Tom Swift and His Motor-Boat; Or, The Rivals of Lake Carlopa

by Victor Appleton

  CHAPTER VI

  TOWING SOME GIRLS

  With a sense of anger mingled with an apprehension lest some harmshould have been done to his craft, the owner of the ARROW wentcarefully over it. He could find nothing wrong. The engine was allright and all that appeared to have been accomplished by the unbiddenvisitor was the opening of the locked forward compartment. That thishad been done by one of the many keys on Andy Foger's ring was evident.

  "Now what could have been his object?" mused Tom. "I should think ifhe wanted to put a hole in the boat he would have done it amidships,where the water would have a better chance to come in, or perhaps hewanted to flood it with gasoline and--"

  The idea of fire was in Tom's mind, and he did not finish hishalf-completed thought.

  "That may have been it," he resumed after a hasty examination of thegasoline tank, to make sure there were no leaks in it. "To get evenwith me for outbidding him on the boat, Andy may have wanted to destroythe ARROW. Well, of all the mean tricks, that's about the limit! Butwait until I see him. I've got evidence against him," and Tom lookedat the key ring. "I could almost have him arrested for this."

  Going outside the boathouse, Tom stood on the edge of the dock andpeered into the darkness. He could hear the faint sound of someonerowing across the lake, but there was no light.

  "He had one of those electric flash lanterns," decided Tom. "If Ihadn't found his keys, I might have thought it was Happy Harry insteadof Andy."

  The young inventor went back into the house after carefully locking theboat compartment and detaching from the engine an electrical device,without which the motor in the ARROW could not be started.

  "That will prevent them from running away with my boat, anyhow,"decided Tom. "And I'll tell Garret Jackson to keep a sharp watchto-night." Jackson was the engineer at Mr. Swift's workshop.

  Tom told his father of the happening and Mr. Swift was properlyindignant. He wanted to go at once to see Mr. Foger and complain ofAndy's act, but Tom counseled waiting.

  "I'll attend to Andy myself," said the young inventor. "He's gettingdesperate, I guess, or he wouldn't try to set the place on fire. Butwait until I show him these keys."

  Bright and early the next morning the owner of the motor-boat was downto the dock inspecting it. The engineer, who had been on watch part ofthe night, reported that there had been no disturbance, and Tom foundeverything all right. "I wonder if I'd better go over and accuse Andynow or wait until I see him and spring this evidence on him?" thoughtour hero. Then he decided it would be better to wait. He took theARROW out after breakfast, his father going on a short spin with him.

  "But I must go back now and work on my gyroscope invention," said Mr.Swift when about two hours had been spent on the lake. "I am makinggood progress with it."

  "You need a vacation," decided Tom, "I'll be ready to take you and Nedin about two weeks. He will have two weeks off then and, we'll havesome glorious times together."

  That afternoon Tom put some new style spark plugs in the cylinders ofhis motor and found that he had considerably increased the revolutionsof the engine, due to a better explosion being obtained. He also madesome minor adjustments and the next day he went out alone for a longrun.

  Heading up the lake, Tom was soon in sight of a popular excursionresort that was frequently visited by church and Sunday-schoolorganizations in the vicinity of Shopton. The lad saw a number ofrowing craft and a small motor-boat circling around opposite the resortand remarked: "There must be a picnic at the grove to-day. Guess I'llrun up and take a look."

  The lad was soon in the midst of quite a flotilla of rowboats, most ofthem manned by pretty girls or in charge of boys who were givingsisters (their own or some other chap's) a trip on the water. Tomthrottled his boat down to slow speed and looked with pleasure on thepretty scene. His boat attracted considerable attention, for motorcraft were not numerous on Lake Carlopa.

  As our hero passed a boat, containing three very pretty young ladies,Tom heard one of them exclaim:

  "There he is now! That's Tom Swift."

  Something in the tones of the voice attracted his attention. He turnedand saw a brown-eyed girl smiling at him. She bowed and asked,blushing the while:

  "Well, have you caught any more runaway horses lately?"

