FREEDOM
For a moment there was silence, following Tom's wild cry and the noise
of the thunderclap. Then, as other, though less loud reverberations of
the storm continued to sound, the captives awoke to a realization of
what had happened. They had been partially stunned, and were almost as
in a dream.
"Are--are we all right?" stammered Ned.
"Bless my soul! What has happened?" cried Mr. Damon.
"We've been struck by lightning!" Tom repeated. "I don't know whether
we're all right or not."
"We seem to be falling!" exclaimed Lieutenant Marbury.
"If the whole gas bag isn't ripped to pieces we're lucky," commented
Jerry Mound.
Indeed, it was evident that the Mars was sinking rapidly. To all there
came the sensation of riding in an elevator in a skyscraper and being
dropped a score of stories.
Then, as they stood there in the darkness, illuminated only by flashes
from the lightning outside the window, waiting for an unknown fate, Tom
Swift uttered a cry of delight.
"We've stopped falling!" he cried. "The automatic gas machine is
pumping. Part of the gas bag was punctured, but the unbroken
compartments hold!"
"If part of the gas leaked out I don't see why it wasn't all set on
fire and exploded," observed Captain Warner.
"It's a non-burnable gas," Tom quickly explained. "But come on. This
may be our very chance. There seems to be something going on that may
be in our favor."
Indeed the captives could hear confused cries and the running to and
fro of many feet.
He made for the sawed panel, and, in another instant, had burst out and
was through it, out into the passageway between the after and amidship
cabins. His companions followed him.
They looked into the rear cabin, or motor compartment, and a scene of
confusion met their gaze. Two of the foreign men who had seized the
ship lay stretched out on the floor near the humming machinery, which
had been left to run itself. A look in the other direction, toward the
main cabin, showed a group of the foreign spies bending over the inert
body of La Foy, the Frenchman, stretched out on a couch.
"What has happened?" cried Ned. "What does it all mean?'
"The lightning!" exclaimed Tom. "The bolt that struck the ship has
knocked out some of our enemies! Now is the time to attack them!"
The Mars seemed to have passed completely through a narrow storm belt.
She was now in a quiet atmosphere, though behind her could be seen the
fitful play of lightning, and there could be heard the distant rumble
of thunder.
"Come on!" cried Tom. "We must act quickly, while they are demoralized!
Come on!"
His friends needed no further urging. Jerry Mound and the machinist
rushed to the engine-room, to look after any of the enemy that might be
there, while Tom, Ned and the others ran into the middle cabin.
"Grab 'em! Tie 'em up!" cried Tom, for they had no weapons with which
to make an attack.
But none were needed. So stunned were the foreigners by the lightning
bolt, which had miraculously passed our friends, and so unnerved by the
striking down of La Foy, their leader, that they seemed like men half
asleep. Before they could offer any resistance they were bound with the
same ropes that had held our friends in bondage. That is, all but the
big Frenchman himself. He seemed beyond the need of binding.
Mound, the engineer, and his assistant, came hurrying in from the
motor-room, followed by Koku.
"We found him chained up," Jerry explained, as the big giant, freed
from his captivity, rubbed his chafed wrists.
"Are there any of the foreigners back there?'
"Only those two knocked out by the lightning," the engineer explained.
"We've made them secure. I see you've got things here in shape."
"Yes," replied Tom. "And now to see where we are, and to get back home.
Whew! But this has been a time! Koku, what happened to you?"
"They no let anything happen. I be in chains all the while," the giant
answered. "Jump on me before I can do anything!"
"Well, you're out, now, and I think we'll have you stand guard over
these men. The tables are turned, Koku."
The bound ones were carried to the same prison whence our friends had
escaped, but their bonds were not taken off, and Koku was put in the
place with them. By this time La Foy and the two other stricken men
showed signs of returning life. They had only been stunned.
The young inventor and his friends, once more in possession of their
airship, lost little time in planning to return. They found that the
spies were all expert aeronauts, and had kept a careful chart of their
location. They were then halfway across the Atlantic, and in a short
time longer would probably have been in some foreign country. But Tom
turned the Mars about.
The craft had only been slightly damaged by the lightning bolt, though
three of the gas bag compartments were torn, The others sufficed,
however, to make the ship sufficiently buoyant.
When morning came Tom and his friends had matters running almost as
smoothly as before their capture.
The prisoners had no chance to escape, and, indeed, they seemed to have
been broken in spirit. La Foy was no longer the insolent, mocking
Frenchman that he had been, and the two chief foreign engineers seemed
to have lost some of their reason when the lightning struck them.
"But it was a mighty lucky and narrow escape for us," said Ned, as he
and Tom sat in the pilot-house the second day of the return trip.
"That's right," agreed his chum.
