Chapter XVIII
Ready for France
Such was the reaction following the crashing through of the barn,coupled with the sudden appearance of the men in the automobile and thethreat of the farmer, that, for the moment, Tom, Ned, or theircompanions from the tank could say nothing. They just stood staring atthe farmer with the gun, while he grimly regarded them. It was Tom whospoke first.
"What's the idea?" asked the young inventor. "Why don't you want us tolook through the ruins?"
"You'll learn soon enough!" was the grim answer.
But Tom was not to be put off with undecided talk.
"If there's been an accident," he said, "we're sorry for it. But delaymay be dangerous. If some one is hurt--"
"You'll be hurt, if I have my way about it!" snapped the farmer, "andhurt in a place where it always tells. I mean your pocketbook! That'sthe kind of a man I am--practical."
"He means if we've killed or injured any one we'll have to paydamages," whispered Ned to Tom. "But don't agree to anything until yousee your lawyer. That's a hot one, though, trying to claim damagesbefore he knows who's hurt!"
"I've got to find out more about this," Tom answered. He started towalk on.
"No you don't!" cried the farmer, with a snarl. "As I said, you folkshas done damage enough with your threshing machine, or whatever youcall it. Now you've got to pay!"
"We are willing to," said Tom, as courteously as he could. "But firstwe want to know who has been hurt, or possibly killed. Don't you thinkit best to get them to a doctor, and then talk about money damageslater?"
"Doctor? Hurt?" cried the farmer, the other men in the auto sayingnothing. "Who said anything about that?"
"I thought," began Tom, "that you--"
"I'm talkin' about damages to my barn!" cried the farmer. "You had noright to go smashing it up this way, and you've got to pay for it, ormy name ain't Amos Kanker!"
"Oh!" and there was great relief in Tom's voice. "Then we haven'tkilled any one?"
"I don't know what you've done," answered the farmer, and his voice wasnot a pleasant one. "I'm sure I can't keep track of all your ructions.All I know is that you've ruined my barn, and you've got to pay for it,and pay good, too!"
"For that old ramshackle?" cried Ned.
"Hush!" begged Tom, in a low voice. "I'm willing to pay, Ned, for thesake of having proved what my tank could do. I'm only too glad tolearn no one was hurt. Was there?" he asked, turning to the farmer.
"Was there what?"
"Was there anybody in your barn?"
"Not as I knows on," was the grouchy answer. "A man who saw yourmachine coming thought she was headed for my building, and he run andtold me. Then some friends of mine brought me here in their machine. Itell you I've got all the evidence I need ag'in you, an' I'm going tohave damages! That barn was worth three thousand dollars if it wasworth a cent, and--"
"This matter can easily be settled," said Tom, trying to keep histemper. "My name is Swift, and--"
"Don't get swift with me, that's all I ask!" and the farmer laughedgrimly at his clumsy joke.
"I'll do whatever is right," Tom said, with dignity. "I live over nearShopton, and if you want to send your lawyer to see mine, why--"
"I don't believe in lawyers!" broke in the farmer. "All they think ofis to get what they can for theirselves. And I can do that myself. I'llget it out of you before you leave, or, anyhow, before you take yourcontraption away," and he glanced at the tank.
The same suspicion came at once to Tom and Ned, and the latter gavevoice to it when he murmured in a low voice to his chum:
"This is a frame-up--a scheme, Tom. He doesn't care a rap for thebarn. It's some of that Blakeson's doing, to make trouble for you."
"I believe you!" agreed Tom. "Now I know what to do."
He looked toward the collapsed barn, as if making a mental computationof its value, and then turned toward the farmer.
"I'm very sorry," said Tom, "if I have caused any trouble. I wanted totest my machine out on a wooden structure, and I picked your barn. Isuppose I should have come to you first, but I did not want to wastetime. I saw the barn was of practically no value."
"No value!" broke in the farmer. "Well, I'll show you, young man, thatyou can't play fast and loose with other people's property and notsettle!"
"I'm perfectly willing to, Mr. Kanker. I could see that the barn wasalmost ready to fall, and I had already determined, before sending mytank through it, to pay the owner any reasonable sum. I am willing todo that now."
"Well, of course if you're so ready to do that," replied the farmer,and Ned thought he caught a glance pass between him and one of the menin the auto, "if you're ready to do that, just hand over three thousanddollars, and we'll call it a day's work. It's really worth more, butI'll say three thousand for a quick settlement."
"Why, this barn," cried Ned, "isn't worth half that! I know somethingabout real estate values, for our bank makes loans on farms aroundhere--"
"Your bank ain't made me no loans, young man!" snapped Mr. Kanker. "Idon't need none. My place is free and clear! And three thousand dollarsis the price of my barn you've knocked to smithereens. If you don'twant to pay, I'll find a way to make you. And I'll hold you, or yourtank, as you call it, security for my damages! You can take your choiceabout that."
"You can't hold us!" cried Tom. "Such things aren't done here!"
"Well, then, I'll hold your tank!" cried the farmer. "I guess it'llsell for pretty nigh onto what you owe me, though what it's good for Ican't see. So you pay me three thousand dollars or leave your machinehere as security."
"That's the game!" whispered Ned. "There's some plot here. They wantto get possession of your tank, Tom, and they've seized on this chanceto do it."
"I believe you," agreed the young inventor. "Well, they'll find thattwo can play at that game. Mr. Kanker," he went on, "it is out of thequestion to claim your barn is worth three thousand dollars."
