Tom Swift and His Air Scout Part 11

"Yes," said Jackson in a low voice, as Koku went on ahead with his prisoner. "If, as you say, this man was in league with Bower, the latter has smelled a rat and skipped. He has run away, and I only hope he hasn't done any damage or got hold of any of your plans."

"We'll soon know about that," said Tom. "I wonder who is at the bottom of this?"

"Maybe those men you wouldn't work for," suggested the machinist.

"You mean Gale and Ware of the Universal Flying Machine Company?"

"Yes."

"Oh, I don't believe they'd stoop to any such measures as this--sending spies around," replied Tom. "But I can't be too careful. We'll investigate."

The first result of the investigation was to disclose the fact that Bower was gone. He had taken his few possessions and left the Swift plant while Tom was racing after the stranger. A hasty examination of the safe did not reveal anything missing, as Tom's plans and papers were intact. But they showed evidences of having been looked over, for they were out of the regular order in which the young inventor kept them.

"I begin to see it," said Tom, musingly. "Bower must have managed to open the safe while I was gone, and he must have made a hasty copy of some of the drawings of the silent motor, and pa.s.sed them out of the window to this gold-tooth man, who tried to make off with them. Did you find anything on him?" he asked, as one of the men who had been instructed to search the stranger came into the office just then.

"Not a thing, Mr. Swift! Not a thing!" was the answer. "We took off every bit of his clothes and wrapped him in a blanket. He's in the engine room getting dry now. But there isn't a thing in any of his pockets."

"But I saw him stuffing some papers in as he ran away from me," said Tom. "We must be sure about this. And don't let the fellow get away until I question him."

"Oh, he's safe enough," answered the man. "Koku is guarding him. He won't get away."

"Then I'll have a look at his clothes," decided Tom. "He may have a secret pocket."

But nothing like this was disclosed, and the most careful search did not reveal anything incriminating in the man's garments.

"He might have thrown away any papers Bower gave him," said Tom. "Maybe they're at the bottom of the mud hole! If they're there they're safe enough. But have a search made of the ground where this man ran."

This was done, but without result. Some of the workmen even dragged the mud hole without finding anything. Then Tom and his father had a talk with the stranger, who refused to give his name. The man was sullen and angry. He talked loudly about his innocence and of "having the law on"

Tom for having tripped him into the mud.

"All right, if you want to make a complaint, go ahead," said the young inventor. "I'll make one against you for trespa.s.s. Why did you come on my grounds?"

"I was going to ask for work. I'm a. good machinist and I wanted a job."

"How did you get in? Who admitted you at the gate?"

"I--I jest walked in," said the man, but Tom knew this could not be true, as no strangers were admitted without a permit and none had been issued. The man denied knowing anything about Bower, but the latter's flight was evidence enough that something was wrong.

Not wishing to go to the trouble of having the man arrested merely as a trespa.s.ser, Tom let him go after his clothes had been dried on a boiler in one of the shops.

"Take him to the gate, and tell him if he comes back he'll get another dose of the same kind of medicine," ordered Tom to one of the guards at the plant, and when the latter had reported that this had been done, he added in an earnest tone:

"He went off talking to himself and saying he'd get even with you, Mr.

Swift."

"All right," said Tom easily. "I'll be on the watch."

The young inventor made a thorough examination of his experiment shop and the test motor. No damage seemed to have been done, and Tom began to think he had been too quick for the conspirators, if such they were.

His plans and drawings were intact, and though Bower might have given a copy to the stranger with the gold tooth, the latter did not take any away with him. That he had some papers he wished to conceal and escape with, seemed certain, but the splash into the mud hole had ended this.

No trace was found of Bower, and an effort Tom made to ascertain if the man was a spy in the employ of Gale and Ware came to naught. The machinist had come well recommended, and the firm where he was last employed had nothing but good to say of him.

"Well, it's a mystery," decided Tom. "However, I got out of it pretty well. Only if that gold-tooth individual shows up again he won't get off so easily."

CHAPTER XI

A NIGHT TRIP

Taking a lesson from what had happened, Tom was very much more careful in the following experiments on his new, silent motor. He made some changes in his shop, and took Jackson in to help on the new machine, thus insuring perfect secrecy as the apparatus developed.

Tom also changed the safe in which he kept his plans, for the one he had used previous to the episode in which Bower and the stranger who took the mud bath figured, was one the combination of which could easily be ascertained by an expert. The new safe was more complicated, and Tom felt that his plans, specifications, and formulae which he had worked out were in less danger.

"I can just about figure out what happened," said Ned Newton to Tom, when told of the circ.u.mstances. "These Universal people were provoked because you wouldn't give them the benefit of your experience on their flying machines, and so they sent a spy to get work with you. They, perhaps, hoped to secure some of your ideas for their own, or they may have had a deeper motive."

"What deeper motive could they have, Ned?"

"They might have hoped to disable you, or some of your machines, so that you couldn't compete with them. They're unscrupulous, I hear, and will do anything to succeed and make money. So be on your guard against them."

"I will," Tom promised. "But I don't believe there's any more danger now. Anyhow, I have to take some chances."

"Yes, but be as careful as you can. How is the silent motor coming on?"

"Pretty good. I've had a lot of failures, and the thing isn't so easy as I at first imagined it would be. Noise is a funny thing, and I'm just beginning to understand some of the laws of acoustics we learned at high school. But I think I'm on the right track with the m.u.f.fler and the cutting down of the noise of the explosions in the cylinders. I'm working both ends, you see--making a motor that doesn't cause as much racket as those now in use, and also providing means to take care of the noise that is made. It isn't possible to make a completely silent motor of an explosive gas type. The only thing that can be done is to kill the noise after it is made."

"What about the propeller blades?"

"Oh, they aren't giving me any trouble. The noise they make can't be heard a hundred feet in the air, but I am also working on improvements to the blades. Take it altogether, I'll have an almost silent aeroplane if my plans come out all right."

"Have you said anything to the government yet?"

"No; I want to have it pretty well perfected before I do. Besides, I don't want any publicity about it until I'm ready. If these Universal people are after me I'll fool 'em."

"That's right, Tom! Well, I must go. Another week of this Liberty Bond campaign!"

"I suppose you'll be glad when it's over."

"Well, I don't know," said Ned slowly. "It's part of my small contribution to Uncle Sam. I'm not like you--I can't invent things."

"But you have an awful smooth line of talk, Ned!" laughed his chum. "I believe you could sell chloride of sodium to some of the fishes in the Great Salt Lake--that is if it has fishes."

"I don't know that it has, Tom. And, anyhow, I'm not posing as a salt salesman," and Ned grinned. "But I must really go. Our bank hasn't reached its quota in the sale of Liberty Bonds yet, and it's up to me to see that it doesn't fall down."

"Go to it, Ned! And I'll get busy on my silent motor."