CHAPTER XXII
APPREHENSIONS
For a moment or two, after the ropes binding his hands were loosed, TomSwift did nothing. He was not only stunned mentally, but the bonds hadbeen pulled so tightly about his wrists that the circulation wasimpeded, and his cramped muscles required a little time in which torespond.
But presently he felt the tingle of the coursing blood, and he found hecould move his arms. He raised them to his head, and then his firstcare was to remove the pad of cloth that formed a gag over his mouth.Now he could talk.
"I--I'll loosen you all in just a second," he said, as he bent over topick at the knot of the rope around his legs. His own voice soundedstrange to him.
"I don't know what it's all about, any more than you do," he went on,speaking to the others. "It's a fierce game we're up against, and we'vegot to make the best of it. As soon as we can move, and talk, we'lldecide what's best to do. Whoever these fellows are, and I believe theyare the foreign spies I've been warned about, they are in completepossession of the airship."
Tom found it no easy matter to loosen the bonds on his feet. The ropeswere well tied, and Tom's fingers were stiff from the lack ofcirculation of blood. But finally he managed to free himself. When hestood up in the dim storeroom, that was now a prison for all save Koku,he found that he could not walk. He almost toppled over, so weak werehis legs from the tightness of the ropes. He sat down and worked hismuscles until they felt normal again.
A few minutes later, weak and rather tottery, he managed to reach Mr.Damon, whom he first unbound. He realized that Mr. Damon was the oldestof his friends, and, consequently, would suffer most. And it wascharacteristic of the eccentric gentleman that, as soon as his gag wasremoved he burst out with:
"Bless my wristlets, Tom! What does it all mean?"
"That's more than I can say, Mr. Damon," replied Tom, with a mournfulshake of his head. "I'm very sorry it happened, for it looks as thoughI hadn't taken proper care. The idea of those men stowing themselvesaway on board here, and me not knowing it; and then coming outunexpectedly and getting possession of the craft! It doesn't speakvery well for my smartness."
"Oh, well, Tom, anyone might have been fooled by those plottingforeigners," said Mr. Damon. "Now, we'll try to turn matters about andget the best of them. Oh, but it feels good to be free once more!"
He stretched his benumbed and stiffened limbs and then helped Tom freethe others. They stood up, looking at each other in their dimly lightedprison.
"Well, if this isn't the limit I don't know what is!" cried Ned Newton.
"They got the best of you, Tom," spoke Lieutenant Marbury.
"Are they really foreign spies?" asked Captain Warner.
"Yes," replied his assistant. "They managed to carry out the plot wetried to frustrate. It was a good trick, too, hiding on board, andcoming out with a rush."
"Is that what they did?" asked Mr. Damon.
"It looks so," observed Tom. "The attack must have started in theengine-room," he went on, with a look at Mound and Ventor. "Whathappened there?" he asked.
"Well, that's about the way it was," answered the engineer. "We wereworking away, making some adjustments, oiling the parts and seeing thateverything was running smoothly, when, all at once, I heard Koku yell.He had gone in the oil room. At first I thought something had gonewrong with the ship, but, when I looked at the giant, I saw he wasbeing attacked by four strange men. And, before I, or any of the othermen, could do anything, they all swarmed down on us.
"There must have been a dozen of them, and they simply overwhelmed us.One of them hit Koku on the head with an iron bar, and that took allthe fight out of the giant, or the story might have been a differentone. As it was, we were overpowered, and that's all I know until wewere carried in here, and saw you folks all tied up as we were."
"They burst in on us in the same way," Tom explained. "But where didthey come from? Where were they hiding?"
"In the oil and gasoline storeroom that opens out of the motorcompartment," answered Mound, the engineer. "It isn't half full, youknow, and there's room for more than a dozen men in it. They must havegone in some time last night, when the airship was in the hangar, andremained hidden among the boxes and barrels until they got ready tocome out and overpower us."
"That's it," decided Tom. "But I don't understand how they got in. Thehangar was well guarded all night."
"Some of your men might have been bribed," suggested Ned.
"Yes, that is so," admitted Tom, and, later, he learned that such hadbeen the case. The foreign spies, for such they were, had managed tocorrupt one of Tom's trusted employees, who had looked the other waywhen La Foy and his fellow-conspirators sneaked into the airship shedand secreted themselves.
"Well, discussing how they got on board isn't going to do us any goodnow," Tom remarked ruefully. "The question is--what are we going to do?"
"Bless my fountain pen!" cried Mr. Damon. "There's only one thing todo!"
"What is that?" asked Ned.
"Why, get out of here, call a policeman, and have these scoundrelsarrested. I'll prosecute them! I'll have my lawyer on hand to see thatthey get the longest terms the statutes call for! Bless my pocketbook,but I will!" and Mr. Damon waxed quite indignant.
"That's easier said than done," observed Tom Swift, quietly. "In thefirst place, it isn't going to be an easy matter to get out of here."
He looked around the storeroom, which was then their prison. It wasilluminated by a single electric light, which showed some boxes andbarrels piled in the rear.
"Nothing in them to help us get out," Tom went on, for he knew what thecontents were.
"Oh, we'll get out," declared Ned confidently, "but I don't believewe'll find a policeman ready to take our complaint. The upper air isn'tvery well patrolled as yet."
"That's so," agreed Mr. Damon. "I forgot that we were in an airship.But what is to be done, Tom? We really are captives aboard our owncraft."
"Yes, worse luck," returned the young inventor. "I feel foolish when Ithink how we let them take us prisoners."
"We couldn't help it," Ned commented. "They came on us too suddenly. Wedidn't have a chance. And they outnumbered us two to one. If they couldtake care of big Koku, what chance did we have?"
"Very little," said Engineer Mound. "They were desperate fellows. Theyknow something about aircraft, too. For, as soon as Koku, Ventor and Iwere disposed of, some of them went at the machinery as if they hadbeen used to running it all their lives."
"Oh, the foreigners are experts when it comes to craft of the air,"said Captain Warner.
"Well, they seem to be running her, all right," admitted the younginventor, "and at good speed, too. They have increased our runningrate, if I am any judge."
"By several miles an hour," confirmed the assistant pilot. "Though inwhich direction they are heading, and what they are going to do with usis more than I can guess."
"That's so!" agreed Mr. Damon. "What is to become of us? They may heaveus overboard into the ocean!"
"Into the ocean!" cried Ned apprehensively. "Are we near the sea?"
"We must be, by this time," spoke Tom. "We were headed in thatdirection, and we have come almost far enough to put us somewhere overthe Atlantic, off the Jersey coast."
A look of apprehension was on the faces of all. But Tom's face did notremain clouded long.
"We won't try to swim until we have to," he said. "Now, let's take anaccount of stock, and see if we have any means of getting out of thisprison."