  "Runaway horses--why--what? Oh, it's Miss Nestor!" exclaimed the lad,recognizing the young lady whose steed he had frightened one day whenhe was on his bicycle. As told in the first volume of this series, thehorse had run away, being alarmed at the flashing of Tom's wheel, andMiss Mary Nestor, of Mansburg, was in grave danger.

  "So you've given up the bicycle for the motor-boat," went on the younglady.

  "Yes," replied Tom with a smile, shutting off the power, "and I haven'thad a chance to save any girls since I've had it."

  The two boats had drifted close together, and Miss Nestor introducedher two companions to Tom.

  "Don't you want to come in and take a ride?" he asked.

  "Is it safe?" asked Jennie Haddon, one of the trio.

  "Of course it is, Jennie, or he wouldn't be out in it," said MissNestor hastily. "Come on, let's get in. I'm just dying for amotor-boat ride."

  "What will we do with our boat?" asked Katie Carson.

  "Oh, I can tow that," replied the youth. "Get right in and I'll takeyou all around the lake."

  "Not too far," stipulated the girl who had figured in the runaway. "Wemust be back for lunch, which will be served in about an hour. Ourchurch and Sunday-school are having a picnic."

  "Maybe Mr. Swift will come and have some lunch with us," suggested MissCarson, blushing prettily.

  "Nothing would give me greater pleasure," answered Tom, and then helaughed at his formal reply, the girls joining in.

  "We'd be glad to have you," added Miss Haddon. "Oh!" she suddenlyscreamed, "the boat's tipping over!"

  "Oh, no," Tom hastened to assure her, coming, to the side to help herin. "It just tilts a bit, with the weight of so many on one side. Itcouldn't capsize if it tried."

  In another moment the three were in the roomy cockpit and Tom had madethe empty rowboat fast to the stern. He was about to start up whenfrom another boat, containing two little girls and two slightly largerboys, came a plaintive cry:

  "Oh, mister, give us a ride!"

  "Sure!" agreed Tom pleasantly. "Just fasten your boat to the otherrowboat and I'll tow you."

  One of the boys did this, and then, with three pretty girls as hiscompanions in the ARROW and towing the two boats, Tom started off.

  The girls were very much interested in the craft and asked all sorts ofquestions about how the engine operated. Tom explained as clearly ashe could how the gasoline exploded in the cylinders, about the electricspark and about the propeller. Then, when he had finished, Miss Haddonremarked naively:

  "Oh, Mr. Swift, you've explained it beautifully, and I'm sure if ourteacher in school made things as clear as you have that I could getalong fine. I understand all about it, except I don't see what makesthe engine go."

  "Oh," said Tom faintly, and he wondering what would be the best remarkto make under the circumstances, when Miss Nestor created a diversionby looking at her watch and exclaiming:

  "Oh, girls, it's lunch time! We must go ashore. Will you kindly putabout, Mr. Swift--I hope that is the proper term--and--land us--is thatright?" and she looked archly at Tom.

  "That's perfectly right," he admitted with a laugh and a glance intothe girl's brown eyes. "I'll put you ashore at once," and he headedfor a small dock.

  "And come yourself to take lunch with us, added Miss Haddon.

  "I'm afraid I might be in the way," stammered Tom. "I--I have a prettygood appetite, and--"

  "I suppose you think that girls on a picnic don't take much lunch,"finished Miss Nestor. "But I assure you that we have plenty, and thatyou will be very welcome," she added warmly.

  "Yes, and I'd like to have him explain over again how the engineworks," went on Miss Haddon. "I
am so interested."

  Tom helped the girls out, receiving their thanks as well as those ofthe children in the second boat. But as he walked with the youngladies through the grove the young inventor registered a mental vowthat he would steer clear of explaining again how a gasoline engineworked.

  "Now come right over this way to our table," invited Miss Nestor. "Iwant you to meet papa and mamma."

  Tom followed her. As he stepped from behind a clump of trees he saw,standing not far away, a figure that seemed strangely familiar. Amoment later the figure turned and Tom saw Andy Foger confronting him.At the sight of our hero the bully turned red and walked quickly away,while Tom's fingers touched the ring of keys in his pocket.