A SUCCESSFUL TEST
"It took you long enough," Ned remarked as Tom entered the main office
of the plant, having been to see Mary off on her trip to Newmarket.
This was following his call of the night before to learn more
particulars of her unexpected visit.
"Yes, I didn't plan to be gone so long," apologized Tom. "But I thought
while I was there I might as well go all the way with her."
"And did you?"
"Yes. In the electric runabout. I wanted to come back and get the
airship, but she said she wanted to look nice when she met her
relatives, and as yet airship travel is a bit mussy. Though when I get
my cabined cruiser of the clouds I'll guarantee not to ruffle a curl of
the daintiest girl!"
"Getting poetical in your old age!" laughed Ned. "Well, here is that
statement you said you wanted me to get ready. Want to go over it now?"
"No, I guess not, as long as you know it's all right. I'm going to
start right in and get ready for a bang-up test."
"Of what--your new aerial fire fighting apparatus?"
"Yes. Mr. Baxter and I are going to make up a lot of the chemical
compound that--we discovered through using it on the blazing tree--will
best do the trick. Then I'm going to try it on a pit fire, and after
that on a big blaze with an airship."
"Let me know when you do," begged Ned. "I want to see you do it."
"I'll send you word," promised the young inventor.
Then he began several days and nights of hard work. And he was glad to
have the chance to occupy himself, for, though Tom professed not to be
much affected by the departure of Mary Nestor, he really was very
lonesome.
"How is her uncle, Barton Keith, by the way?" asked Ned, when he called
on his chum one day, to find him reading a letter which needed but half
an eye to tell was from Mary.
"About as usual," was the answer. "He sends word by Mary that he'll be
glad to see us any time we want to call. He has some nice offices in
the Landmark Building."
"Those papers proving his right to the oil land, which you recovered
from the sunken ship for him, must have made his fortune."
"Well, yes--that and other things," agreed Tom. "Say, we had some
exciting times on that undersea search, didn't we?"
"Did you call on Mr. Keith when you went to Newmarket with Mary?" Ned
wanted to know, for he and Tom had taken quite a liking to Miss
Nestor's uncle.
"No, I didn't get a chance. Besides, I wanted to keep away from the
Landmark Building."
"Why?"
"Oh, I might run into Field and Melling, and I don't want to see them
until I can accuse them, and prove it, of having taken Mr. Baxter's dye
formulae."
"Oh, yes, they're in the same building with Mr. Keith, aren't they? Why
do they call it the Landmark? Though I suppose the answer is obvious."
"Yes," assented Tom. "It's a big building--the tallest ever erected in
that city, and a fine structure. Though while they were about it I
don't see why they didn't make it fireproof."
"Didn't they?" asked Ned, in surprise. "Then the insurance rates must
be unusually high, for the companies are beginning to realize how fire
departments, even in big cities, are hampered in fighting blazes above
the tenth or twelfth stories."
"Yes, it was a mistake not to have the Landmark Building fireproof,"
admitted Tom. "And Mr. Keith says the owners are beginning to realize
that now. It is what is called the 'slow burning' construction."
"Insurance companies don't go much on that," declared Ned, who was in a
position to know. "Well, let us hope it never catches fire."
These were busy days for the young inventor. He laid aside all his
other activities in order to perfect the plans for manufacturing his
new chemical fire extinguisher on a large scale. For Tom realized that
while a small quantity of chemicals in a compound might act in a
certain way on one occasion, if the bulk should happen to be increased
the experimenter could not always count on invariably the same results.
There appeared to be at times a change engendered when a large quantity
of chemicals were mixed which was not manifest in a small and
experimental batch.
So Tom wanted to mix up a big tank of his new chemical compound and see
if it would work in large quantities as well as it did with the small
amount Ned had dropped on the blazing tree.
To this end Tom worked at night, as well as by day, and finally he
announced to Ned and Mr. Damon, who called one evening, that he
believed he had everything in readiness for an exhaustive test the next
day.
