Tom Swift and His Air Glider; Or, Seeking the Platinum Treasure

by Victor Appleton

  Produced by Anthony Matonac.

  TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR GLIDER

  or

  Seeking the Platinum Treasure

  By

  VICTOR APPLETON

  CONTENTS

  I A Breakdown II A Daring Project III The Hand of the Czar IV The Search V A Clew from Russia VI Rescuing Mr. Petrofsky VII The Air Glider VIII In a Great Gale IX The Spies X Off in the Airship XI A Storm at Sea XII An Accident XIII Seeking a Quarrel XIV Hurried Flight XV Pursued XVI The Nihilists XVII On to Siberia XVIII In a Russian Prison XIX Lost in a Salt Mine XX The Escape XXI The Rescue XXII In the Hurricane XXIII The Lost Mine XXIV The Leaking Tanks XXV Homeward Bound--Conclusion

  TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR GLIDER

  CHAPTER I

  A BREAKDOWN

  "Well, Ned, are you ready?"

  "Oh, I suppose so, Tom. As ready as I ever shall be."

  "Why, Ned Newton, you're not getting afraid; are you? And after you'vebeen on so many trips with me?"

  "No, it isn't exactly that, Tom. I'd go in a minute if you didn't havethis new fangled thing on your airship. But how do you know how it'sgoing to work--or whether it will work at all? We may come a cropper."

  "Bless my insurance policy!" exclaimed a man who was standing near thetwo lads who were conversing. "You'd better keep near the ground, Tom."

  "Oh, that's all right, Mr. Damon," answered Tom Swift. "There isn't anymore danger than there ever was, but I guess Ned is nervous since ourtrip to the underground city of gold."

  "I am not!" indignantly exclaimed the other lad, with a look at theyoung inventor. "But you know yourself, Tom, that putting this newpropeller on your airship, changing the wing tips, and re-gearing themotor has made an altogether different sort of a craft of it. You,yourself, said it wasn't as reliable as before, even though it does gofaster."

  "Now look here, Ned!" burst out Tom. "That was last week that I said itwasn't reliable. It is now, for I've tried it out several times, andyet, when I ask you to take a trip with me, to act as ballast--"

  "Is that all you want me for, Tom, to act as ballast? Then you'd bettertake a bag of sand--or Mr. Damon here!"

  "Me? I guess not! Bless my diamond ring! My wife hasn't forgiven me forgoing off on that last trip with you, Tom, and I'm not going to takeany more right away. But I don't blame Ned--"

  "Say, look here!" cried Tom, a little out of patience, "you know mebetter than that, Ned. Of course you're more than ballast--I want you tohelp me manage the craft since I made the changes on her. Now if youdon't want to come, why say so, and I'll get Eradicate. I don't believehe'll be afraid, even if he--"

  "Hold on dar now, Massa Tom!" exclaimed an aged colored man, who was anall around helper at the Swift homestead, "was yo' referencin' t' mewhen yo' spoke?"

  "Yes, Rad, I was saying that if Ned wouldn't go up in the airship withme you would."

  "Well, now, Masa Tom, I shorely would laik t' 'blige yo', I shorewould. But de fack ob de mattah am dat I has a mos' particular job obwhite washin' t' do dish mornin', an' I 'spects I'd better be gittin'at it. It's a mos' particular job, an', only fo' dat, I'd be mos'pleased t' go up in de airship. But as it am, I mus' ax yo' t' 'scuseme, I really mus'," and the colored man shuffled off at a faster gaitthan he was in the habit of using.

  "Well, of all things!" gasped Tom. "I believe you're all afraid of theold airship, just because I made some changes in her. I'll go up alone,that's what I will."

  "No, I'll go with you," interposed Ned Newton who was Tom's mostparticular chum. "I only wanted to be sure it was all right, that wasall."

  "Well, if you've fully made up your mind," went on the young inventor,a little mollified, "lend me a hand to get her in shape for a run. Iexpect to make faster time than I ever did before, and I'm going tohead out Waterford way. You'd better come along, Mr. Damon, and I'lldrop you off at your house."

  "Bless my feather bed!" gasped the man. "Drop me off! I like that, TomSwift!"

  "Oh, I didn't mean it exactly that way," laughed Tom. "But will youcome."

  "No, thanks, I'm going home by trolley," and then as the odd man wentin the house to speak to Tom's father, the two lads busied themselvesabout the airship.

  This was a large aeroplane, one of the largest Tom Swift had everconstructed, and he was a lad who had invented many kinds of machinerybesides crafts for navigating the upper regions. It was not as large ashis combined aeroplane and dirigible balloon of which I have told youin other books, but it was of sufficient size to carry three personsbesides other weight.

  Tom had built it some years before, and it had seemed good enough then.Later he constructed some of different models, besides the bigcombination affair, and he had gone on several trips in that.

