KOKU'S BRAVE ACT
"Tom! Tom!" cried Ned, as he watched the disappearing figure of his
chum. "Come back here! If there's going to be an explosion we ought to
run out of the back door!"
"I'm not running away!" flashed back Tom. "I'm going to get that powder
out of the auto before it goes up! If it does we'll be blown to kingdom
come, back door or front door! Come on!"
"Bacon and eggs!" yelled Ned. "He's running an awful risk! But I can't
let him go alone! I guess we're in for it!"
Then he, too, rushed from the office toward the front of the shop,
before which, in a sort of private road, stood the blazing auto. And
Ned, who had now lost sight of Tom, because of our hero having turned a
corner in the corridor, heard excited shouts coming from the seat of
trouble.
"If that's some new kind of powder Tom's sent for, to test for his new
big gun, and it goes up," Ned said to himself, as he rushed on, "this
place will be blown to smithereens. All Tom's valuable machinery and
patents will be ruined!"
Ned had now reached the front door of the shop. He had a glimpse of the
burning auto--a small express truck, well loaded with various packages.
And, through the smoke, which from the odor must have been caused by
burning gasoline, Ned could see several boxes marked in red letters:
DANGEROUS EXPLOSIVE
KEEP AWAY FROM FIRE
"Keep away from fire!" murmured the panting lad. "If they can get any
nearer fire I don't see how."
"Oh, mah golly!" gasped Eradicate, who had lumbered on behind Ned. "Oh,
mah golly! Oh, good land ob massy! Look at Massa Tom!"
"I've got to help him!" cried Ned, for he saw that his chum had rushed
to the rear of the auto, and was endeavoring to drag one of the powder
boxes across the lowered tail-board. Tom was straining and tugging at
it, but did not seem able to move the case. It was heavy, as Ned
learned later, and was also held down by the weight of other express
packages on top of it.
"Oh, mah golly!" cried Eradicate. "Git some watah, somebody, an' put
out dat fire!"
"No--no water!" yelled Tom, who heard him. "Water will only make it
worse--it'll scatter the blazing gasoline. The feed pipe from the tank
must have burst. Throw on sand--sand is the only thing to use!"
"I'll git a shubble!" cried Eradicate. "I'll git a sand-shubble!" and
he tottered off.
"Wait, Tom, I'll give you a hand!" cried Ned, as he saw his chum step
away from the end of the auto for a moment, as a burst of flame, and
choking smoke, driven by the wind, was blown almost in his face. "I'll
help you!"
"We've got to be lively, then, Ned!" gasped Tom. "This is getting
hotter every minute! Where's that Koku? He could yank these boxes out
in a jiffy!"
And indeed a giant's strength was needed at that moment.
Ned glanced around to see if he could catch a glimpse of the big man
whom Tom had brought from Giant Land, but Koku was not in sight.
"Let's have another try now, Ned!" suggested Tom, when a shift in the
wind left the rear of the auto comparatively free from smoke and flame.
"You fellows had better skip!" cried the expressman, who had been
throwing light packages off his vehicle from in front, where, as yet,
there was no fire. "That powder'll go up in another minute. Some of the
boxes are beginning to catch now!" he yelled. "Look out!"
"That's right!" shouted Tom, as he saw that the edge of one of the
wooden cases containing the powder was blazing slightly. "Lively, Ned!"
Ned held back only for a second. Then, realizing that the time to act
was now or never, and that even if he ran he could hardly save himself,
he advanced to Tom's side. The smoke was choking and stifling them, and
the flames, coming from beneath the auto truck, made them gasp for
breath.
Together Tom and Ned tugged at the nearest case of powder--the one that
was ablaze.
"We--we can't budge it!" panted Tom.
"It--it's caught somewhere," added Ned. "Oh, if Koku were only here!"
There was a sound behind the lads. A voice exclaimed:
"Master want shovel, so Eradicate say--here it is!"
They turned and saw a big, powerful man, with a simple, child-like
face, standing calmly looking at the burning auto.
"Koku!" cried Tom. "Quick! Never mind the shovel! Get those powder
boxes out of that cart before they go up! Yank 'em out! They're too
much for Ned and me! Quick!"
"Oh, of a courseness I will so do!" said Koku, to whom, even yet, the
English language was somewhat of a mystery. He dropped the shovel, and,
heedless of the thick smoke from the burning gasoline, reached over and
took hold of the nearest box. It seemed as though he pulled it from the
auto truck as easily as Tom might have lifted a cork.
Then, carrying the box, which was now burning quite fiercely on one
corner, over toward Tom and Ned, who had moved back, the giant asked:
"What you want of him, Master?"
"Put it down, Koku, and get out all the others! Lively, now, Koku!"
"I do," was the simple answer. The giant put the box on the grass and
ran back toward the auto.
"Quick, Ned!" shouted Tom. "Throw some sand on this burning box! That
will put out the fire!"
A few handfuls of earth served to extinguish the little blaze, and by
this time Koku had come back with another box of powder.
"Get 'em all, Koku, get 'em all! Then we can put out the fire on the
auto."
For the giant it was but child's play to carry the heavy boxes of
powder, and soon he had them all removed from the truck. Then, with the
danger thus narrowly averted, they all, including the expressman,
turned in and began throwing sand on the fire, which now had a good
hold on the body of the auto. The shovel, which Eradicate had sent by
Koku, who could use more speed than could the aged colored man, came in
handy.
Soon the fire was out, though not before the truck had been badly
damaged, and some of its load destroyed. But, beyond a charring of some
of the powder boxes, the explosive was intact.
