turn on your switch—the one I showed you—and look right at the sensitized plate. Then turn out your light, and slowly turn it on. It’s a new kind, and the light comes up gradually, like gas or an oil lamp. Turn it on easily.”

  “I get you, Tom.”

  Ned did as requested. Slowly the illumination in the booth increased.

  “Do you get anything, Tom?” asked Ned, over the wire.

  “Not yet,” was the somewhat discouraged answer. “Go ahead, turn on more light, and keep your face close to the plate.”

  Ned did so.

  “How about it now?” he asked, a moment later.

  “Nothing—yet,” was the answer. And then suddenly Tom’s voice rose to a scream over the wire.

  “Ned—Ned! Quick!” he called. “Come here—I—I—”

  The voice died off into a meaningless gurgle.

  CHAPTER X

  MIDNIGHT VISITORS

  Ned Newton never knew exactly how he got out of the telephone booth. He seemed to give but one jump, tearing the clamped receiver from his ear, and almost upsetting the photo apparatus in his mad rush to help Tom. Certain it is, however, that he did get out, and a few seconds later he was speeding toward the shop where Tom had taken his position in a booth.

  Ned burst in, crying out:

  “Tom! What is it? What happened? What’s the matter?”

  There was no answer. Fearing the worst, Ned hurried to the small booth, in one corner of the big, dimly lighted shop. He could see Tom’s lamp burning in the telephone compartment.

  “Tom! Tom!” called the young banker.

  Still there was no answer, and Ned, springing forward, threw open the double, sound-proof door of the booth. Then he saw Tom lying unconscious, with his head and arms on the table in front of him, while the low buzzing of the electrical apparatus in the transmitting box told that the current had not been shut off.

  “Tom! Tom!” cried Ned in his chum’s ear. He shook him by the shoulder.

  “Are you hurt? What is the matter?”

  The young inventor seemed unconscious, and for a moment Ned had a wild idea that Tom had been shocked to death, possibly by some crossed live wire coming in contact with the telephone circuit.

  “But that couldn’t have happened, or I’d have been shocked myself,” mused Ned.

  Then he became aware of a curious, sweet, sickish odor in the booth. It was overpowering. Ned felt himself growing dizzy.

  “I have it—chloroform!” he gasped. “In some way Tom has been overcome by chloroform. I’ve got to get him to the fresh air.”

  Once he had solved the puzzle of Tom’s unconsciousness, Ned was quick to act. He caught Tom under the arms, and dragged him out of the booth, and to the outer door of the shop. Almost before Ned had reached there with his limp burden, Tom began to revive, and soon the fresh, cool night air completed the work.

  “I—I,” began the young inventor
. “Ned, I—I—”

  “Now take it easy, Tom,” advised his chum. “You’ll be all right in a few minutes. What happened? Shall I call your father, or Koku?”

  “No—don’t. It would only—only alarm dad,” faltered Tom. “I’m getting all right now. But he—he nearly had me, Ned!”

  “He had you? What do you mean, Tom? Who had you?”

  “I don’t know who it was, but when I was talking to you over the wire, all of a sudden I felt a hand behind me. It slipped over my mouth and nose, and I smelled chloroform. I knew right away something was wrong, and I called to you. That’s all I remember. I guess I must have gone off.”

  “You did,” spoke Ned. “You were unconscious when I got to you. I couldn’t imagine what had happened. First I thought it was an electrical shock. Then I smelled that chloroform. But who could it have been, Tom?”

  “Give it up, Ned! I haven’t the slightest idea.”

  “Could they have been going to rob you?”

  “I haven’t a thing but a nickel watch on me,” went on Tom. “I left all my cash in the house. If it was robbery, it wasn’t me, personally, they were after.”

  “What then? Some of your inventions?”

  “That’s my idea now, Ned. You remember some years ago Jake Burke and his gang held me up and took one of dad’s patents away from me?”

