Produced by Anthony Matonac
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP
or
The Naval Terror of the Seas
BY
VICTOR APPLETON
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I TOM IS PUZZLED II A FIRE ALARM III A DESPERATE BATTLE IV SUSPICIONS V A QUEER STRANGER VI THE AERIAL WARSHIP VII WARNINGS VIII A SUSPECTED PLOT IX THE RECOIL CHECK X THE NEW MEN XI A DAY OFF XII A NIGHT ALARM XIII THE CAPTURE XIV THE FIRST FLIGHT XV IN DANGER XVI TOM IS WORRIED XVII AN OCEAN FLIGHT XVIII IN A STORM XIX QUEER HAPPENINGS XX THE STOWAWAYS XXI PRISONERS XXII APPREHENSIONS XXIII ACROSS THE SEA XXIV THE LIGHTNING BOLT XXV FREEDOM
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP
CHAPTER I
TOM IS PUZZLED
"What's the matter, Tom? You look rather blue!"
"Blue! Say, Ned, I'd turn red, green, yellow, or any other color of therainbow, if I thought it would help matters any."
"Whew!"
Ned Newton, the chum and companion of Tom Swift, gave vent to a whistleof surprise, as he gazed at the young fellow sitting opposite him, neara bench covered with strange-looking tools and machinery, whileblueprints and drawings were scattered about.
Ranged on the sides of the room were models of many queer craft, mostof them flying machines of one sort or another, while through the opendoor that led into a large shed could be seen the outlines of a speedymonoplane.
"As bad as that, eh, Tom?" went on Ned. "I thought something was upwhen I first came in, but, if you'll excuse a second mention of thecolor scheme, I should say it was blue--decidedly blue. You look asthough you had lost your last friend, and I want to assure you that ifyou do feel that way, it's dead wrong. There's myself, for one, andI'm sure Mr. Damon--"
"Bless my gasoline tank!" exclaimed Tom, with a laugh, in imitation ofthe gentleman Ned Newton had mentioned, "I know that! I'm not worryingover the loss of any friends."
"And there are Eradicate, and Koku, the giant, just to mention a coupleof others," went on Ned, with a smile.
"That's enough!" exclaimed Tom. "It isn't that, I tell you."
"Well, what is it then? Here I go and get a half-holiday off from thebank, and just at the busiest time, too, to come and see you, and Ifind you in a brown study, looking as blue as indigo, and maybe you'reall yellow inside from a bilious attack, for all I know."
"Quite a combination of colors," admitted Tom. "But it isn't what youthink. It's just that I'm puzzled, Ned."
"Puzzled?" and Ned raised his eyebrows to indicate how surprised he wasthat anything should puzzle his friend.
"Yes, genuinely puzzled."
"Has anything gone wrong?" Ned asked. "No one is trying to take any ofyour pet inventions away from you, is there?"
"No, not exactly that, though it is about one of my inventions I ampuzzled. I guess I haven't shown you my very latest; have I, Ned?"
"Well, I don't know, Tom. Time was when I could keep track of you andyour inventions, but that was in your early days, when you started witha motorcycle and were glad enough to have a motorboat. But, sinceyou've taken to aerial navigation and submarine work, not to mentionone or two other lines of activity, I give up. I don't know where tolook next, Tom, for something new."
"Well, this isn't so very new," went on the young inventor, for TomSwift had designed and patented many new machines of the air, earth andwater. "I'm just trying to work out some new problems in aerialnavigation, Ned," he went on.
"I thought there weren't any more," spoke Ned, soberly enough.
"Come, now, none of that!" exclaimed Tom, with a laugh. "Why, thesurface of aerial navigation has only been scratched. The science isfar from being understood, or even made safe, not to say perfected, aswater and land travel have been. There's lots of chance yet."
"And you're working on something new?" asked Ned, as he looked aroundthe shop where he and Tom were sitting. As the young bank employee hadsaid, he had come away from the institution that afternoon to have alittle holiday with his chum, but Tom, seated in the midst of hisinventions, seemed little inclined to jollity.
Through the open windows came the hum of distant machinery, for TomSwift and his father were the heads of a company founded to manufactureand market their many inventions, and about their home were groupedseveral buildings. From a small plant the business had grown to be agreat tree, under the direction of Tom and his father.
"Yes, I'm working on something new," admitted Tom, after a moment ofsilence.
"And, Ned," he went on, "there's no reason why you shouldn't see it.I've been keeping it a bit secret, until I had it a little furtheradvanced, but I've got to a point now where I'm stuck, and perhaps itwill do me good to talk to someone about it."
"Not to talk to me, though, I'm afraid. What I don't know aboutmachinery, Tom, would fill a great many books. I don't see how I canhelp you," and Ned laughed.