Once again they were above the earth, and, desiring to get rid as soon
as possible of the presence of the spies, a landing was made near New
York City, and the government authorities communicated with. Captain
Warner and Lieutenant Marbury took charge of the prisoners, with some
Secret Service men, and the foreigners were soon safely locked up.
"And now what are you going to do, Tom?" asked Ned, when, once more,
they had the airship to themselves.
"I'm going back to Shopton, fix up the gas bag, and give her another
government trial," was the answer.
And, in due time, this was done. Tom added some improvements to the
aircraft, making it better than ever, and when she was given the test
required by the government, she was an unqualified success, and the
rights to the Mars were purchased for a large sum. In sailing, and in
the matter of guns and bombs, Tom's craft answered every test.
"So you see I was right, after all, Dad," the young inventor said, when
informed that he had succeeded. "We can shoot off even bigger guns than
I thought from the deck of the Mars."
"Yes, Tom," replied the aged inventor, "I admit I was wrong."
Tom's aerial warship was even a bigger success than he had dared to
hope. Once the government men fully understood how to run it, in which
Tom played a prominent part in giving instructions, they put the Mars
to a severe test. She was taken out over the ocean, and her guns
trained on an obsolete battleship. Her bombs and projectiles blew the
craft to pieces.
"The Mars will be the naval terror of the seas in any future war,"
predicted Captain Warner.
The Secret Service men succeeded in unearthing all the details of the
plot against Tom. His life, at times, had been in danger, but at the
last minute the man detailed to harm him lost his nerve.
It was Tom's enemies who had set on fire the red shed, and who later
tried to destroy the ship by putting a corrosive acid in one of the
propellers. That plot, though, was not wholly successful. Then came the
time when one of the spies hid on board, and dropped the copper bar on
the motor, short-circuiting it. But for the storage-battery that scheme
might have wrought fearful damage. The spy who had stowed himself away
on the craft escaped at night by the connivance of one of Tom's corrupt
employees.
The foreign spies were tried and found guilty, receiving merited
punishment. Of course the governments to which they belonged disclaimed
any part in the seizure of Tom's aerial warship.
It came out at the trial that one of Tom's most trusted employees had
proved a traitor, and had the night before the test, allowed the
foreign spies to secrete themselves on board, to rush out at an
opportune time to overpower our hero and his friends. But luck was with
Tom at the end.
"Well, what are you going to tackle next, Tom?" asked Ned, one day
about a month after these exciting experiences.
"I don't know," was the slow answer. "I think a self-swinging hammock,
under an apple tree, with a never-emptying pitcher of ice-cold lemonade
would be about the thing."
"Good, Tom! And, if you'll invent that, I'll share it with you."
"Well, come on, let's begin now," laughed Tom. "I need a vacation,
anyhow."
But it is very much to be doubted if Tom Swift, even on a vacation,
could refrain from trying to invent something, either in the line of
airships, water, or land craft. And so, until he again comes to the
front with something new, we will take leave of him.
THE TOM SWIFT SERIES
By VICTOR APPLETON
These spirited tales convey in a realistic way, the wonderful advances
in land and sea locomotion. Stories like these are impressed upon the
memory and their reading is productive only of good.
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR CYCLE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR BOAT
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRSHIP
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RUNABOUT
TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIRELESS MESSAGE
TOM SWIFT AMONG THE DIAMOND MAKERS
TOM SWIFT IN THE CAVES OF ICE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SKY RACER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RIFLE
TOM SWIFT IN THE CITY OF GOLD
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR GLIDER
TOM SWIFT IN CAPTIVITY
TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIZARD CAMERA
TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT SEARCHLIGHT
TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT CANNON
TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHOTO TELEPHONE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP
TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIG TUNNEL
TOM SWIFT IN THE LAND OF WONDERS
TOM SWIFT AND HIS WAR TANK
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT
TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH
TOM SWIFT AMONG THE FIRE FIGHTERS
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS SERIES
BY VICTOR APPLETON
Moving pictures and photo plays are famous the world over, and in this
line of books the reader is given a full description of how the films
are made--the scenes of little dramas, indoors and out, trick pictures
to satisfy the curious, soul-stirring pictures of city affairs, life in
the Wild West, among the cowboys and Indians, thrilling rescues along
the seacoast, the daring of picture hunters in the jungle among savage
beasts, and the great risks run in picturing conditions in a land of
earthquakes. The volumes teem with adventures and will be found
interesting from first chapter to last.
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN THE WEST
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON THE COAST
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN THE JUNGLE
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN EARTHQUAKE LAND
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS AND THE FLOOD
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS AT PANAMA
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS UNDER THE SEA
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON THE WAR FRONT
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON FRENCH BATTLEFIELDS
MOVING PICTURE BOYS FIRST SHOWHOUSE
MOVING PICTURE BOYS AT SEASIDE PARK
MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON BROADWAY
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS OUTDOOR EXHIBITION
THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS NEW IDEA