Chapter III
Ned is Worried
Tom Swift did not answer for several seconds. He stood holding thepaper Ned had given him, the sun slanting on the picture of the bigBritish tank. But the young inventor did not appear to see it. Instead,his eyes were as though contemplating something afar off.
"Well, this gets me!" cried Ned, his voice showing impatience. "Here Igo and get a picture of the latest machine the British armies aresmashing up the Boches with, and bring it to you fresh from the mail--Ieven quit my Liberty Bond business to do it, and I know some dandyprospects, too--and here you look at it like a--like a fish!" burst outNed.
"Say, old man, I guess that's right!" admitted Tom. "I wasn't thinkingabout it, to tell you the truth."
"Why not?" Ned demanded. "Isn't it great, Tom? Did you ever seeanything like it?"
"Yes."
"You did?" Cried Ned, in surprise. "Where? Say, Tom Swift, are youkeeping something from me?"
"I mean no, Ned. I never have seen a British tank."
"Well, did you ever see a picture like this before?" Ned persisted.
"No, not exactly like that But--"
"Well, what do you think of it?" cried the young banker, who was givingmuch of his time to selling bonds for the Government. "Isn't it great?"
Tom considered a moment before replying. Then he said slowly:
"Well, yes, Ned, it is a pretty good machine. But--"
"'But!' Howling tomcats! Say, what's the 'matter with you, anyhow, Tom?This is great! 'But!' 'But me no buts!' This is, without exception, thegreatest thing out since an airship. It will win the war for us and theAllies, too, and don't you forget it! Fritz's barbed wire and dugoutsand machine gun emplacements can't stand for a minute against thesetanks! Why, Tom, they can crawl on their back as well as any other way,and they don't mind a shower of shrapnel or a burst of machine gunlead, any more than an alligator minds a swarm of gnats. The only thingthat makes 'em hesitate a bit is a Jack Johnson or a Bertha shell, andit's got to be a pretty big one, and in the right place, to do muchdamage. These tanks are great, and there's nothing like 'em."
"Oh, yes there is, Ned!"
"There is!" cried Ned. "What do you mean?"
"I mean there may be something like them--soon."
"There may? Say, Tom--"
"Now don't ask me a lot of questions, Ned, for I can't answer them.When I say there may be something like them, I mean it isn't beyond therealms of possibility that some one--perhaps the Germans--may turn outeven bigger and better tanks."
"Oh!" And Ned's voice showed his disappointment. "I thought maybe youwere in on that game yourself, Tom. Say, couldn't you get up somethingalmost as good as this?" and he indicated the picture in the paper."Isn't that wonderful?"
"Oh, well, it's good, Ned, but there are others. Yes, Dad, I'm coming,"he called, as he saw his father beckoning to him from a distantbuilding.
"Well, I've got to get along," said Ned. "But I certainly amdisappointed, Tom. I thought you'd go into a fit over thispicture--it's one of the first allowed to get out of England, my Londonfriend said. And instead of enthusing you're as cold as a clam;" andNed shook his head in puzzled and disappointed fashion as he walkedslowly along beside the young inventor.
They passed a new building, one of the largest in the group of the manycomprising the Swift plant. Ned looked at the door which bore a noticeto the effect that no one was admitted unless bearing a special permit,or accompanied by Mr. Swift or Tom.
"What's this, Tom?" asked Ned. "Some new wrinkle?"
"Yes, an invention I'm working on. It isn't in shape yet to be seen."
"It must be something big, Tom," observed Ned, as he viewed the largebuilding.
"It is."
"And say, what a whopping big fence you've got around the back yard!"went on the young banker. "Looks like a baseball field, but it wouldtake some scrambling on the part of a back-lots kid to get over it."
"That's what it's for--to keep people out."
"I see! Well, I've got to get along. I'm a bit back in my day's quotaof selling Liberty Bonds, and I've got to hustle. I'm sorry I botheredyou about that tank picture, Tom."
"Oh, it wasn't a bother--don't think that for a minute, Ned! I was gladto see it."
"Well, he didn't seem so, and his manner was certainly queer," musedNed, as he walked away, and turned in time to see Tom enter the newbuilding, which had such a high fence all around it. "I never saw himmore indifferent. I wonder if Tom isn't interested in seeing Uncle Samhelp win this war? That's the way it struck me. I thought surely Tomwould go up in the air, and say this was a dandy," and Ned unfolded thepaper and took another look at the British tank photograph. "If there'sanything can beat that I'd like to see it," he mused.
"But I suppose Tom has discovered some new kind of air stabilizer, or adifferent kind of carburetor that will vaporize kerosene as well asgasolene. If he has, why doesn't he offer it to Uncle Sam? I wonder ifTom is pro-German? No, of Course he can't be!" and Ned laughed at hisown idea.
"At the same time, it is queer," he mused on. "There is something wrongwith Tom Swift."
Once more Ned looked at the picture. It was a representation of one ofthe newest and largest of the British tanks. In appearance these arenot unlike great tanks, though they are neither round nor square, beingshaped, in fact, like two wedges with the broad ends put together, andthe sharper ends sticking out, though there is no sharpness to a tank,the "noses" both being blunt.
Around each outer edge runs an endless belt of steel plates, hingedtogether, with ridges at the joints, and these broad belts of steelplates, like the platforms of some moving stairways used in departmentstores, moving around, give motion to the tank.
Inside, well protected from the fire of enemy guns by steel plates, arethe engines for driving the belts, or caterpillar wheels, as they arecalled. There is also the steering apparatus, and the guns that fire onthe enemy. There are cramped living and sleeping quarters for thetank's crew, more limited than those of a submarine.
The tank is ponderous, the smallest of them, which were those firstconstructed, weighing forty-two tons, or about as much as a good-sizedrailroad freight car. And it is this ponderosity, with its slow butresistless movement, that gives the tank its power.
The tank, by means of the endless belts of steel plates, can travelover the roughest country. It can butt into a tree, a stone wall, or ahouse, knock over the obstruction, mount it, crawl over it, and slidedown into a hole on the other side and crawl out again, on the level,or at an angle. Even if overturned, the tanks can sometimes rightthemselves and keep on. At the rear are trailer wheels, partly used insteering and partly for reaching over gaps or getting out of holes. Thetanks can turn in their own length, by moving one belt in one directionand the other oppositely.
Inside there is nothing much but machinery of the gasolene type, andthe machine guns. The tank is closed except for small openings out ofwhich the guns project, and slots through which the men inside look outto guide themselves or direct their fire.
Such, in brief, is a British tank, one of the most powerful andeffective weapons yet loosed against the Germans. They are useful intearing down the barbed-wire entanglements on the Boche side of NoMan's Land, and they can clear the way up to and past the trenches,which they can straddle and wriggle across like some giant worm.
"And to think that Tom Swift didn't enthuse over these!" murmured Ned."I wonder what's the matter with him!"