"Oh, is it?" sneered the farmer. "Well, I didn't ask you to come hereand make kindling wood of it! That was your doings, and you've had yourfun out of it. Now you can pay the piper, and I'm here to make youpay!" And he brought the gun around in a menacing manner.
"He's right, in a way," said Ned to his chum. "We should have securedhis permission first. He's got us in a corner, and almost any jury offarmers around here, after they heard the story of the smashed barn,would give him heavy damages. It isn't so much that the barn is worththat as it is his property rights that we've violated. A farmer's barnis his castle, so to speak."
"I guess you're right," agreed Tom, with a rather rueful face. "But I'mnot going to hand him over three thousand dollars. In fact, I haven'tthat much with me."
"Oh, well, I don't suppose he'd want it all in cash."
But, it appeared, that was just what the farmer wanted. He went overall his arguments again, and it could not be denied that he had the lawon his side. As he rightly said, Tom could not expect to go about thecountry, "smashing up barns and such like," without being willing topay.
"Well, what you going to do?" asked the farmer at last. "I can't stayhere all day. I've got work to do. I can't go around smashing barns. Iwant three thousand dollars, or I'll hold your contraption forsecurity."
This last he announced with more conviction after he had had a talkwith one of the men in the automobile. And it was this consultationthat confirmed Tom and Ned in their belief that the whole thing was aplot, growing out of Tom's rather reckless destruction of the barn; aplot on the part of Blakeson and his gang. That they had so speedilytaken advantage of this situation carelessly given them was onlyanother evidence of how closely they were on Tom's trail.
"That man who ran out of the barn must have been the same one who wasin the factory," whispered Ned to his chum. "He probably saw us comingthis way and ran on ahead to have the farmer all primed in readiness.Maybe he knew you had planned to ram the barn."
"Maybe he did. I've had it in mind for some time, and spoken to some ofmy me
n about it."
"More traitors in camp, then, I'm afraid, Tom. We'll have to do somemore detective work. But let's get this thing settled. He only wants tohold your tank, and that will give the man, into whose hands he'splaying, a chance to inspect her."
"I believe you. But if I have to leave her here I'll leave some men onguard inside. It won't be any worse than being stalled in No Man'sLand. In fact, it won't be so bad. But I'll do that rather than begouged."
"No, Tom, you won't. If you did leave some one on guard, there'd be toomuch chance of their getting the best of him. You must take your tankaway with you."
"But how can I? I can't put up three thousand dollars in cash, and hesays he won't take a check for fear I'll stop payment. I see his game,but I don't see how to block it."
"But I do!" cried Ned.
"What!" exclaimed Tom. "You don't mean to say, even if you do work in abank, that you've got three thousand in cash concealed about yourperson, do you?"
"Pretty nearly, Tom, or what is just as good. I have that amount inLiberty Bonds. I was going to deliver them to a customer who hasordered them but not paid for them. They are charged up against me atthe bank, but I'm good for that, I guess. Now I'll loan you thesebonds, and you can give them to this cranky old farmer as security fordamages. Mind, don't make them as a payment. They're simplysecurity--the same as when an autoist leaves his car as bail. Only wedon't want to leave our car, we'd rather have it with us," and helooked over at the tank, bristling with splinters from the demolishedbarn.
"Well, I guess that's the only way out," said Tom. "Lucky you had thosebonds with you. I'll take them, and give you a receipt for them. Infact, I'll buy them from you and let the farmer hold them as security."
And this, eventually, was done. After much hemming and hawing andconsultation with the men in the automobile, Mr. Kanker said he wouldaccept the bonds. It was made clear that they were not in payment ofany damages, though Tom admitted he was liable for some, but that UncleSam's war securities were only a sort of bail, given to indicate that,some time later, when a jury had passed on the matter, the younginventor would pay Mr. Kanker whatever sum was agreed upon as just.
"And now," said Tom, as politely as he could under the circumstances,"I suppose we will be allowed to depart."
"Yes, take your old shebang offen my property!" ordered Mr. Kanker,with no very good grace. "And if you go knocking down any more barns,I'll double the price on you!"
"I guess he's a bit roiled because he couldn't hold the tank," observedNed to Tom, as they walked together to the big machine. "Hisfriends--our enemies--evidently hoped that was what could be done. Theywant to get at some of the secrets."
"I suppose so," conceded Tom. "Well, we're out of that, and I've provedall I want to."
"But I haven't--quite," said Ned.
"What's missing?" asked his chum, as they got back in the tank.
"Well, I'd like to make sure that the fellow who ran from the factorywas the same one I saw sneaking out of the barn. I believe he was, andI believe that Simpson's crowd engineered this whole thing."
"I believe so, too," Tom agreed. "The next thing is to prove it. Butthat will keep until later. The main thing is we've got our tank, andnow I'm going to get her ready for France."
"Will she be in shape to ship soon?" asked Ned.
"Yes, if nothing more happens. I've got a few little changes andadjustments to make, and then she'll be ready for the last test--one oflong distance endurance mainly. After that, apart she comes to go tothe front, and we'll begin making 'em in quantities here and on theother side."
"Good!" cried Ned. "Down with the Huns!"
Without further incident of moment they went back to the headquartersof the tank, and soon the great machine was safe in the shop where shehad been made.
The next two weeks were busy ones for Tom, and in them he put thefinishing touches on his machine, gave it a long test over fields andthrough woods, until finally he announced:
"She's as complete as I can make her! She's ready for France!"
Tom Swift and His War Tank; Or, Doing His Bit for Uncle Sam Page 18
