A FIRE ALARM
Tom Swift quickly opened the door of the big shed. It was built to
house a dirigible balloon, or airship of some sort. Ned could easily
tell that from his knowledge of Tom's previous inventions.
"Something wrong?" asked the young bank clerk.
"I don't know," returned Tom, and then as he looked inside the place,
he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh, it's you, is it, Koku?" he asked, as a veritable giant of a man
came forward.
"Yes, master, it is only Koku and your father," spoke the big chap,
with rather a strange accent.
"Oh, is my father here?" asked Tom. "I was wondering who had opened the
door of this shed."
"Yes, Tom," responded the elder Swift, coming up to them, "I had a new
idea in regard to some of those side guy wires, and I wanted to try it
out. I brought Koku with me to use his strength on some of them."
"That's all right, Dad. Ned and I came out to wrestle with that recoil
problem again. I want to try some guns on the craft soon, but--"
"You'd better not, Tom," warned his father. "It will never work, I tell
you. You can't expect to take up quick-firing guns and bombs in an
airship, and have them work properly. Better give it up."
"I never will. I'll make it work, Dad!"
"I don't believe you will, Tom. This time you have bitten off more than
you can chew, to use a homely but expressive statement."
"Well, Dad, we'll see," began Tom easily. "There she is, Ned," he went
on. "Now, if you'll come around here..."
But Tom never finished that sentence, for at that moment there came
running into the airship shed an elderly, short, stout, fussy
gentleman, followed by an aged colored man. Both of them seemed very
much excited.
"Bless my socks, Tom!" cried the short, stout man. "There sure is
trouble!"
"I should say So, Massa Tom!" added the colored man. "I done did
prognosticate dat some day de combustible material of which dat shed am
composed would conflaggrate--"
"What's the matter?" interrupted Tom, jumping forward. "Speak out!
Eradicate! Mr. Damon, what is it?"
"The red shed!" cried the short little man. "The red shed, Tom!"
"It's on fire!" yelled the colored man.
"Great thunderclaps!" cried Tom. "Come on--everybody on the job!" he
yelled. "Koku, pull the alarm! If that red shed goes--"
Instantly the place was in confusion. Tom and Ned, looking from a
window of the hangar, saw a billow of black smoke roll across the yard.
But already the private fire bell was clanging out its warning. And,
while the work of fighting the flames is under way, I will halt the
progress of this story long enough to give my new readers a little idea
of who Tom Swift is, so they may read this book more intelligently.
Those of you who have perused the previous volumes may skip this part.
Tom Swift, though rather young in years, was an inventor of note. His
tastes and talents were developed along the line of machinery and
locomotion. Motorcycles, automobiles, motorboats, submarine craft, and,
latest of all, craft of the air, had occupied the attention of Tom
Swift and his father for some years.
Mr. Swift was a widower, and lived with Tom, his only son, in the
village of Shopton, New York State. Mrs. Baggert kept house for them,
and an aged colored man, Eradicate Sampson, with his mule, Boomerang,
did "odd jobs" about the Shopton home and factories.
Among Tom's friends was a Mr. Wakefield Damon, from a nearby village.
Mr. Damon was always blessing something, from his hat to his shoes, a
harmless sort of habit that seemed to afford him much comfort. Then
there was Ned Newton, a boyhood chum of Tom's, who worked in the
Shopton bank. I will just mention Mary Nestor, a young lady of Shopton,
in whom Tom was more than ordinarily interested. I have spoken of Koku,
the giant. He really was a giant of a man, of enormous strength, and
was one of two whom Tom had brought with him from a strange land where
Tom was held captive for a time. You may read about it in a book
devoted to those adventures.
Tom took Koku into his service, somewhat to the dismay of Eradicate,
who was desperately jealous. But poor Eradicate was getting old, and
could not do as much as he thought he could. So, in a great measure,
Koku replaced him, and Tom found much use for the giant's strength.
Tom had begun his inventive work when, some years before this story
opens, he had bargained for Mr. Damon's motorcycle, after that machine
had shot its owner into a tree. Mr. Damon was, naturally, perhaps, much
disgusted, and sold the affair cheap. Tom repaired it, made some
improvements, and, in the first volume of this series, entitled "Tom
Swift and His Motor-cycle," you may read of his rather thrilling
adventures on his speedy road-steed.
