“About twenty thousand dollars, Tom. It will be hard to lose it, but I guess I can stand it.”
Tom privately made up his mind to see that his old friend did not suffer financially, for the gold discovered on the Pandora, while it was far from the amount hoped for, would almost reimburse Mr. Damon. But the young inventor did not say anything about that just then.
They were looking at the recovered gold and getting ready to store it in some of the boxes that had been brought from the wreck when the divers that had remained on the Pandora to bring the last of the treasure returned through the chamber. Two of them carried a small steel box.
“What’s that?” asked Tom, when they had their helmets off.
“Don’t know,” was the answer. “It was in the purser’s safe. Stuck away in the far corner.”
“Maybe it has jewels in it!” exclaimed Ned. “If it has—”
At that moment the lookout who had maintained his position in the conning tower called for Tom on the telephone.
“What is it?” asked the young inventor.
“There’s some sort of grappling iron, or cable with a hook on it, being lowered from the surface, and it’s near the wreck,” was the answer. “If it isn’t any of your apparatus it may be some other ship having a try for the gold.”
“It must be Hardley!” cried Tom. “He’s come back with another ship, as he half threatened to do, and, instead of diving for the wreck, which he can’t get ordinary men to do in this depth, he’s trying to grapple for it. Come on, we’ll have a look!”
Ned and Mr. Damon followed Tom to the conning tower. Looking out through the heavy glass windows, while the searchlight illuminated the waters, the young inventor and his friends saw a great grappling iron swaying this way and that through the sea not far from the wreck, and once, indeed, uncomfortably close to their own craft.
“He’s struck it uncommonly near,” remarked Tom. “I guess it’s time for us to be leaving.”
“Suppose it’s Hardley up above there?” suggested Ned.
“I don’t doubt but it is.”
“Well, are we going off and leave the wreck—and possibly other gold that may be hidden on her?”
“I wouldn’t give ten dollars for the chance of searching for any more gold!” Tom exclaimed. “We’ll take this steel box—it may contain something of value. The rest we’ll leave to Hardley.”
Preparations for rising to the surface were quickly made. Up and up went the M. N. 1, leaving the ill-starred Pandora to whatever else fate had in store for her.
Tom’s craft broke water with gentle undulations of the waves. The top of the hatch was thrown back, admitting the bright sunshine on those who had been long in the shadow of the underseas. And, as the young inventor and his friends went out on deck, they saw a small steamer riding on the ocean not far away.
One look was enough to tell them it was from this craft that the grappling iron had been let down, and as the submarine drifted nearer the form of Hardley was seen on deck. He was directing operations.
Some one must have called his attention to the M. N. 1, for he hurried to the rail of the craft which he had evidently chartered to seek the Pandora, and he exclaimed:
“What are you doing here, Swift?”
“The same thing you are, I believe,” coolly answered Tom. “Cleaning up the treasure ship. You might as well save your money though, for we have all the gold there is!”
“Impossible!” cried the now irate man. “You cannot have found the Pandora!”
“That’s just what we did, though,” answered Tom. “And, for your information, I’ll say that we took all the gold we found, though it was considerably less than you stated.”
“How dare you?” stormed the adventurer. “I’ll have the law on you for this!”
“I guess you forget,” replied Tom, “that we parted company at your request and that I told you I was on my own. Finding is keeping. I didn’t find what I expected to, and, on the other hand, I got something I didn’t look for.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Pandora was rightly named,” went on Tom. “If you recall the old story, Pandora had a box of treasures. They all flew out except Hope, which remained in the bottom. Well, most of the gold seems to have flown away, but we found a box on the Pandora. What’s in it I don’t know yet, as I haven’t opened it. Still, if it doesn’t contain more than Hope I shall be disappointed.”
The face of Hardley showed the rage felt.
“Give me that box! Give me that box!” he cried, shaking his fist at Tom.
