TWO DISAPPEARANCES
DESPITE the fact that he was tired, upset in his mind and that his head
was beginning to ache again, Tom Swift could not help laughing at the
fright shown by Eradicate as the colored man made the best time possible
away from the “ghost.”
“Come back here, Rad! Come back! Nothing’s going to hurt you!” cried
Tom, running down toward the upset lantern. “I’m no ghost!”
Hearing his master’s voice, the colored man halted. Still not altogether
convinced, he stood looking back and ready to run, as he asked:
“Am dat—am dat you, Massa Tom?”
“Of course it is, Rad! Who else would it be? I came out of the old
cistern.”
“Oh, den you’s daid! You shore am daid an’ it’s yo’ h’ant I sees!”
Eradicate would have run away again, but Tom called more sternly:
“Wait a minute! Don’t be foolish! Of course I’m not dead, though I’m in
pretty bad shape after what that scoundrel Barsky did to me. Have they
been looking for me, Rad?”
“Yes, Massa Tom—dat is, ef you _is_ Massa Tom,” he added, as a
qualifying remark. “Dey has been done lookin’ fo’ you. But we done
thought you gone off to see Massa Damon, maybe, and maybe you done took
dat Barsky with you, ’case he’s done gone, too!”
“Yes, I reckon he’s gone all right!” muttered Tom. “But I’ve been around
here all the while, Rad. Barsky knocked me senseless, bound me, and
dropped me into the cistern under the old shop. I just managed to get
out through the tunnel.”
“Yes, sah, Massa Tom. I’s mighty glad you done got out. But is you
suah—is you quite suah—Massa Tom, dat you isn’t a ghost?”
“Of course I’m sure!” laughed the young man. “What makes you think I’m a
ghost?”
“’Case as how you’s all white like.”
Then Tom looked down at his clothes and saw that he was covered with a
white powdery substance which must, in the darkness, have given him a
weird appearance, especially to the superstitious colored man.
“It’s chalk dust, or something like that,” said Tom, as he slapped at
his coat sleeves and trouser legs, thereby setting free a haze of white,
powdery stuff. “I remember now that there are soft white rocks in the
earth of the cistern and the tunnel. I must have brushed off a lot of
the stuff on my clothes as I came along. No wonder you took me for a
ghost.”
“Yes, sah, dat’s jest whut you done look like,” said Eradicate.
“Well, you know now that I’m no ghost, don’t you?” asked Tom, as he
continued to get rid of the white dust on his clothes.
“Um—yes, sah, I done reckon so,” answered the colored man, a bit
doubtfully. “Anyhow, you _says_ so, Massa Tom, an’ whut you says mus’ be
so.”
“It is in this case, anyhow,” replied the youth. “But it isn’t Barsky’s
fault that I’m not a ghost. Now we’ll go back to the house and relieve
their anxiety, for I suppose they must have been a little anxious about
me, Rad.”
“Oh, yes, sah, dey has done been huntin’ all ober fo’ you,” was the
answer. “Yo’ pa, he done think you done gone to Mr. Damon’s. But Massa
Ned he know better, ’case as how Mr. Damon say on the tellyfoam dat you
isn’t dere. Koku, he out lookin’ fo’ you, too.”
“Were you also looking for me, Rad?” asked Tom. “And, like Diogenes
searching for an honest man, were you looking for me with a lantern? Or
were you digging to find my body?”
“I doan know dat fellah doggoneyourknees,” stated Eradicate. “An’ I was
goin’ to look fo’ you right soon. But jest now I come out to dig fo’
night-walker worms. I’s gwine fishin’ to-morrow.”
“Oh, so that’s why you were so mysteriously digging, was it?” chuckled
Tom. “After night-walkers! Well, I guess I’d better do a little night
walking, myself, back to the house and tell Ned he needn’t get up a
searching party for me. Light your lantern, Rad, and get all the worms
you can. Good luck to you!”
“Yes, sah,” murmured the colored man, who often went out in the fields
and garden at night to dig for the big worms that did not venture abroad
until after dark. “An’ I’s mighty glad, Massa Tom, dat you isn’t a
h’ant!”
“The same here,” chuckled Tom.
The young inventor decided to see Ned before going into his own house,
and a little later he was being greeted with delighted surprise by Ned
and Mr. Newton, who were much puzzled to account for the long-continued
absence of the young inventor. It was now close to midnight, and he had
disappeared in the morning.
“Well, for the love of my cash balance, what has happened to you, Tom?”
cried Ned, as he greeted his chum.
