CHAPTER III
THE BIG OFFER
Working with all the skill he possessed, Tom had got the aeroplane inproper working order again. As has been said, the accident was atrivial one, and had he been alone, or with an experienced aviator, hewould have thought little of it. Then, very likely, he would havevolplaned to earth and made the repairs there. But he did not want tofrighten Mary Nestor, so he fixed the control while gliding along, andmade light of it. Thus his passenger was reassured.
"Are we all right?" asked Mary through the tube, as they sailed along.
"Right as a fiddle," answered Tom, shouting through the same means ofcommunication.
"What's that about a riddle?" asked Mary, in surprise at his seemingflippancy at such a time.
"I didn't say anything about a riddle--I said we are as fit as afiddle!" cried Tom. "Never mind. No use trying to talk with the racketthis motor makes, and it isn't the noisiest of its kind, either. I'lltell you when we get down. Do you like it?"
"Yes, I like it better than I did at first," answered Mary, for she hadmanaged to understand the last of Tom's questions. Then he sailed alittle higher, circled about, and, a little later, not to get Mary tootired and anxious, he headed for his landing field.
"I'll take you home in the auto," he cried to his passenger. "We couldgo up to your house this way--in style--if there was a field near bylarge enough to land in. But there isn't. So it will have to be aplain, every-day auto."
"That's good enough for me," said Mary. "Though this trip iswonderful--glorious! I'll go again any time you ask me."
"Well, I'll ask you," said Tom. "And when I do maybe it won't be sohard to hold a conversation. It will be more like this," and he shutoff the motor and began to glide gently down. The quiet succeeding theterrific noise of the motor exhaust was almost startling, and Tom andMary could converse easily without using the tube.
Then followed the landing on the soft, springy turf, a little glideover the ground, and the machine came to a halt, while mechanics ranout of the hangar to take charge of it.
"I'll just go in and change these togs," said Mary, as she alighted andlooked at her leather costume.
"No, don't," advised Tom. "You look swell in em. Keep 'em on. They'reyours, and you'll need 'em when we go up again. Here comes the auto.I'll take you right home in it. Keep the aviation suit on.
"I wonder what Mr. Damon could have wanted," remarked Tom, as he droveMary along the country road.
"He seemed very much excited," she replied.
"Oh, he almost always is that way--blessing everything he can think of.You know that. But this time it was different, I'll admit. I hopenothing is the matter. I might have stopped and spoken to him, but Iwas afraid if I did you'd back out and wouldn't come for a sky ride."
"Well, I might have. But now that I've had one, even with an accidentthrown in, I'll go any time you ask me, Tom," and Mary smiled at theyoung inventor.
"Shucks, that wasn't a real accident!" he laughed. "But I do wonderwhat Mr. Damon wanted."
"Better go back and find out, Tom," advised Mary, as they stopped infront of her house.
"Oh, I want to come in and talk to you. Haven't had a chance for a goodtalk today, that motor made such a racket."
"No, go along now, but come back and see me this afternoon if you like."
"I do like, all right! And I suppose Mr. Damon will be fussing until hesees me. Well, glad you liked your first ride in the air, Mary--thatis, the first one of any account," for Mary had been in an aeroplanebefore, though only up a little way--a sort of "grass-cutting stunt,"Tom called it.
Waving farewell to the pretty girl, the young aviator turned the autoabout and speeded for his home and the shops adjoining it. His fatherhad not been well, of late, and Tom was a bit anxious about him.
"Mr. Damon may bother him, though he wouldn't mean to," thought Tom."He seemed to have his mind filled with some new idea. I wonder if itis anything like mine? No, it couldn't be. Well, I'll soon find out,"and, putting his foot on the accelerator, Tom sent the machine along ata pace that soon brought him within sight of his home.
"Is father all right?" he asked Mrs. Baggert, who was out on the frontporch, as though waiting for him.
"Oh, yes, Tom, he's all right," the housekeeper answered.
"Is Mr. Damon with him?"
"No."
"He hasn't gone home, has he?"
"No, he's around somewhere. But some one else is with your father. Somevisitors."
