CHAPTER IV
SUSPICIONS
High up aloft, over the blazing red shed, with its dangerous contentsthat any moment might explode, Tom Swift continued to hold his bigdirigible balloon as near the flames as possible. And as he stoodoutside on the small deck in front of the pilot-house, where werelocated the various controls, the young inventor pulled the levers thatemptied bag after bag of fine sand on the spouting flames that,already, were beginning to die down as a result of this effectualquenching.
"Tom's done the trick!" yelled Ned, paying little attention now to thebig airship shed, since he saw that the danger was about over.
"Dhat's what he suah hab done!" agreed Eradicate. "Mah ole muleBoomerang couldn't 'a' done any better."
"Huh! Your mule afraid of fire," remarked Koku.
"What's dat? Mah mule afraid ob fire?" cried the colored man. "Lookheah, yo' great, big, overgrowed specimen ob an equilateral quadruped,I'll hab yo' all understand dat when yo' all speaks dat way about afriend ob mine dat yo'--"
"That'll do, Rad!" broke in Ned, with a laugh. He knew that when Tom'shelper grew excited on the subject of his mule there was no stoppinghim, and Boomerang was a point on which Eradicate and Koku were alwaysarguing. "The fire is under control now."
"Yes, it seems to have gone visiting," observed Koku.
"Visiting?" queried Ned, in some surprise.
"Yes, that is, it is going out," went on Koku.
"Oh, I understand!" laughed Ned. "Yes, and I hope it doesn't pay usanother visit soon. Oh, look at Tom, would you!" he cried, for theyoung aviator had swung his ship about over the flames, to bringanother row of sand bags directly above a place where the fire washottest.
Down showered more sand from the bags which Tom opened. No fire couldlong continue to blaze under that treatment. The supply of air was cutoff, and without that no fire can exist. Water would have been worsethan useless, because of the carbide, but the sand covered it up sothat it was made perfectly harmless.
Moving slowly, the airship hovered over every part of the now slowlyexpiring flames, the burned opening in the roof of the shed making itpossible for the sand to reach the spots where it was most needed. Theflames died out in section after section, until no more could beseen--only clouds of black smoke.
"How is it now?" came Tom's voice, as he spoke from the deck of theballoon through a megaphone.
"Almost out," answered Mr. Damon. "A little more sand, Tom."
The eccentric man had caught up a piece of paper and, rolling it into acone, made an improvised megaphone of that.
"Haven't much more sand left," was Tom's comment, as he sent down alast shower. "That will have to do. Hustle that carbide and otherexplosive stuff out of there now, while you have a chance."
"That's it!" cried Ned, who caught his chums meaning. "Come on, Koku.There's work for you."
"Me like work," answered the giant, stretching out his great arms.
The last of the sand had completely smothered the fire, and Tom,observing from aloft that his work was well done, moved away in thedirigible, sending it to a landing space some little distance away fromthe shed whence it had arisen. It was impossible to drop it back againthrough the roof of the hangar, as the balloon was of such bulk thateven a little breeze would deflect it so that it could not beaccurately anchored. But Tom had it under very good control, and soonit was being held down on the ground by some of his helpers.
As all the sand ballast had been allowed to run out Tom was obliged toopen the gas-valves and let some of the lifting vapor escape, or hecould not have descended.
"Come on, now!" cried the inventor, as he leaped from the deck of hissky craft. "Let's clean out the red shed. That fire is only smothered,and there may be sparks smoldering under that sand, which will burstinto flame, if we're not careful. Let's get the explosives out of theway."
"Bless my insurance policy, yes," exclaimed Mr. Damon. "That was a finemove of yours."
"It was the only way I could think of to put out the fire," Tomreplied. "I knew water was out of the question, and sand was the nextthing."
"But I didn't know where to get any until I happened to think of theballast bags of my dirigible. Then I knew, if I could get above thefire, I could do the trick. I had to fly pretty high, though, as thefire was hot, and I was afraid it might explode the gas bag and wreckme."
"You were taking a chance," remarked Ned.
"Oh, well, you have to take chances in this business," observed Tom,with a smile. "Now, then, let's finish this work."
The sand, falling from the ballast bags of the dirigible, had soeffectually quenched the fire that it was soon cool enough to permitclose approach. Koku, Tom and some of the men who best knew how tohandle the explosives, were soon engaged in the work of salvage.
"I wish I could help you, Tom," said his aged father. "I don't seemable to do anything but stand here and look on," and he gazed about himrather sadly.
"Never you mind, Dad!" Tom exclaimed. "We'll get along all right now.You'd better go up to the house. Mr. Damon will go with you."