“Not today,” was the cool answer of the young inventor. “I may let you know what I find in it if you leave your address. Goodbye!”
Tom waved his hand, gave orders to close the hatches and submerge the M. N. 1, and a few moments later the sea closed over her, leaving the other vessel to grapple uselessly for the treasure-ship.
“What are you going to do, Tom?” asked Ned of his chum, as they were all gathered in the main cabin half an hour later.
“Head for home as soon as we can. I’ve had enough of this, and I want to get at something else I have in mind. But first I’m going to see what’s in this box.”
It required the strength of Koku to open the small steel box, but when it was torn apart, for the combination was impossible to guess at, all that was seen were bundles of papers. The case having been hermetically closed, no water had penetrated it, though it had been submerged a long time.
“What are they?” asked Ned of his chum.
Tom did not answer for a moment. Then having quickly examined the papers, he cried:
“We’ve struck it!”
“What?” they all wanted to know.
“The very thing Hardley was after. These are the missing papers in the oil-well deal—the papers that prove Barton Keith has a half share in property worth many millions of dollars. It was these papers that Hardley was after. He may have thought he could get the gold, too, but he wanted most these oil shares. Boys, we’ve found the fortune anyhow, in spite of the fellows who looted the gold boxes!”
There was no doubt about it. There were all the papers—the certificates of shares, the partnership agreement and other documents—to show that Mary’s uncle was a rich man. The wreck of the Pandora held a fortune after all.
“How do you account for Hardley’s acts?” asked Ned of his chum.
“Well, there are several explanations. I think we may be certain that he knew these papers were aboard the Pandora, for he must have intrusted them to the purser himself when he made a trip on the ship. When she sank he had not time to get them to take with him.”
“He either knew then, or found out later, that the vessel carried, or was supposed to carry, a large amount of gold. He may have been honestly mistaken in thinking it was two millions. In any case he was playing safe, for he only promised me half if the treasure was found. He could have claimed this box as his property, and that is probably what he was after from the beginning. He was using me as a cat’s paw, so to speak.”
“Well, you beat him to it,” observed Ned.
“Bless my necktie, I should say so!” agreed Mr. Damon. “Do you think he really expected to find the gold?”
“Either that or the papers,” was Tom’s answer. “He must have engaged the vessel and the grappling apparatus, and, possibly, a diver, after we set him ashore at St. Thomas. Well, we’ll leave him to his own fun.”
The M. N. 1 made good time back to her home port, nothing except a terrific storm occurring to mark the voyage. And as she submerged when that was on she did not feel it. After greeting his father, Tom lost little time in going to Mary’s house with the box of securities and other papers.
“I want you to hand these to your uncle with my compliments,” he said. “I’ve got the Air Scout out in the meadow. We’ll go over in that. How is Mr. Keith?”
“Not very well,” Mary answered, after she had got over her surprise at seeing Tom. “But this good news will restore h
im, I think.”
And it certainly was a great tonic. Mr. Keith could hardly believe the story that Mary and Tom jointly told him. But at length he grasped the idea that he was a wealthy man again, and he exclaimed:
“Tom Swift, I’m going to share half with you!”
“Oh, no,” retorted the young inventor. “I couldn’t think of that. If you want to pay part of the expenses of the trip I shan’t object to that, as I intend giving the gold I recovered to Mr. Damon. But as for taking any of the oil shares—”
“Then, Mary, you shall take half!” exclaimed Mr. Keith. “I have more money now than I’ll ever spend. Mary, half of it is yours, and if you don’t let Tom Swift have a say in the spending of it— Say, Mary, have you thanked him yet?” he asked with a twinkle of his eyes. “Well, Uncle Barton, I—I don’t know—”
“Then do it now!” cried her uncle. “Tom, if you could have any reward you wanted, what would it be?”
Tom took Mary in his arms and—But I refuse to betray any secrets. Anyhow, some time later when Ned asked his chum if he felt entirely satisfied with the result of his undersea search, the young inventor replied: “I certainly do!”
