CHAPTER IV
BIG TUSKS WANTED
"Well, are you all ready for me?" asked the young inventor, as hetook up his curious weapon, and followed Ned out into the yard. Itwas so dark that they had fairly to stumble along.
"Yes, we're ready," answered Ned. "And you'll be a good one, Tom, ifyou do this stunt. Now stand here," he went on, as he indicated aplace as well as he could in the dark. "The box is somewhere in thatdirection," and he waved his hand vaguely. "I'm not going to tellyou any more, and let's see you find it."
"Oh, I will, all right--or, rather, my electric rifle will,"asserted Tom.
The inventor of the curious and terrible weapon took his position.Behind him stood Ned and Mr. Jackson, and just before Tom was readyto fire, his father came stalking through the darkness, calling tothem.
"Are you there, Tom?"
"Yes Dad, is anything the matter?"
"No, but I thought I'd like to see what luck you have. Rad wassaying you were going to have a test in the dark."
"I'm about ready for it," replied Tom. "I'm going to blow up a boxthat I can't see. You know how it's done, Dad, for you helped me inperfecting the luminous charge, but it's going to be something of anovelty to the others. Here we go, now!"
Tom raised his rifle, and aimed it in the dark. Ned Newton,straining his eyes to see, was sure the young inventor was pointingthe gun at least twenty feet to one side of where the box waslocated, but he said nothing, for from experiences in the past, herealized that Tom knew what he was doing.
There was a little clicking sound, as the youth moved some gearwheel on his gun. Then there came a faint crackling noise, like somedistant wireless apparatus beginning to flash a message throughspace.
Suddenly a little ball of purplish light shot through the darknessand sped forward like some miniature meteor. It shed a curiousilluminating glow all about, and the ground, and the objects on itwere brought into relief as by a lightning flash.
An instant later the light increased in intensity, and seemed toburst like some piece of aerial fireworks. There was a bright glare,in which Ned and the others could see the various buildings aboutthe shed. They could see each other's faces, and they looked paleand ghastly in the queer glow. They could see the box, brought intobold relief, where Ned and the engineer had placed it.
Then, before the light had died away, they witnessed a curioussight. The heavy wooden box seemed to dissolve, to collapse and tocrumple up like one of paper, and ere the last rays of theilluminating bullet faded, the watchers saw the splinters of woodfall back with a clatter in a little heap on the spot where thedry-goods case had been.
A silence followed, and the darkness was all the blacker by contrastwith the intense light. At length Tom spoke, and he could not keepfrom his voice a note of triumph.
"Well, did I do it?" he asked.
"You sure did!" exclaimed Ned heartily.
"Fine!" cried Mr. Swift.
"Golly! I wouldn't gib much fo' de hide ob any burglar what comedaround heah!" muttered Eradicate Sampson. "Dat box am knocked cleaninto nuffiness, Massa Tom."
"That's what I wanted to do," explained the lad. "And I guess thiswill end the test for tonight."
"But I don't exactly understand it," spoke Ned, as they all movedtoward the Swift home, Eradicate going to the stable to see how hismule was. "Do you have two kinds of bullets, Tom, one for night andone for the daytime?"
"No," answered Tom, "there is only one kind of bullet, and, as Ihave said, that isn't a bullet at all. That is, you can't see it, orhandle it, but you can feel it. Strictly speaking, it is aconcentrated discharge of wireless electricity directed against acertain object. You can't see it any more than you can see alightning bolt, though that is sometimes visible as a ball of fire.My electric rifle bullets are similar to a discharge of lightning,except that they are invisible."
"But we saw the one just now," objected Ned.
"No, you didn't see the bullet," said Tom.
"You saw the illuminating flash which I send out just before I fire,to reveal the object I am to hit. That is another part of my rifleand is only used at night."