"Well, perhaps you can, just the same, though you may not know a lot oftechnical things about machines. It sometimes helps me just to tell mytroubles to a disinterested person, and hear him ask questions. I'vegot dad half distracted trying to solve the problem, so I've had to letup on him for a while. Come on out and see what you make of it."
"Sure, Tom, anything to oblige. If you want me to sit in front of yourphoto-telephone, and have my picture taken, I'm agreeable, even if youshoot off a flashlight at my ear. Or, if you want me to see how long Ican stay under water without breathing I'll try that, too, provided youdon't leave me under too long, lead the way--I'm agreeable as far asI'm able, old man."
"Oh, it isn't anything like that," Tom answered with a laugh. "I mightas well give you a few hints, so you'll know what I'm driving at. ThenI'll take you out and show it to you."
"What is it--air, earth or water?" asked Ned Newton, for he knew hischum's activities led along all three lines.
"This happens to be air."
"A new balloon?"
"Something like that. I call it my aerial warship, though."
"Aerial warship, Tom! That sounds rather dangerous!"
"It will be dangerous, too, if I can get it to work. That's what it'sintended for."
"But a warship of the air!" cried Ned. "You can't mean it. A warshipcarries guns, mortars, bombs, and--"
"Yes, I know," interrupted Tom, "and I appreciate all that when Icalled my newest craft an aerial warship."
"But," objected Ned, "an aircraft that will carry big guns will be solarge that--"
"Oh, mine is large enough," Tom broke in.
"Then it's finished!" cried Ned eagerly, for he was much interested inhis chum's inventions.
"Well, not exactly," Tom said. "But what I was going to tell you wasthat all guns are not necessarily large. You can get big results withsmall guns and projectiles now, for high-powered explosives come insmall packages. So it isn't altogether a question of carrying a certainamount of weight. Of course, an aerial warship will have to be big, forit will have to carry extra machinery to give it extra speed, and itwill have to carry a certain armament, and a large crew will be needed.So, as I said, it will need to be large. But that problem isn'tworrying me."
"Well, what is it, then?" asked Ned.
"It's the recoil," said Tom, with a gesture of despair.
"The recoil?" questioned Ned, wonderingly.
"Yes, from the guns, you know. I haven't been able to overcome that,and, until I do, I'm afraid my latest invention will be a failure."
Ned shook his head.
"I'm afraid I can't help yo
u any," he said. "The only thing I knowabout recoils is connected with an old shotgun my father used to own.
"I took that once, when he didn't know it," Ned proceeded. "It waspretty heavily loaded, for the crows had been having fun in ourcornfield, and dad had been shooting at them. This time I thought I'dtake a chance.
"Well, I fired the gun. But it must have had a double charge in it andbeen rusted at that. All I know is that after I pulled the trigger Ithought the end of the world had come. I heard a clap of thunder, andthen I went flying over backward into a blackberry patch."
"That was the recoil," said Tom.
"The what?" asked Ned.
"The recoil. The recoil of the gun knocked you over."
"Oh, yes," observed Ned, rubbing his shoulder in a reflective sort ofway. "I always thought it was something like that. But, at the time Iput it down to an explosion, and let it go at that."
"No, it wasn't an explosion, properly speaking," said Tom. "You see,when powder explodes, in a gun, or otherwise, its force is exerted inall directions, up, down and every way."
"This went mostly backward--in my direction," said Ned ruefully.
"You only thought so," returned Tom. "Most of the power went out infront, to force out the shot. Part of it, of course, was exerted on thebarrel of the gun--that was sideways--but the strength of the steelheld it in. And part of the force went backward against your shoulder.That part was the recoil, and it is the recoil of the guns I figure onputting aboard my aerial warship that is giving me such trouble."
"Is that what makes you look so blue?" asked Ned.
"That's it. I can't seem to find a way by which to take up the recoil,and the force of it, from all the guns I want to carry, will just abouttear my ship to pieces, I figure."
"Then you haven't actually tried it out yet?" asked Ned.
"Not the guns, no. I have the warship of the air nearly done, but I'veworked out on paper the problem of the guns far enough so that I knowI'm up against it. It can't be done, and an aerial warship without gunswouldn't be worth much, I'm afraid."
"I suppose not," agreed Ned. "And is it only the recoil that isbothering you?"
"Mostly. But come, take a look at my latest pet," and Tom arose to leadthe way to another shed, a large one in the distance, toward which hewaved his hand to indicate to his chum that there was housed thewonderful invention.
The two chums crossed the yard, threading their way through the variousbuildings, until they stood in front of the structure to which Tom hadcalled attention.
"It's in here," he said. "I don't mind admitting that I'm quite proudof it, Ned; that is, proud as far as I've gone. But the gun businesssure has me worried. I'm going to talk it off on you. Hello!" criedTom suddenly, as he put a key in the complicated lock on the door,"someone has been in here. I wonder who it is?"
Ned was a little startled at the look on Tom's face and the sound ofalarm in his chum's voice.