Tom admitted to his father that a mistake had been made in not installing the gyroscope rudder. There was no excuse for not taking it. Tom declared, as it was small and took up little room, and it might have saved them from what was a close call at one time.
“I’ll take it on my next submarine trip,” the young inventor promised.
Ned wanted to bring suit against Hardley to recover half the expenses of the trip, but Tom would not consent to it. After all, the value of the oil well property was more than the gold the Pandora was reputed to have carried. No attempt was made to take from Tom the comparatively small amount he had salvaged. Perhaps whoever had put it on board did not want to admit the trick that had been played in filling the boxes with iron disks.
Dixwell Hardley made no further trouble. He could not, for he was so entirely in the wrong. He sold out his shares in the oil property, and a company took possession which gave fair treatment to Mary’s uncle.
And this is the end of the story. But the future holds further adventures for Tom Swift which, let it be hoped, he will see fit to order recorded.
TOM SWIFT AMONG THE FIRE FIGHTERS
OR, BATTLING WITH FLAMES FROM THE AIR
CHAPTER I
A BAD PLACE FOR A FIRE
“Impossible, Ned! It can’t be as much as that!”
“Well, you can prove the additions yourself, Tom, on one of the adding machines. I’ve been over ’em twice, and get the same result each time. There are the figures. They say figures don’t lie, though it doesn’t follow that the opposite is true, for those who do not stick closely to the truth do, sometimes, figure. But there you have it; your financial statement for the year,” and Ned Newton, business manager for Tom Swift, the talented young inventor, shoved a mass of papers across the table to his friend and chum, as well as employer.
“It doesn’t seem possible, Ned, that we have made as much as that this past year. And this, as I understand it, doesn’t include what was taken from the wreck of the Pandora?”
Tom Swift looked questioningly at Ned Newton, who shook his head in answer.
“You really didn’t get anything to speak of out of your undersea search, Tom,” replied the young financial manager, “so I didn’t include it. But there’s enough without that.”
“I should say so!” exclaimed Tom. “Whew!” he whistled, “I didn’t think I was worth that much.”
“Well, you’ve earned it, every cent, with the inventions of yourself and your father.”
“And I might add that we wouldn’t have half we earn if it wasn’t for the shrewd way you look after us, Ned,” said Tom, with a warm smile at his friend. “I appreciate the way you manage our affairs; for, though I have had some pretty good luck with my searchlight, wizard camera, war tank and other contraptions, I never would have been able to save any of the money they brought in if it hadn’t been for you.”
“Well, that’s what I’m here for,” remarked Ned modestly.
“I appreciate that,” began Tom Swift. “And I want to say, Ned—”
But Tom did not say what he had started to. He broke off suddenly, and seemed to be listening to some sound outside the room of his home where he and his financial and business manager were going over the year’s statement and accounting.
Ned, too, in spite of the fact that he had been busy going over figures, adding up long columns, checking statements, and giving the results to Tom, had been aware, in the last five minutes, of an ever-growing tumult in the street. At first it had been no more than the passage along the thoroughfare of an unusual number of pedestrians. Ned had accounted for it at first by the theory that some moving picture theater had finished the first performance and the people were hurrying home.
But after he had finished his financial labors and had handed Tom the first of a series of statements to look over, the young financial expert began to realize that there was no moving picture house near Tom’s home. Consequently the passing throngs could not be accounted for in that way.
Yet the tumult of feet grew in the highway outside. Ned had begun to wonder if there had been an attempted burglary, a fight, or something like that, calling for police action, which had gathered an unusual throng that warm, spring evening.
And then had come Tom’s interruption of himself when he broke off in the middle of a sentence to listen intently.
“What is it?” asked Ned.