"You see I shoot out a ball of electrical fire which will disclosethe target, or the enemy at whom I am firing. As soon as that isdischarged the rifle automatically gets ready to shoot the electriccharge, and I have only to press the proper button, and the'bullet,' as I call it, follows on the heels of the ball of light.Do you see?"
"Perfectly," exclaimed Ned with a laugh. "What a gun that would befor hunting, since most all wild beasts come out only at night."
"That was one object in making this invention," said Tom. "I onlyhope I get a chance to use it now."
"I thought you were going to Africa after elephants," spoke Mr.Swift.
"Well, I did think of it," admitted Tom, "but I haven't made anydefinite plans. But come into the house, Ned, and I'll show you morein detail how my rifle works."
Thereupon the two chums spent some time going into the mysteries ofthe new weapon. Mr. Swift and Mr. Jackson were also much interested,for, though they had seen the gun previously and had helped Tomperfect it, they had not yet tired of discussing its merits.
Ned stayed quite late that night, and promised to come over the nextday, and watch Tom do some more shooting.
"I'll show you how to use it, too," promised the young inventor, andhe was as good as his word, initiating Ned into the mysteries of theelectric rifle, and showing him to store the charges of death-dealingelectricity in the queer-looking stock.
For a week after that Tom and Ned practiced with the terrible gun,taking care not to have any more mishaps like the one that hadmarked the first night. They were both good shots with ordinaryweapons and it was not long before they had equaled their recordwith the new instrument.
It was one warm afternoon, when Tom was out in the meadow at oneside of his house, practicing with his rifle on some big boxes hehad set up for targets, that he saw an elderly man standing close tothe fence watching him. When Tom blew to pieces a particularly largepacking-case, standing a long distance away from it, the strangercalled to the youth.
"I beg your pardon," he said, "but is that a dynamite gun you areusing?"
"No, it's an electric rifle," was the answer.
"Would you mind telling me something about it?" went on the elderlyman, and as Tom's weapon was now fully protected by patents, theyoung inventor cordially invited the stranger to come nearer and seehow it worked.
"That's the greatest thing I ever saw!" exclaimed the manenthusiastically when Tom had blown up another box, and had told ofthe illumination for night firing. "The most wonderful weapon I everheard of! What a gun it would be in my business."
"What is your trade?" asked Tom curiously, for he had noted that theman, while aged, was rugged and hearty, and his skin was tanned aleathery brown, showing that he was much in the open air.
"I'm a hunter," was the reply, "a hunter of big game, principallyelephants, hippos and rhinoceroses. I've just finished a season inAfrica, and I'm going back there again soon. I came on to New Yorkto get a new elephant gun. I've got a sister living over inWaterford, and I've been visiting her. I went out for a strollto-day, and I came farther than I intended. That's how I happened to bepassing here."
"A sister in Waterford, eh?" mused Tom, wondering whether theelephant hunter had met Mr. Damon. "And how soon are you going hackto Africa, Mr.--er--" and Tom hesitated.
"Durban is my name, Alexander Durban," said the old man. "Why, I amto start back in a few weeks. I've got an order for a pair of bigelephant tusks--the largest I can get for a wealthy New York man,--andI'm anxious to fulfil the contract. The game isn't what it oncewas. There's more competition and the elephants are scarcer. So I'vegot to hustle."
"I got me a new gun. But my! it's nothing to what yours is. Withthat weapon I could do about as I pleased. I could do night hunting,which is hard in the African jungle. Then I wouldn't have anytrouble getting the big tusks I'm after. I could get a pair of them,and l
ive easy the rest of my life. Yes, I wouldn't ask anythingbetter than a gun like yours. But I s'pose they cost like themischief?" He looked a question at Tom.
"This is the only one there is," was the lad's answer. "But I amvery glad to have met you, Mr. Durban. Won't you come into thehouse? I'm sure my father will be glad to see you, and I havesomething I'd like to talk to you about," and Tom, with many wildideas in his head, led the old elephant hunter toward the house.
The dream of the young inventor might come true after all.