A CRASH
Adventures in plenty had befallen Tom Swift, and in many of them Ned
Newton had had a share. But always the young inventor had come out “on
top of the heap,” so perhaps Ned was justified in his feeling that
everything would be all right. Still he could understand and appreciate
Mr. Swift’s worry.
Mr. Swift began looking for his hat and neck scarf, this last on the
suggestion of his housekeeper.
A little later Mr. Swift, Ned, and Eradicate, the aged colored servant
who had been in the Swift family many years, were on their way to the
big plant, almost a mile distant. Ned had brought around to the door one
of the small cars Tom used to make trips between his home and the shop,
and it did not take long to reach the main gate in the big fence
surrounding the place.
So many and varied had been the attempts to rob Tom of the fruits of his
and his father’s brains that drastic measures to guard the place had
been put into effect. The big fence, impossible to scale without long
ladders, was one protection. In addition there were burglar alarm wires
along the fence, which wires would give warning of any attempt to get
under it or over it. In addition there was a strip of metal, charged
with a high-power current which could be turned on at will, and this
would give unauthorized trespassers a severe shock. It would not kill,
but would disable for a time.
In addition there were other forms of protection, and so well guarded
were the different gates, by night and day, that not even Tom himself
could get in without due formality. So it was when the party of
searchers arrived, they were not at once let in. The guard at the gate
must first be certain who he was admitting.
“Good lan’!” exclaimed Eradicate. “Dish is plum’ foolishness! Cain’t yo’
look an’ see dat ole Massa Swift hisse’f am heah?”
“They have to be cautious, Rad,” said Ned, as he got out of the machine
to give the password which was used each night. He saw Koku, the giant,
coming down the path inside the fence, and the big man at once
recognized the visitors.
Between Eradicate and Koku there was rivalry and jealousy because each
one wanted to serve Tom without having the other called on. And no
sooner had the colored man caught sight of the giant, as the latter told
the watchman to open the gate, than Eradicate burst out with:
“Hu! Dat’s jest laik de big ninny! Don’t know his own folks! It’s a
wonder to me dat Massa Tom keep him, he’s so dumb!”
“Black man talk much—not do anything!” growled the giant. “Look out or
um be squashed,” and he opened and closed his enormous hands as if he
wanted to clutch the old servant in them.
“That will do now, you two!” warned Mr. Swift. “We came to find Tom. Are
you sure he isn’t here, Koku?”
“Not too sure, master; Not sure much about Master Tom—he go—he
come—no can tell—no can do.”
“That’s about right,” agreed Ned, with a laugh. “Tom certainly goes and
comes without telling any one much about it. But I gathered, from what
he said to me just outside the fence, that he would be right along.
There didn’t seem to be anything special he had to do.”
“Just where was it you met him?” asked Mr. Swift. “Let us start the
investigation from there, you and I, Ned. Meanwhile, I will have all the
other shops called by telephone from the central here.”
He gave orders to this effect to one of the watchmen and then with Ned
went to the place, outside the fence, where Tom had last talked with his
chum. But it was dark, and Ned, naturally, could not point out the exact
spot, even with the aid of a flashlight.
“I think it was here, near this rock and bush,” he said, throwing the
gleam of his little electric torch about.
But the dry, hard ground gave no clews to this superficial examination,
and, as a matter of fact, Ned was about twenty-five feet off in his
calculations, as was demonstrated later. Otherwise he and Mr. Swift
might have seen the hole in the ground and the flight of stairs, for it
was not until some time later that night—near morning, as a matter of
fact—that the plotters replaced the planks and spread earth over them,
thus hiding the secret entrance.
“Well, there doesn’t seem to be anything here,” said Mr. Swift, with an
uneasy sigh as they made a hasty examination of the place. “We had
better go inside and look there.”
But the search in and about the many buildings of the great Swift plant
was no more successful. Every office and shop telephone had been rung.
Some were answered by guards or watchmen who happened to be in the
vicinity at the time the bell rang. But one and all said they had not
seen Tom.
Then there was a check-up of every gate and entrance in the big fence,
and at no place had Tom been admitted. Granting that his protective
plans worked, he could not have entered his own plant without a record
having been made of it, and there was none.
“There’s only one answer to this, then,” said Ned, when the search had
ended.
“What’s the answer?” asked Mr. Swift.
“Tom didn’t come in here after he left me. He must have gone somewhere
else.”
Mr. Swift looked at his watch.
“Do you suppose he could be at Mary’s now?” he asked.