From then on Tom had passed a busy life, making many machines and
having some thrilling times with them. Just previous to the opening of
this story Tom had made a peculiar instrument, described in the volume
entitled "Tom Swift and His Photo-Telephone." With that a person
talking could not only see the features of the person with whom he was
conversing, but, by means of a selenium plate and a sort of camera, a
permanent picture could be taken of the person at either end of the
wire.
By means of this invention Tom had been able to make a picture that had
saved a fortune. But Tom did not stop there. With him to invent was as
natural and necessary as breathing. He simply could not stop it. And so
we find him now about to show to his chum, Ned Newton, his latest
patent, an aerial warship, which, however, was not the success Tom had
hoped for.
But just at present other matters than the warship were in Tom's mind.
The red shed was on fire.
That mere statement might not mean anything special to the ordinary
person, but to Tom, his father, and those who knew about his shops, it
meant much.
"The red shed!" Tom cried. "We mustn't let that get the best of us!
Everybody at work! Father, not you, though. You mustn't excite
yourself!"
Even in the midst of the alarm Tom thought of his father, for the aged
man had a weak heart, and had on one occasion nearly expired, being
saved just in time by the arrival of a doctor, whom Tom brought to the
scene after a wonderful race through the air.
"But, Tom, I can help," objected the aged inventor.
"Now, you just take care of yourself, Father!" Tom cried. "There are
enough of us to look after this fire, I think."
"But, Tom, it--it's the red shed!" gasped Mr. Swift.
"I realize that, Dad. But it can't have much of a start yet. Is the
alarm ringing, Koku?"
"Yes, Master," replied the giant, in correct but stilted English. "I
have set the indicator to signal the alarm in every shop on the
premises."
"That's right." Tom sprang toward the door. "Eradicate!" he called.
"Yais, sah! Heah I is!" answered the colored man. "I'll go git mah
mule, Boomerang, right away, an' he--"
"Don't you bring Boomerang on the scene!" Tom yelled. "When I want that
shed kicked apart I can do it better than by using a mule's heels. And
you know you can't do a thing with Boomerang when he sees fire."
"Now dat's so, Massa Tom. But I could put blinkers on him, an'--"
"No, you let Boomerang stay where he is. Come on, Ned. We'll see what
we can do. Mr. Damon--"
"Yes, Tom, I'm right here," answered the peculiar man, for he had come
over from his home in Waterford to pay a visit to his friends, Tom and
Mr. Swift. "I'll do anything I can to help you, Tom, bless my necktie!"
he went on. "Only say the word!"
"We've got to get some of the stuff out of the place!" Tom cried. "We
may be able to save it, but I can't take a chance on putting out the
fire and letting some of the things in there go up in smoke. Come on!"
Those in the shed where was housed what Tom hoped would prove to be a
successful aerial warship rushed to the open. From the other shops and
buildings nearby were pouring men and boys, for the Swift plant
employed a number of hands now.
Above the shouts and yells, above the crackle of flames, could be heard
the clanging of the alarm bell, set ringing by Koku, who had pulled the
signal in the airship shed. From there it had gone to every building in
the plant, being relayed by the telephone operator, whose duty it was
to look after that.
"My, you've got a big enough fire-fighting force, Tom!" cried Ned in
his chum's ear.
"Yes, I guess we can master it, if it hasn't gotten the best of us.
Say, it's going some, though!"
Tom pointed to where a shed, painted red--a sign of danger--could be
seen partly enveloped in smoke, amid the black clouds of which shot out
red tongues of flame.
"What have you got it painted red for?" Ned asked pantingly, as they
ran on.
"Because--" Tom began, but the rest of the sentence was lost in a yell.
Tom had caught sight of Eradicate and the giant, Koku, unreeling from a
central standpipe a long line of hose.
"Don't take that!" Tom cried. "Don't use that hose! Drop it!"
"What's the matter? Is it rotten?" Ned wanted to know.
"No, but if they pull it out the water will be turned on automatically."
"Well, isn't that what you want at a fire--water?" Ned demanded.
"Not at this fire," was Tom's answer. "There's a lot of calcium carbide
in that red shed--that's why it's red--to warn the men of danger. You
know what happens when water gets on carbide--there's an explosion, and
there's enough carbide in that shed to send the whole works sky high.
"Drop that hose!" yelled Tom in louder tones. "Drop it, Rad--Koku! Do
you want to kill us all!"