  “Yes, I’ve heard you mention that. It was when you first got your motor cycle; wasn’t it?”

  “That’s right. Well, what I was going to say was that they used chloroform on me then, and—”

  “You think this is the same crowd? Why, I thought they were captured.”

  “No, they got away, but I haven’t heard anything of them in years. Now it may be they have come back for revenge, for you know we got back the stolen property.”

  “That’s right. Say, Tom, it might be so. What are you going to do about it?”

  “I hardly know. If it was Jake Burke, alias Happy Harry, and his crowd, including Appleson, Morse and Featherton, they’re a bad lot. I wouldn’t want father to know they were around, for he’d be sure to worry himself sick. He never really got over the time they attacked me, and got the patent away. Dad sure thought he was ruined then.”

  “Now if I tell him I was chloroformed again tonight, and that I think it was Burke and his crowd, he’d be sure to get ill over it. So I’m just going to keep mum.”

  “Well, perhaps it’s the best plan. But you ought to do something.”

  “Oh, I will, Ned, don’t worry about that. I feel much better now.”

  “How did it happen?” asked Ned, his curiosity not yet satisfied.

  “I don’t know, exactly. I was in the booth, talking to you, and not paying much attention to anything else. I was adjusting and readjusting the current, trying to get that image to appear on the plate. All at once, I felt someone back of me, and, before I could turn, that hand, with the chloroform sponge, was over my mouth and nose. I struggled, and called out, but it wasn’t much use.”

  “But they didn’t do anything else—they didn’t take anything; did they, Tom?”

  “I don’t know, Ned. We’ll have to look around. They must have sneaked into the shop. I left the door open, you see. It would have been easy enough.”

  “How many were there?”

  “I couldn’t tell. I only felt one fellow at me; but he may have had others with him.”

  “What particular invention were they after, Tom?”

  “I’m sure I don’t know. There are several models in here that would be valuable. I know one thing, though, they couldn’t have been after my photo telephone,” and Tom laughed grimly.

  “Why not?” Ned wanted to know.

  “Because it’s a failure—that’s what! It’s a dead, sure failure, Ned, and I’m going to give it up!” and Tom spoke bitterly.

  “Oh, don’t say that!” urged his chum. “You may be right on the verge of perfecting it, Tom. Didn’t you see any image at all on the plate?”

  “Not a shadow. I must be on the wrong track. Well, never mind about that now. I’m going to look around, and see if those fellows took anything.”

  Tom was feeling more like himself again, the effects of the chloroform having passed away. He had breathed the fumes of it for only a little while, so no harm had been done. He and Ned made an examination of the shop, but found nothing missing.

  There were no traces of the intruders, however, though the two chums looked carefully about outside the building.

  “You were too quick for them, Ned,” said Tom. “You came as soon as I called. They heard me speaking, and must have known that I had given the alarm.”

  “Yes, I didn’t lose any time,” admitted Ned, “but I didn’t see a sign of anyone as I ran up.”

  “They must have been pretty quick at getting away. Well, now to decide what’s best to do tonight.”

  After some consultation and consideration it was decided to set the burglar alarms in every building of the Swift plant. Some time previous, when he had been working on a number of valuable inventions, unscrupulous men had tried to steal his ideas and models. To prevent this Tom had arranged a system of burglar alarms, and had also fitted up a wizard camera that would take moving pictures of anyone coming within its focus. The camera could be set to work at night, in connection with the burglar alarms.

  The apparatus was effective, and thus an end was put to the efforts of the criminals. But now it seemed Tom would have to take new precautionary measures. His camera, however, was not available, as he had loaned it to a scientific society for exhibition.

  “But we’ll attach the burglar wires,” decided Tom, “and see what happens.”

  “It might be a good plan to have Koku on guard,” said Tom’s chum. “That giant could handle four or five of the chaps as easily as you and I could tackle one.”