  He and his chum Ned, together with Eradicate Sampson, the colored man,and Mr. Damon, had been to a wonderful underground city of gold inMexico, and it was soon after their return from this perilous trip thatTom had begun the work of changing his old aeroplane into a speediercraft.

  This had occupied him most of the Winter, and now that Spring had comehe had a chance to try what a re-built motor, changed propellers, anddifferent wing tips would do for the machine.

  The time had come for the test and, as we have seen, Tom had somedifficulty in persuading anyone to go along with him! But Ned finallygot over his feeling of nervousness.

  "Understand, Tom," spoke Ned, "it isn't because I don't think you knowhow to work an aeroplane that I hesitated. I've been up in the air withyou enough times to know that you're there with the goods, but I don'tbelieve even you know what this machine is going to do."

  "I can pretty nearly tell. I'm sure my theory is right."

  "I don't doubt that. But will it work out in practice?"

  "She may not make all the speed I hope she will, and I may not be ableto push her high into the air quicker than I used to before I made thechanges," admitted Tom, "but I'm sure of one thing. She'll fly, and shewon't come down until I'm ready to let her. So you needn't worry aboutgetting hurt."

  "All right--if you say so. Now what do you want me to do, Tom?"

  "Go over the wire guys and stays for the first thing. There's going tobe lots of vibration, with the re-built motor, and I want everythingtight."

  "Aye, aye, sir!" answered Ned with a laugh.

  Then he set at his task, tightening the small nuts, and screwing up theturn-buckles, while Tom busied himself over the motor. There was somesmall trouble with the carburetor that needed eliminating before itwould feed properly.

  "How about the tires?" asked Ned, when he had finished the wires.

  "You might pump them up. There, the motor is all right. I'm going totry it now, while you attend to the tires."

  Ned had pumped up one of the rubber circlets of the small bicyclewheels on which the aeroplane rested, and was beginning on the second,when a noise like a battery of machine guns going off next to his earstartled him so that he jumped, tripped over a stone and went down, theair pump thumping him in the back.

  "What in the world happened, Tom?" he yelled, for he had to use all hislung power to be heard above that racket. "Did it explode?"

  "Explode nothing!" shouted Tom. "That's the re-built motor in action."

  "In action! I should say it was in action. Is it always going to roarlike that?"

  Indeed the motor was roaring away, spitting fire and burnt gases fromthe exhaust pipe, and enveloping the aeroplane in a whitish haze ofchoking smoke.

  No, I have the muffler cut out, and that's why she barks so. But sherun
s easier that way, and I want to get her smoothed out a bit.

  "Whew! That smoke!" gasped his chum. "Why don't you--whew--this is morethan I can stand," and holding his hands to his smarting eyes, Ned,gasping and choking, staggered away to where the air was better.

  "It is sort of thick," admitted Tom. "But that's only because she'sgetting too much oil. She'll clear in a few minutes. Stick around andwe'll go up."

  Despite the choking vapor, the young inventor stuck to his task ofregulating the motor, and in a short while the smoke became less, whilethe big propeller blades whirled about more evenly. Then Tom adjustedthe muffler, and most of the noise stopped.

  "Come on back, and finish pumping up the tires," he shouted to Ned."I'm going to stop her now, and then I'll give her the pressure test,and we'll take a trip."

  Having cleared his eyes of smoke, Ned came back to his task, and thishaving been finished, Tom attached a heavy spring balance, or scales,to the rope that held the airship back from moving when her propellerswere whirling about.

  "How much pressure do you want?" asked Ned.

  "I ought to get above twelve hundred with the way the motor is geared,but I'll go up with ten. Watch the needle for me."

  It may be explained that when aeroplanes are tested on the earth thepropellers are set in motion. This of course would send a craftwhizzing over the ground, eventually to rise in the air, but for thefact that a rope, attached to the craft, and to some stationary object,holds it back.

  Now if this rope is hooked to a spring balance, which in turn is madefast to the stationary object, the "thrust" of the propellers will beregistered in pounds on the scale of the balance. Anywhere from fivehundred to nine hundred pounds of thrust will take a monoplane orbiplane up. But Tom wanted more than this.

  Once more the motor coughed and spluttered, and the big blades whirledabout so fast that they seemed like solid pieces of wood. Tom stood onthe ground near the levers which controlled the speed, and Ned watchedthe scale.

  "How much?" yelled the young inventor.

  "Eight hundred."

  Tom turned on a little more gasolene.

  "How much?" he cried again.

  "Ten hundred. That'll do!"

  "No, I'm going to try for more."

  Again he advanced the spark and gasolene levers, and the comparativelyfrail craft vibrated so that it seemed as if she would fly apart.

  "Now?" yelled Tom.

  "Eleven hundred and fifty!" cried Ned.

  "Good! That'll do it. She'll give more after she's been running awhile. We'll go up."