“Lots,” was the brief answer. “Have you seen that scoundrel Barsky?”
“Barsky!” cried Ned. “Why, we thought you had taken him away to some
quiet place to work on your train-stop invention. But we’ve been a bit
worried about you for some time, and when, a little while ago, Mr. Damon
said you weren’t at his place and Mrs. Baggert telephoned that you had
not come home, we didn’t know what to tell your father. We’ve been
keeping from him the fact that you haven’t been seen for a number of
hours, and dad and I were just wondering how much longer we could keep
him in ignorance.”
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t have to worry him,” said Tom. “I’m all right
now. But we’ve got to catch this Barsky. Where’s Koku?”
“Out looking for you, I imagine. He seemed to think you might be about
the grounds somewhere.”
“I was. In the old cistern. I got out through the tunnel.”
Tom quickly told all that had occurred up to the time when Eradicate
mistook him for a ghost.
“Whew!” whistled Ned. “This means something, Tom! Those fellows are
getting desperate!”
“I should say so!” agreed the young inventor. “I don’t just see what the
game is, but it’s a deep one, I’m afraid. I must look at once to my
chest of secrets.”
“It was all right when I left the office, Tom,” said Mr. Newton. “I
looked at it the last thing.”
“I’m taking no chances,” was the grim reply. “I’ll just let my father
know I’ve come back. Let him suppose that I have been over to Waterford.
Don’t tell him what happened. It would do no good and only worry him.
Then we’ll make some plans for catching this fellow Barsky and those in
with him. For he isn’t working alone, I’m sure of that.”
“No, I suppose not,” returned Ned. “But now, Tom, you’d better go home
and get some rest. It’s nearly midnight.”
“No, no, Ned! The first thing is to look around the shops and the yards.
It’s better not to let the trail grow any colder.”
“Tom’s right,” declared Mr. Newton. “And Ned and I will go over with
you, lad.”
Tom Swift looked at the older man and, seeing how white and weary he
looked, he protested. But to his protests Ned’s father would not listen.
Though the strain of the suspense and his shame over the question of his
honesty in the matter of the theft of the Liberty Bonds—a matter which
was by no means cleared up—was telling heavily against him and was
depleting his strength, Mr. Newton insisted on accompanying Tom and Ned
to the Swift home and the shops.
Though Mr. Swift had been given no intimation that there was anything
wrong with the continued absence of his son, yet the aged inventor had
begun to worry slightly. However, this was ended when he knew Tom was in
the house, and then the old gentleman went to bed.
Tom, with the Newtons, made an inspection of the shop and found
everything apparently all right there, with the chest locked and in its
usual place in the small room.
Koku came back from one of his tours of the grounds, and he was
delighted to find his master had returned.
“You must keep specially good watch tonight, Koku,” said Tom when the
place had been looked over. “I’ve got to take something to stop my
headache, and I’ll probably sleep like a top.”
“Koku watch,” was the grim answer. “Bad mans come—Koku knock ’um in
mince pie pieces!” and he clenched his big fists.
Though much puzzled over what had happened, Tom realized that little
could be done toward solving the problem until he had had some rest,
food and sleep. His head was aching and he had a queer sense of
foreboding.
“But I guess I’ll be all right after I’ve had a good night’s sleep,” he
told himself.
The Newtons went home, Eradicate had long before come in from his
worm-digging expedition, and by one o’clock the house, grounds and shops
of the Swift company were shrouded in darkness and silence.
Tom awakened the next morning, feeling much refreshed. As soon as he was
out of bed and had eaten breakfast he began to make plans for
apprehending the man who had attacked him.
“If I get this fellow Barsky—though I don’t believe that’s his name—I
may be able to trace the others in the plot,” reasoned Tom. “For I
believe he’s acting with others. He was the spy. I must find Barsky!”
Tom hurried over to his office. It was early, neither Ned nor his father
having arrived, and Tom was the first one to enter.
“Hello, Koku!” he called, for the giant slept in the place. “Any trouble
during the night?”
There was no answer.
“He must be sleeping yet,” thought Tom, “Well, we were all up a bit
late.” He went into the room where his chest of secrets, as Ned had
named it, was kept, and the instant he opened the door Tom saw that the
oak box was gone!
“They’ve got it!” he cried. “Koku! Come here! Where are you? How does it
happen that my chest is gone? You’re a fine watchman!”
He threw open the door of the room where the giant slept.
Koku, too was gone!