"There's the stuff!" exclaimed Tom, not a little proudly, as he waved
his hand toward an immense carboy in the main shop. "That's what I hope
will do the trick. Just take a--"
"Hold on! Stop! That's enough! Bless my hair brush!" cried Mr. Damon,
holding up a protesting hand. "If you take that cork out, Tom Swift,
you and I will cease to be friends!"
"I wasn't going to open it," laughed the young inventor. "It has a
worse odor and seems to choke you more in a big quantity than when
there's only a little. I was just going to shake the carboy to let you
realize how full it was."
"We'll take your word for it!" laughed Ned. "Now about your test. How
are you going to work it?"
"There are to be two tests," answered Tom. "The first, and the smaller,
will be in the pit, as before, only this time we shall have what, I
believe, will be the successful combination of chemicals to drop on it.
"The second test will be the main one. In that I plan to have an old
barn which I have bought set ablaze. Then Ned and I will sail over it
in the airship and drop chemicals on it. The barn will be filled with
empty boxes and barrels, to make as hot a fire as possible. You are
invited to accompany us, Mr. Damon."
"Will there be any smell?" asked the eccentric man, who seemed to have
a dislike for anything that was not as agreeable as perfume.
"No, the chemicals will be sealed in containers, which will be dropped
from my airship as bombs were dropped in the war," said Tom.
"On those conditions I'll go along," agreed Mr. Damon. "But bless my
wedding certificate, Tom! don't tell my wife. She thinks I'm crazy
enough now, associating with you and flying occasionally. If she
thought I would help you battle with flames from the air she'd likely
never speak to me again."
"I'll not tell," promised Tom, laughing.
Preparations for the test went on rapidly. In the morning a fire was to
be started in the same pit where the experiment had partly failed
before.
From the platform over the blazing hole some of the new combination of
chemicals was to be dropped. If it acted with success, as Tom believed
it would, he proposed to go on with the more important test in the
afternoon.
To this end he had purchased from a farmer the right to set on fire an
old ramshackle barn, standing in the midst of a field about three miles
outside of Shopton. The barn was on an untilled farm, the house having
been destroyed some years before, and it was not near any other
structures, so that, even in a high wind, no damage would result.
Tom had filled the barn with inflammable material, and was going to
spare no effort to have the test as exhaustive as possible.
The time came for the preliminary trial, and there were a few anxious
moments after the oil-soaked boards and boxes in the pit were set
ablaze.
"Let her go!" cried Tom to his man on the elevated platform, and down
fell the container of chemicals. It had no sooner struck and burst,
letting loose a mass of flame-choking vapor, than the fire died out.
"You've struck it, Tom! You've struck it!" cried Ned.
"It begins to look so," agreed the young inventor. "But I'll not call
myself out of the woods until this afternoon. Though we can consider it
a success so far."
Quite a throng was on hand when the old barn was set ablaze. Tom and
Ned and Mr. Damon were there with the airship which had been especially
fitted to carry the bombs filled with the extinguisher.
In order to insure a quick, hot blaze the barn was fired on all four
sides at once by Tom's men. When it was seen to be a veritable raging
furnace of fire, Tom and his two friends took their places in the
airship and rapidly mounted upward.
Necessarily they had to circle off away from the blaze to get to the
necessary height, but Tom soon brought the airship around again and
headed for the black pall of smoke which marked the place of the
blazing barn.
"We'll all three send down bombs at the same time," Tom told his
friends, as they darted forward. "When I give the word press the
levers, and the chemical containers will drop. Then we'll hope for the
best."
Higher mounted the flames, and more fiercely raged the fire. The heat
of it penetrated even aloft, where Tom and his friends were scudding
along in the airship.
"Now!" cried Tom, as his craft hovered for an instant in a favorable
position for dropping the bombs. The young inventor, Mr. Damon, and Ned
Newton pressed the levers. Looking over the sides of the craft, they
saw three dark objects dropping into the midst of the burning barn.