"Yes, of course!" exclaimed the odd man, catching a wink from Tom, whowanted his father not to get too excited on account of his weak heart."Come along, Professor Swift. The danger is all over."
"All right," assented the aged inventor, with a look at the stillsmoking shed.
"And, Dad, when you haven't anything else to do," went on Tom, ratherwhimsically, "you might be thinking up some plan to take up the recoilof those guns on my aerial warship. I confess I'm clean stumped on thatpoint."
"Your aerial warship will never be a success," declared Mr. Swift. "Youmight as well give that up, Tom."
"Don't you believe it, Dad!" cried Tom, with more of a jolly air of onechum toward another than as though the talk was between father and son."You solve the recoil problem for me, and I'll take care of the rest,and make the air warship sail. But we've got something else to do justnow. Lively, boys."
While Mr. Swift, taking Mr. Damon's arm, walked toward the house, Tom,Ned, Koku, and some of the workmen began carrying out the explosiveswhich had so narrowly escaped the fire. With long hooks the men pulledthe shed apart, where the side walls had partly been burned through.Tom maintained an efficient firefighting force at his works, and themen had the proper tools with which to work.
Soon large openings were made on three sides of the red shed, orrather, what was left of it, and through these the dangerous chemicalsand carbide, in sheet-iron cans, were carried out to a place of safety.In a little while nothing remained but a heap of hot sand, some charredembers and certain material that had been burned.
"Much loss, Tom?" asked Ned, as they surveyed the ruins. They were bothblack and grimy, tired and dirty, but there was a great sense ofsatisfaction.
"Well, yes, there's more lost than I like to think of," answered Tomslowly, "but it would have been a heap sight worse if the stuff hadgone up. Still, I can replace what I've lost, except a few models Ikept in this place. I really oughtn't to have stored them here, butsince I've been working on my new aerial warship I have sort of letother matters slide. I intended to make the red shed nothing but astorehouse for explosive chemicals, but I still had some of my plansand models in it when it caught."
"Only for the sand the whole place might have gone," said Ned in a lowvoice.
"Yes. It's lucky I had plenty of ballast aboard the dirigible. Yousee, I've been running it alone lately, and I had to take on plenty ofsand to make up for the weight of the several passengers I usuallycarry. So I had plenty of stuff to shower down on the fire. I wonderhow it started, anyhow? I must investigate this."
"Mr. Damon and Eradicate seem to have seen it first," remarked Ned.
"Yes. At least they gave the alarm. Guess I'll ask Eradicate how hehappened to notice. Oh, I say, Rad!" Tom called to the colored man.
"Yais, sah, Massa Tom! I'se comin'!" the darky cried, as he finishedpiling up, at a safe distance from the fire, a number of cans ofcarbide.
"How'd you
happen to see the red shed ablaze?" Tom asked.
"Why, it was jest dish yeah way, Massa Tom," began the colored man. "Ihad jest been feedin' mah mule, Boomerang. He were pow'ful hungry,Boomerang were, an', when I give him some oats, wif a carrot sliced upin 'em--no, hole on--did I gib him a carrot t'day, or was ityist'day?--I done fo'got. No, it were yist'day I done gib him decarrot, I 'member now, 'case--"
"Oh, never mind the carrot, or Boomerang, either, Rad!" broke in Tom,"I'm asking you about the fire."
"An' I'se tellin' yo', Massa Tom," declared Eradicate, with a ratherreproachful look at his master. "But I wanted t' do it right an'proper. I were comin' from Boomerang's stable, an' I see suffin' redspoutin' up at one corner ob de red shed. I knowed it were fire rightaway, an' I yelled."
"Yes, I heard you yell," Tom said. "But what I wanted to know is, didyou see anyone near the red shed at the time?"
"No, Massa Tom, I done didn't."
"I wonder if Mr. Damon did? I must ask him," went on the younginventor. "Come, on, Ned, we'll go up to the house. Everything is allright here, I think. Whew! But that was some excitement. And I didn'tshow you my aerial warship after all! Nor have you settled that recoilproblem for me."
"Time enough, I guess," responded Ned. "You sure did have a luckyescape, Tom."
"That's right. Well, Koku, what is it?" for the giant had approached,holding out something in his hand.
"Koku found this in red shed," went on the giant, holding out a round,blackened object. "Maybe him powder; go bang-bang!"
"Oh, you think it's something explosive, eh?" asked Tom, as he took theobject from the giant.
"Koku no think much," was the answer. "Him look funny."
Tom did not speak for a moment. Then he cried:
"Look funny! I should say it did! See here, Ned, if this isn'tsuspicious I'll eat my hat!" and Tom beckoned excitedly to his chum,who had walked on a little in advance.
Tom Swift and His Aerial Warship; Or, The Naval Terror of the Seas Page 4