"Whew! That was a lucky escape," murmured Tom, as he sat down on one of
the boxes, and wiped the smoke and sweat from his face. "A little
later and there'd only been a hole in the ground to tell what happened.
Hot work; eh, Ned?"
"I guess yes, Tom."
"I thought of the powder as soon as I saw that the truck was on fire,"
explained the expressman; "but I didn't know what to do. I was kinder
flustered, I guess. This is the second time this old truck has caught
fire from a leaky gasoline pipe. I guess that will be the last--it will
for me, anyhow. I'll resign if they don't give me another machine. Will
you sign for your stuff?" he asked Tom, holding out the receipt book,
which had escaped the flames.
"Yes, and I'm mighty glad I'm here to sign for it," replied the young
inventor. "Now, Koku, I guess you can take that stuff up to the shop;
but be careful where you put it."
"I do, Master," replied the giant.
"What sort of powder is that, Tom?" asked Ned a little later, when they
were again back in the office, the excitement having calmed down. The
expressman had gone back to town afoot, to arrange about getting
another vehicle for what remained of his load. "Is it the kind they use
in big guns?"
"One of the kinds," replied Tom. "I sent for several samples, and this
is one. I'm going to conduct some tests to see what kind I'll need for
my own big gun. But I expect I'll have to invent an explosive as well
as a cannon, for I want the most powerful I can get. Want to look at
some of this powder?"
"Yes, if you think it's safe."
"Oh, it's safe enough if you treat it right. I'll show you," and
working carefully Tom soon had one of the boxes open. Reaching into
the depths he held up a handful of something that looked like sticks of
macaroni. "There it is," he said.
"That powder?" cried Ned. "That's a queer kind. I've seen the kind they
use in some guns on the battleships. That powder was in hexagonal form,
about two inches across, and had a hole in the centre. It was colored
brown."
"Well, powder is made in many forms," explained Tom. "A person who has
only seen black gunpowder, with its little grains, would not believe
that this was one grain of the new powder."
"That macaroni stick a grain of powder?" cried Ned.
"Yes, we'll call it a grain," went on the young inventor, "just as the
brown, hexagonal cube you saw was a grain. You see, Ned, the idea is to
explode all the powder at once--to get instantaneous action. It must
all burn up at once as soon as it is detonated, or set off.
"To do that you have to have every grain acted on at the same moment,
and that could not be done if the powder was in one solid chunk, or
closely packed. For that reason they make it in different shapes, so it
will lie loose in the firing chamber, just as a lot of jack-straws are
piled up. In fact, some of the new powder looks like jack-straws. Some,
as this, for instance, looks like macaroni. Other is in cubes, and some
in long strings."
As he spoke Tom struck a match and held the flames near the end of one
of the "macaroni" sticks.
"Caesar's grandmother!" yelled Ned. "Are you crazy, Tom?" as he started
to leap for a window.
"Don't get excited," spoke Tom, quietly. "There's no danger," and he
actually set fire to the stick of queer powder, which burned like some
wax taper.
"But--but--" stammered Ned.
"It is only when powder is confined that it explodes," Tom explained.
"If it can burn in the open it's as harmless as water, provided you
don't burn too much at once. But put it in something where the
resulting gases accumulate and can't escape, and then--why, you have an
explosion--that's all."
"Yes--that's all," remarked Ned, grimly, as he nervously watched the
burning stick of powder. Tom let it flame for a few seconds, and then
calmly blew it out.
"You know what a little puff black gunpowder gives, if you burn some
openly on the ground," went on Tom; "don't you, Ned?"
"Sure, I've often done that."
"But put that same powder in a tight box, and set fire to it, and you
have a bang instead of a puff. It's the same way with this powder, only
it doesn't even puff, for it burns more slowly.
"An explosion, you see, is the sudden liberation at one time of the
gases which result when the powder is burned. If the gases are given
off gradually, and in the open, no harm is done. But put a stick like
this in, say, a steel box, all closed up, save a hole for the fuse, and
what do you have? An explosion. That's the principle of all guns and
cannon.
"But say, Ned, I'm getting to be a regular lecturer. I didn't know I
was running on so. Why didn't you stop me?"
"Because I was interested. Go on, tell me some more."
"Not now. I want to get this powder in a safe place. I'm a little
nervous about it after that fire. You see if it had caught, when
tightly packed in the boxes, there would have been a terrific
explosion, though it does burn so harmlessly in the open air. Now let
me see--"
Tom was interrupted by the postman's whistle, and a little later
Eradicate came in with the mail that had been left in the box at the
shop door. Tom rapidly looked over the letters.
"Here's the note I want, I think," he said, Selecting one. "Yes, this
is it. 'Permission is hereby granted,' he read, 'to Thomas Swift to
visit,' and so on, and so on. This is the stuff, Ned!" he cried.
"What is it?"
"A permit to visit the government proving grounds at Sandy Hook, Ned,
and see 'em test that new big gun I was telling you about. Hurray!
We'll go down there, and I'll see how my ideas fit in with those of the
government's experts."
"Did you say 'we' would go down, Tom?"
"I sure did. You'll go with me; won't you?"
"Well, I hadn't thought very much about it, but I guess I will. When
is it?"
"A week from today, and I'm going to need all that time to get ready.
Now let's get busy, and we'll arrange to go to Sandy Hook. I've had
trouble enough to get this permit--I guess I'll put it where it won't
get lost," and he locked it in a secret drawer of his desk.
Then the lads stored the powder in a safe place, and soon were busy
about several matters in the shop.