  Ned scrambled to his seat, and Tom followed. He had an arrangement sothat he could slip loose the retaining rope from his perch whenever hewas ready.

  Waiting until the motor had run another minute, the young inventorpulled the rope that released them. Over the smooth starting groundthat formed a part of the Swift homestead darted the aeroplane. Fasterand faster she moved, Ned gripping the sides of his seat.

  "Here we go!" cried Tom, and the next instant they shot up into the air.

  Ned Newton had ridden many times with his chum Tom, and the sensationof gliding through the upper regions was not new to him. But this timethere was something different. The propellers seemed to take hold ofthe air with a firmer grip. There was more power, and certainly thespeed was terrific.

  "We're going fast!" yelled Ned into Tom's ear.

  "That's right," agreed the young inventor. "She'll beat anything but mySky Racer, and she'd do that if she was the same size." Tom referred toa very small aeroplane he had made some time before. It was like somebig bird, and very swift.

  Up and onward went the remodeled airship, faster and faster, until,when several miles had been covered, Ned realized that the younginventor had achieved another triumph.

  "It's great, Tom! Great!" he yelled.

  "Yes, I guess it will do, Ned. I'm satisfied. If there was aninternational meet now I'd capture some of the prizes. As it is--"

  Tom stopped suddenly. His voice which had been raised to overcome thenoise of even the muffled motor, sounded unnaturally loud, and nowonder, for the engine had ceased working!

  "What's the matter?" gasped Ned.

  "I don't know--a breakdown of some kind."

  "Can you get it going again?"

  "I'm going to try."

  Tom was manipulating various levers, but with no effect. The aeroplanewas shooting downward with frightful rapidity.

  "No use!" exclaimed the young inventor. "Something has broken."

  "But we're falling, Tom!"

  "I know it. We've done it before. I'm going to volplane to earth."

  This, it may be explained, is gliding downward from a height with theengine shut off. Aeroplanists often do it, and Tom was no novice at theart.

  They shot downward with less speed now, for the young inventor hadthrown up his headplanes to act as a sort of brake. Then, a littlelater they made a good landing in a field near a small house, in arather lonely stretch of country, about ten miles from Shopton, whereTom lived.

  "Now to see what the trouble is," remarked our hero, as he climbed outof his seat and began looking over the engine. He poked in among thenumerous cogs, wheels and levers, and finally uttered an exclamation.

  "Find it?" asked Ned.

  "Yes, it's in the magneto. All the platinum bearings and contactsurfaces have fused and crystallized. I never saw such poor platinum asI've been getting lately, and I pay the highest prices for it, too. Thetrouble is that the supply of platinum is giving out, and they'll haveto find a substitute I guess."

  "Can't we go home in her?" asked Ned.

  "I'm afraid not. I've got to put in new platinum bearings and contactsbefore she'll spark. I only wish I could get hold of some of the betterkind of metal."

  The magneto of an aeroplane performs a service similar to one in anautomobile. It provides the spark that explodes the charge of gas inthe cylinders, and platinum is a metal, more valuable now than gold,much used in the delicate parts of the magneto.

  "Well, I guess it's walk for ours," said Ned ruefully.

  "I'm afraid so," went on Tom. "If I only had some platinum, I could--"

  "Perhaps I could be of service to you," suddenly spoke a voice behindthem, and turning, the youths saw a tall, bearded man, who hadevidently come from the lonely house. "Did I hear you say you neededsome platinum?" he asked. He spoke with a foreign accent, and Tom atonce put him down for a Russian.

  "Yes, I need some for my magneto," began the young inventor.

  "If you will kindly step up to my house, perhaps I can give you whatyou want," went on the man. "My name is Ivan Petrofsky, and I have onlylately come to live here."

  "I'm Tom Swift, of Shopton, and this is my chum, Ned Newton," repliedthe young inventor, completing the introductions. He was wondering whythe man, who seemed a cultured gentleman, should live in such a lonelyplace, and he was wondering too how he happened to have some platinum.

  "Will that answer?" asked Mr. Petrofsky, when they had reached hishouse, and he had handed Tom several strips of the precious silverlikemetal.

  "Do? I should say it would! My, but that is the best platinum I've seenin a long while!" exclaimed Tom, who was an expert judge of this metal."Where did you get it, if I may ask?"

  "It came from a lost mine in Siberia," was the unexpected answer.

  "A lost mine?" gasped Tom.

  "In Siberia?" added Ned.

  Mr. Petrofsky slowly nodded his head, and smiled, but rather sadly.

  "A lost mine," he said slowly, "and if it could be found I would be thehappiest man on earth for I would then be able to locate and save mybrother, who is one of the Czar's exiles," and he seemed shaken byemotion.

  Tom and Ned stood looking at the bearded man, and then the younginventor glanced at the platinum strips in his hand while a strange anddaring thought came to him.