CHAPTER IX
AFTER A SPY
Curious as it may seem, Eradicate, the oldest and certainly not themost energetic of the party assembled in the experiment room, was thefirst to recover himself and arise. Tottering to his feet he gave onelook at the testing block, whence the motor had torn itself. Then helooked at the prostrate figures around him, none of them hurt, but allstunned and very much startled. Then the gaze of Eradicate traveled tothe hole in the roof. It was a gaping, ragged hole, for the motor washeavy and the roof of flimsy material. And then the colored manexclaimed:
"Good land ob massy! Did I do dat?"
His tone was one of such startled contrition, and so tragic, that TomSwift, rueful as he felt over the failure of his experiment and thedanger they had all been in, could not help laughing.
"I take it, hearing that from you, Tom, that we're all right," said NedNewton, as he recovered himself and brushed some dirt off his coat. Nedwas a natty dresser.
"Yes, we seem to be all right," replied Tom slowly. "I can't say whatdamage the flying motor has done outside, but--"
"Bless my insurance policy! but what happened?" asked Mr. Damon. "I sawEradicate pull on that lever as you told him to, Tom, and then thingsall went topsy-turvy! Did he pull the wrong handle?"
"No, it wasn't Rad's fault at all," said Tom. "The trouble was, as Iguess I'll find when I investigate, that I put too much power into themotor, and the muffler didn't give any chance for the accumulatedexhaust gases to expand and escape. I didn't allow for that, and theysimply backed up, compressed and exploded. I guess that's the wholeexplanation."
"I'm inclined to agree with you, Son," said Mr. Swift dryly. "Don'ttry to get rid of all the noise at once. Eliminate it by degrees and itwill be safer."
"I guess so," agreed Tom.
By this time a score of workmen from the other shops had congregatedaround the one though the roof of which the motor had been blown. Tomopened the door to assure Jackson and the others that no one was hurt,and then the young inventor saw the exploded motor had buried in thedirt a short distance away from the experiment building.
"Lucky none of us were standing over it when it went up," said Tom, ashe made an inspection of the broken machine. "We'd have gone throughthe roof with it."
"She certainly went sailing!" commented Ned. "Must have been a lot ofpower there, Tom."
And this was evidenced by the bent and twisted rods that had held themotor to the testing block, and by the cylinders, some of which weretorn apart as though made of paper instead of heavy steel. But for thefact that all the force of the explosion was directly upward, insteadof at the sides, none might have been left alive in the shop. All hadescaped most fortunately, and they realized this.
"Well," queried Ned, as Tom gave orders to have the damaged machineremoved and the roof repaired, "does this end the wonderful silentmotor, Tom?"
"End it! What do you mean--"
"I mean are you going to experiment any further?"
"Why, of course! Just because I've had one failure doesn't mean thatI'm going to give up. Especially when I know what the matter was--notleaving any vent for the escaping gases. Why this isn't anything. WhenI was perfecting my giant cannon I was nearly blown up more than once,and you remember how we got stuck in the submarine."
"I should say I did!" exclaimed Ned with a shudder. "I don't want anymore of that. But as between being blown through a roof and held at thebottom of the sea, I don't know that there's much choice."
"Well, perhaps not," agreed Tom. "But as for ending my experiments, Iwouldn't dream of such a thing! Why, I've only just begun! I'll have asilent motor yet!"
"And a non-explosive one, I hope," added Mr. Damon dryly. "Bless myshoe buttons, Tom, but if my wife knew what danger I'd been in she'dnever let me come over to see you any more."
"Well, the next time I invite you to a test I'll be more careful,"promised the young inventor.
"There isn't going to be any next time as far as I'm concerned!"laughed Ned. "I think it's safer to sell Liberty Bonds."
And, though they joked about it, they all realized the narrow escapethey had had. As for Eradicate, once he knew he had not been the onewho caused the damage, he felt rather proud of the part he had taken inthe mishap, and for many days he boasted about it to Koku.
True to his determination, Tom Swift did not give up his experimentalwork on the silent motor. The machine that had been blown through theroof was useless now, and it was sent to the scrap heap, after as muchof it as possible had been salvaged. Then Tom got another piece ofapparatus out of his store room and began all over again.
He worked along the same lines as at first--providing a chamber for theescaping gases of the exhaust to expend their noise and energy in, atthe same time laboring to cut down the concussion of the explosions inthe cylinder without reducing their force any. And that it was no easyproblem to do either of these, Tom had to admit as he progressed. Allprevious types of mufflers or silencers had to be discarded and a newone evolved.
"Jackson, I need some one to help me," said Tom to his chiefmechanician one day. "Haven't you a good man who is used toexperimental work that you can let me take from the works?"
"Why, yes," was the answer. "Let me see. Roberts is busy on the newbomb you got up, but I could take him off that--"
"No, don't!" interposed Tom. "I want that work to go on. Isn't theresome one else you can let me have?"
"Well, there's a new man who came to me well recommended. I took him onlast week, and he's a wonderful mechanic. Knows a lot about gasengines. I could let you have him--Bower his name is. The only thingabout it, though, is that I don't like to give you a man of whom I amnot dead certain, when you're working on a new device."
"Oh, that will be all right," said Tom. "There won't be any secrets hecan get, if you mean you think he might be up to spy work."
"That's what I did mean, Tom. You never can tell, you know, and youhave some bitter enemies."
"Yes, but I'll take care this man doesn't see the plans, or any of mydrawings. I only want some one to do the heavy assembling work on theexperimental muffler I'm getting up. We can let him think it's for anew kind of automobile."
"Oh, then I guess it will be all right. I'll send Bower to you."
Tom rather liked the new workman, who seemed quiet and efficient. Hedid not ask questions, either, about the machine on which he wasengaged, but did as he was told. As Tom had said, he kept his plans anddrawing under lock and key--in a safe to be exact--and he did not thinkthey were in any danger from his new helper.
But Tom Swift held into altogether too slight regard the powers ofthose who were opposed to him. He did not appreciate the depths towhich they would stoop to gain their ends.
He had been working hard on his new device, and had reached a pointfurther along than when the other motor had exploded. He began to seesuccess ahead of him, and he was jubilant. Whether this made himcareless does not matter, but the fact was that he left Bower more tohimself, and alone in the experimental shop several times.
And it was on one of these occasions, when Tom had been for some timein one of the other shops, where he and Jackson were in consultationover a new machine, that as he came back to the test room unexpectedly,he saw Bower move hastily away from in front of the safe. Moreover, Tomwas almost certain he had heard the steel door clang shut as heapproached the building.
And then, before he could ask his helper a question, Tom looked from awindow and saw a stranger running hastily along the side of thebuilding where his trial motor was being set up.
"Who's that? Who is that man? Did he come in here? Was he tamperingwith my safe?" cried Tom. He saw Bower hesitate and change color, andTom knew it was time to act.
The window was open, and with one bound the young inventor was out andrunning after the stranger he had seen departing in such a hurry. Theman was but a short distance ahead of him, and Tom saw he was stuffingsome papers into his pocket.
"Here! Come back! Stop!" ordered Tom
, but the man ran on the faster.
"That's a spy as sure as guns!" reflected Tom Swift. "And Bower is inwith him!" he added. "I've got to catch that fellow!" and he speededhis pace as he ran after the fellow.
Tom Swift and His Air Scout; Or, Uncle Sam's Mastery of the Sky Page 9