“I thought I heard Rad or Koku moving around out there,” murmured Tom. “It may be that my father is not feeling well and wants to speak to me or that some one may have telephoned. I told them not to disturb me while you and I were going over the accounts. But if it is something of importance—”
Again Tom paused, for distinctly now in addition to the ever-increasing sounds in the streets could be heard a shuffling and talking in the hall just outside the door.
“G’wan ’way from heah now!” cried the voice of a colored man.
“It is Rad!” exclaimed Tom, meaning thereby Eradicate Sampson, an aged but faithful colored servant. And then the voice of Rad, as he was most often called, went on with:
“G’wan ’way! I’ll tell Massa Tom!”
“Me tell! Big thing! Best for big man tell!” broke in another voice; a deep, booming voice that could only proceed from a powerfully built man.
“Koku!” exclaimed Tom, with a half comical look at Ned. “He and Rad are at it again!”
Koku was a giant, literally, and he had attached himself to Tom when the latter had made one of many perilous trips. So eager were Eradicate and Koku to serve the young inventor that frequently there were more or less good-natured clashes between them to see who would have the honor.
The discussion and scuffle in the hall at length grew so insistent that Tom, fearing the aged colored man might accidentally be hurt by the giant Koku, opened the door. There stood the two, each endeavoring to push away the other that the victor might, it appeared, knock on the door. Of course Rad was no match for Koku, but the giant, mindful of his great strength, was not using all of it.
“Here! what does this mean?” cried Tom, rather more sternly than he really meant. He had to pretend to be stern at times with his old colored helper and the impulsive and powerful giant. “What are you cutting up for outside my door when I told you I must be quiet with Mr. Newton?”
“No can be quiet!” declared the giant. “Too much noise in street—big crowds—much big!”
He spoke an English of his own, did Koku.
“What are the crowds doing?” asked Ned. “I thought we’d been hearing an ever increasing tumult, Tom,” he said to the young inventor.
“Big crowds—’um go to see big—”
“Heah! Let me tell Massa Tom!” pleaded Rad. Poor Rad! He was getting old and could not perform the services that once he had so readily and efficiently done. Now he
was eager to help Tom in such small measure as carrying him a message. So it was with a feeling of sadness that Tom heard the old man say again, pleadingly:
“Let me tell him, Koku! I know all ’bout it! Let me tell Massa Tom whut it am, an’—”
“Well, go ahead and tell me!” burst out Tom, with a good-natured laugh. “Don’t keep me in suspense. If there’s anything going on—”
He did not finish the sentence. It was evident that something of moment was going on, for the crowds in the street were now running instead of walking, and voices could be heard calling back and forth such exclamations as:
“Where is it?”
“Must be a big one.”
“And with this wind it’ll be worse!”
Tom glanced at Ned and then at the two servants.
“Has anything happened?” asked the young inventor.
“Dey’s a big fire, Massa Tom!” exploded Rad.
“Heap big blaze!” added Koku.
At the same time, out in the street high and clear, the cry rang out:
“Fire! Fire!”
“Is it any of our buildings?” exclaimed Tom, in his excitement catching hold of the giant’s arm.
“No, it’s quite a way off, on de odder side of town,” answered the colored man. “But we t’ought we’d better come an’ tell yo’, an’—”
“Yes! Yes! I’m glad you did, Rad. It was perfectly right for you to tell me! I wish you’d done it sooner, though! Come on, Ned! Let’s go to the blaze! We can finish looking over the figures another time. Is my father all right, Rad?”
“Yes, suh, Massa Tom, he’s done sleepin’ good.”
“Then don’t disturb him. Mr. Newton and I will go to the fire. I’m glad it isn’t here,” and Tom looked from a side window out on many shops that were not a great distance from the house; shops where he and his father had perfected many inventions.
The buildings had grown up around the old Swift homestead, which, now that so much industry surrounded it, was not the most pleasant place to live in. Tom and his father only made this their stopping place in winter. In the summer they dwelt in a quiet cottage far removed from the scenes of their industry.
The Tom Swift Megapack Page 298