  “That’s right,” agreed Tom. “I’ll put him on guard. Whew! That chloroform is giving me a headache. Guess I’ll go to bed. I wish you’d stay over tonight, Ned, if you haven’t anything else to do. I may need you.”

  “Then of course I’ll stay, Tom. I’ll telephone home that I won’t be in.”

  A little later Tom had put away his new photo telephone apparatus, and had prepared for the warm reception of any unbidden callers.

  “I wish I hadn’t started on this new invention,” said Tom, half bitterly, as he locked up the main parts of his machine, “I know it will never work.”

  “Oh, yes it will,” spoke Ned, cheerfully. “You never failed yet, Tom Swift, in anything you undertook, and you’re not going to now.”

  “Well, that’s good of you to say, Ned, but I think you’re wrong this time. But I’m not going to think any more about it tonight, anyhow. Now to find Koku and put him on watch.”

  The giant listened carefully to Tom’s simple instructions.

  “If any bad men come in the night, Koku,” said the young inventor, “you catch them!”

  “Yes, master, me catch!” said Koku, grimly. “Me catch!” and he stretched out his powerful arms, and clenched his big hands in a way that boded no good to evildoers.

  Nothing was said to Mr. Swift, to Mrs. Baggert, or to Eradicate about what had happened, for Tom did not want to worry them. The burglar alarms were set, Koku took his place where he could watch the signals, and at the same time be ready to rush out, for, somehow, Tom had an idea that the men who had attacked him would come back.

  Tom and Ned occupied adjoining rooms, and soon were ready for bed. But, somehow, Tom could not sleep. He lay awake, tossing from side to side, and, in spite of his resolution not to think about his photo telephone invention, his mind ran on nothing but that.

  “I can’t see what next to do to make it work,” he told himself, over and over again. “Something is wrong—but what?”

  At length he fell into a fitful doze, and he had a wild dream that he was sliding down hill on a big mirror in which all sorts of reflections were seen—reflections that he could not get to show in the seleniu
m plates.

  Then Tom felt the mirror bobbing up and down like a motor boat in a storm. He felt the vibration, and he heard a voice calling in his ear:

  “Get up, Tom! Get up!”

  “Yes! What is it?” he sleepily exclaimed,

  “Hush!” was the caution he heard, and then he realized that his dream had been caused by Ned shaking him.

  “Well?” whispered Tom, in tense tones.

  “Midnight visitors!” answered his chum “The burglar alarm has just gone off! The airship hangar drop fell. Koku has gone out. Come on!”

  CHAPTER XI

  THE AIRSHIP IS TAKEN

  Tom leaped silently out of bed, and stood for a moment half dazed, so soundly had he been sleeping.

  “Come on!” urged Ned softly, realizing that his chum had not fully comprehended. “Koku will hold them until we get there. I haven’t roused anyone else.”

  “That’s right,” whispered Tom, as he began putting on his clothes. “I don’t want father to know. When did it happen?”

  “Just a little while ago. I couldn’t sleep very well, but I fell into a doze, and then I heard the buzzer of the alarm go off. I saw that the drop, showing that the hangar had been entered, had fallen. I got to the window in time to see Koku going toward the shed from his little coop. Then I came to you.”

  “Glad you did,” answered Tom. “I didn’t think I was sleeping so soundly.”

  Together the two chums made their way from their rooms down the dimly-lighted hall to a side door, whence they could reach the airship hangar, or shed.

  “Won’t we need something—a gun or—” began Ned.

  “Clubs are better—especially at night when you can’t see to aim very well,” whispered back Tom. “I’ve got a couple of good ones downstairs. I could use my electric rifle, and set it merely to disable temporarily whoever the charge hit, but it’s a little too risky. Koku has a habit of getting in the way at the most unexpected times. He’s so big, you know. I think clubs will be best.”

  “All right, Tom, just as you say,” agreed Ned. “But who do you think it can be?”

  “I haven’t the least idea. Probably the same fellows who were after me before, though. This time I’ll find out what their game is, and what they’re after.”