Professor Bumper
Fairly fascinated by the spluttering fuse, neither Tom nor Mr. Titus
moved for a second, while the deadly fire crept on through the black
string-like affair, nearer and nearer to the bomb itself.
Then, just as Tom, holding back his natural fear, was about to thrust
the thing overboard with his foot, hardly realizing that it might be
even more deadly to the ship in the water than it was on the deck, the
foot of the newcomer was suddenly thrust out from behind the
deck-house, and the sizzling fuse was trodden upon.
It went out in a puff of smoke, but the owner of the foot was not
satisfied with that for a hand reached down, lifted the bomb, the fuse
of which still showed a smouldering spark of fire, and calmly pulled
out the "tail" of the explosive. It was harmless then, for the fuse,
with a trail of smoke following, was tossed into the sea, and the
little man came out from behind the deck-house, holding the unexploded
bomb.
For a moment neither Tom nor Mr. Titus could speak. They felt an
inexpressible sense of relief. Then Tom managed to gasp out:
"You--you saved our lives!"
The little man who had stepped on the fuse, and had then torn it from
the bomb, looked at the object in his hand as though it were the most
natural thing in the world to pick explosives up off the deck of
passenger steamers, as he remarked:
"Well, perhaps I did. Yes, I think it would have gone off in another
second or two. Rather curious; isn't it?"
"Curious? Curious!" asked and exclaimed Mr. Titus.
"Why, yes," went on the little man, in the most matter of fact tone.
"You see, most explosive bombs are round, made that way so the force
will be equal in all directions. But this one, you notice, has a bulge,
or protuberance, on one side, so to speak. Very curious!
"It might have been made that way to prevent its rolling overboard, or
the bomb's walls might be weaker near that bulge to make sure that the
force of the explosion would be in that direction. And the bulge was
pointed toward you gentlemen, if you noticed."
"I should say I did!" cried Mr. Titus. "My dear sir, you have put us
under a heavy debt to you! You saved our lives! I--I am in no frame of
mind to thank you now, but--"
He strode over to the little man, holding out his hand.
"No, no, I'd better keep it," went on the person who had rendered the
bomb ineffective. "You might drop it you know. You are nervous--your
hand shakes."
"I want to shake hands with you!" exclaimed Mr. Titus--"to thank you!"
"Oh, that's it. I thought you wanted the bomb. Shake hands? Certainly!"
And while this ceremony was being gone through with, Tom had a moment
to study the appearance of the man who had saved their lives. He had
seen the passenger once or twice before, but had taken no special
notice of him. Now he had good reason to observe him.
Tom beheld a little, thin man, little in the sense of being of the
"bean pole" construction. His head was as bald as a billiard ball, as
the young inventor could notice when the stranger took off his hat to
bow formally in response to the greeting of some ladies who passed,
while Mr. Titus was shaking hands with him.
The bald head was sunk down between two high shoulders, and when the
owner wished to observe anything closely, as he was now observing the
bomb, the head was thrust forward somewhat as an eagle might do. And
Tom noticed that the eyes of the little man were as bright as those of
an eagle. Nothing seemed to escape them.
"I want to add my thanks to those of Mr. Titus for saving our lives,"
said Tom, as he advanced. "We don't know what to make of it all, but
you certainly stopped that bomb from going off."
"Yes, perhaps I did," admitted the little man coolly and calmly, as
though preventing bomb explosions was his daily exercise before
breakfast.
Tom and Mr. Titus introduced themselves by name.
"I am Professor Swyington Bumper," said the bomb-holder, with a bow,
removing his hat, and again disclosing his shiny bald head. "I am very
glad to have met you indeed."
"And we are more than glad," said Tom, fervently, as he glanced at the
explosive.
"Now that the danger is over," went on Mr. Titus, "suppose we make an
investigation, and find out how this bomb came to be here."
"Just what I was about to suggest," remarked Professor Bumper. "Bombs,
such as this, do not sprout of themselves on bare decks. And I take it
this one is explosive."
"Let me look at it," suggested Tom. "I know something of explosives."
It needed but a casual examination on the part of one who had done
considerable experimenting with explosives to disclose the fact that it
had every characteristic of a dangerous bomb. Only the pulling out of
the fuse had rendered it harmless.
"If it had gone off," said Tom, "we would both have been killed, or, at
least, badly injured, Mr. Titus."
"I believe you, Tom. And we owe our lives to Professor Bumper."
"I'm glad I could be of service, gentlemen," the scientist remarked, in
an easy tone. "Explosives are out of my line, but I guessed it was
rather dangerous to let this go off. Have you any idea how it got
here?"
"Not in the least," said Tom. "But some one must have placed it here,
or dropped it behind us."
"Would any one have an object in doing such a thing?" the professor
asked.
Tom and Mr. Titus looked at one another.
"Waddington!" murmured the contractor. "If he were on board I should
say he might have done it to get us out of the way, though I would not
go so far as to say he meant to kill us. It may be this bomb has only a
light charge in it, and he only meant to cripple us."
"We'll find out about that," said Tom. "I'll open it."
"Better be careful," urged Mr. Titus.
"I will," the young inventor promised. "I beg your pardon," he went on
to Professor Bumper. "We have been talking about something of which you
know nothing. Briefly, there is a certain man who is trying to
interfere in some work in which Mr. Titus and I are interested, and we
think, if he were on board, he might have placed this bomb where it
would injure us."
"Is he here?" asked the professor.
"No. And that is what makes it all the more strange," said Mr. Titus.
"At one time I thought he was here, but I was mistaken."
Tom took the now harmless bomb to his stateroom, and there, after
taking the infernal machine apart, he discovered that it was not as
dangerous as he had at first believed.
The bomb contained no missiles, and though it held a quantity of
explosive, it was of a slow burning kind. Had it gone off it would have
sent out a sheet of flame that would have severely burned him and Mr.
Titus, but unless complications had set in death would not have
resulted.
"They just wanted to disable us," said the contractor. "That was their
game. Tom, who did it?"
"I don't know. Did you ever see this Professor Bumper before?"
"I never did."
"And did it strike you as curious that he should happen to be so near
at hand when the bomb fell behind us?"
"I hadn't thought of that," admitted the contractor. "Do you mean that
he might have dropped it himself?"
"Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say that," replied Tom, slowly. "But
I think it would be a good idea to find out all we can of Professor
Swyington Bumper."
"I agree with you, Tom. We'll investigate him."