“What time is it?”
“Three.”
“No, he wouldn’t be there at this hour!” declared Ned.
“He might,” replied Mr. Swift hopefully. “When Tom’s mind is busy on his
inventions he forgets all about time. It would be just like him to
forget that it was three o’clock in the morning and go to call on Mary.”
Ned shook his head, but Mr. Swift went on:
“I’m going to call her presently. But there is just one more place I
want to search. It’s in the vault where we keep the Chest of Secrets, as
Tom calls it. There is a private entrance to that he could come in by
and not register the alarm nor be seen by any of the guards. He can
switch off that alarm from his room at the house. I’ll look there. He
may have gone there to see if there isn’t some way out in the trouble
we’re in over the airline express patents.”
“Trouble?” questioned Ned, as they walked toward the vault.
“Yes. Tom and I haven’t spoken of it even to you, Ned, for the thing
really isn’t in such shape that it can be talked about. But Tom has an
idea, it may be nothing more than a dream, that he can establish a line
of travel to cross our continent from New York to San Francisco between
dawn and darkness. In other words, a coast-to-coast service, from ocean
to ocean, by daylight—say sixteen hours—with no change.”
“No change!” cried Ned. “What’s the idea—refueling the planes in the
air? Of course that has been done. But from coast to coast in sixteen
hours without change! It can’t be done!”
“Tom thinks so,” said Mr. Swift. “That’s what he’s working on now. He
has had some new models made, but there is trouble over the patent
rights. Some one is trying to get his idea away from him. It may be that
Tom came to the secret vault after he left you to make sure everything
was all right, and he may be there yet.”
But the vault was unoccupied, nor had it been disturbed. Mr. Swift gave
a hasty glance at several complicated and odd-looking models of aircraft
in the concrete room, looked over a pile of papers, and said:
“Well, they haven’t been disturbed since Tom and I were here last, which
proves my son hasn’t been here. But where is he? I’m beginning to get
worried, Ned. More worried than ever!”
“Oh, he’ll be all right,” was the answer, though in his own heart Ned
Newton could not help feeling apprehensive. “It may be, as you say, that
he made a very late call on Mary, and her folks have probably asked him
to stay all night, as they have done before.”
“I think the matter justifies me in calling Mr. Nestor on the
telephone,” said Mr. Swift, as they emerged from the vault where the
Chest of Secrets was stored. “It’s rather early to ring up anybody, but
I guess they will understand.”
It was about four o’clock now, and already, in the east, a light was
appearing, the sun was heralding the dawn. The early birds were
beginning to sing. It would soon be morning, though not yet time for the
wheels to begin humming in the Swift plant.
Going back to the office, where Koku reported that a second check-up had
failed to disclose the whereabouts of the young inventor, Mr. Swift
called the Shopton central operator and gave her the number of the
Nestor house.
There was some little delay, as was natural when a call is made at that
hour of the morning, but at length Mr. Nestor’s voice was heard.
“Who? Tom? No, he isn’t here—hasn’t been here,” was the message the
aged inventor received. “What’s the matter?”
There was some further talk, and Mr. Swift briefly outlined what had
happened.
“Don’t alarm Mary yet,” Mr. Swift cautioned his friend. “But I fear
something has happened to Tom. I wish you would come over.”
“I will!” Mr. Nestor promised. “I’ll be over as soon as I can dress.”
“Tell him I’ll call for him,” Ned said to Mr. Swift, and this message
went over the wires.
It was fully light when they went down into the yard where the small
auto had been left. And suddenly the silence of the dawn, made musical
by the twitterings of the birds, was broken by an increasing roar and
throbbing noise.
“Airship!” grunted Koku.
“Suah enough!” exclaimed Eradicate, pointing up. “Dere she am!”
The throbbing sound became louder, and a moment later they saw the
plane, a large one, approaching from the west.
“It’s Mr. Damon’s machine!” cried Ned. “What in the world is he flying
so early for? He isn’t sure enough of himself to take that big plane out
alone—he only got it the other day. Great Scott! Look! He’s going to
hit your mooring mast!”
At one end of the big landing field outside the fence Tom had recently
erected a tall steel mast, to which he moored a small dirigible balloon
with which he was conducting experiments. As all looked up they saw Mr.
Damon in his new machine headed straight for this mast.
“He doesn’t know it’s there!” cried Ned. “He’s sure going to hit!”
A moment later there was an alarming crash, and the top of the mast was
seen to break off while one edge of the aeroplane’s left wing crumpled.