"Any relations?"
"No; strangers. They came to see you, and they're rather impatient. Icame out to see if you were in sight. Your father sent me."
"Are they bothering him--talking business that I ought to attend towhen he's ill? That mustn't be."
"Well, I suppose it is business that the strangers are talking overwith your father, Tom," said Mrs. Baggert, "for I heard sums of moneyspoken of. But your father seems to be all right, only a trifle anxiousthat you should come."
"Well, I'm here now and I'll attend to things. Where are the strangers,and who are they?"
"I don't know," answered the housekeeper. "I never saw them before, butthey're in the library with your father. Do you think they'll stay todinner? If you do, I'll have Eradicate or Koku catch and kill achicken."
"If you let one do it don't tell the other about it," said Tom with alaugh, "or you'll have a chicken race around the yard that will makethe visitors sit up and take notice."
There was great rivalry between Eradicate Sampson, the aged coloredman, and Koku, the giant, and they were continually disputing. Each oneloved and served Tom in his own way, and there was jealousy betweenthem. Koku, the giant Tom had brought with him from the land where theyoung inventor had been made captive, was a big, powerful man, andcould do things the aged colored servant could not attempt. But "Rad,"as he was often called, and his mule "Boomerang" had long been fixtureson the Swift homestead. But old age crept on apace with Eradicate,though he hated to admit it, and Koku did many things the colored manhad formerly attended to, and Rad was always on the lookout not to besupplanted. Hence Tom's warning to Mrs. Baggert about letting the twobe entrusted with the same mission of catching a chicken for the pot.
"Better get the fowl yourself and say nothing to either of them aboutit," Tom advised the housekeeper. "Mr. Damon will stay to dinner, as healways does when he comes, and as it's near twelve now, and as I may bedelayed talking business to these strangers, you'd better get up abigger meal than usual."
"I will, Tom," promised Mrs. Baggert. And then the young inventor,having seen that one of the men took the automobile to the garage, wentinto the house.
"Oh, here you are!" was his father's greeting, as he came out into thehall from the library. "I've been waiting anxiously for you, my boy. Icouldn't think what was keeping you."
"Oh, I had a little trouble with the air machine--nothing serious."
A moment later Tom was standing before two well-dressed,prosperous-looking business men, who smiled pleasantly at him.
"Mr. Thomas Swift?" interrogated one, the elder, as he held out hishand.
"That's my name," answered Tom, pleasantly.
"I'm Peton Gale, and this gentleman is Boland Ware," went on the manwho had taken Tom's hand. "I'm president and he's treasurer of theUniversal Flying Machine Company, of New York."
"Oh, yes," said Tom, as he shook hands with Mr. Ware. "I have heard ofyour concern. You are doing a lot of government work, are you not?"
"Yes; war orders. And we're up to our neck in them. This war is goingto be almost as much fought in the air as on the ground, Mr. Swift."
"I can well believe that," agreed Tom. "Won't you have a chair?"
"Well, we didn't come to stay long," said Mr. Gale with a laugh, which,somehow or other, grated on Tom and seemed to him insincere. "Ourbusiness is such a rushing one that we don't spend much time anywhere.To get down to brass tacks, we have come to see you to put a certainproposition before you, Mr. Swift. You are open to a businesspr
oposition, aren't you?"
"Oh, yes," answered Tom. "That's what I'm here for."
"I thought so. Well, now I'll tell you, in brief, what we want, andthen Mr. Ware, our treasurer, can elaborate on it, and give you factsand figures about which I never bother myself. I attend to theexecutive end and leave the details to others," and again came thatlaugh which Tom did not like.
"You came here to make me an offer?" asked the young inventor,wondering to which of his many machines the visitors had reference.
"Yes," went on Mr. Gale, "we came here to make you a big offer. Inshort, Mr. Swift, we want you to work for our company, and we arewilling to pay you ten thousand dollars a year for the benefit of youradvice and your inventive abilities. Ten thousand dollars a year! Doyou accept?"
Tom Swift and His Air Scout; Or, Uncle Sam's Mastery of the Sky Page 3