Chapter 7 Tom Swift and his Chest of Secrets by Victor Appleton
A HURRIED EXIT
While a fire is always a dangerous and alarming matter in a big shop or a factory, that contingency has been thought of and plans made to meet the emergency. It was this way in the shops of the Swift Construction Company. They had organized a fire-fighting force, and in each shop there was a reel of hose in addition to several chemical extinguishers, the result of Tom’s own inventive genius.
Besides this, a series of whistle alarms had been worked out; a certain number of blasts on the big steam siren giving the location of the blaze. And it was the booming out of this whistle that now sent out the alarm.
“Come on, Ned!” Tom cried.
Mr. Newton, dropping his books, ran with the young men.
“It’s in the pattern shop, all right!” cried Tom as he sped along. “I hope it doesn’t get to those new models Barsky has been working on for my train-stopping device. He’s got some of my original drawings out there.”
Every one connected with the Swift enterprises knew the menace of fire, and when that whistle blew every man and boy dropped what he was doing and rushed to the location of the blaze.
Eradicate was driving an old horse hitched to a cultivator in the garden, and when he heard the whistle the old colored man slapped the reins down on his animal’s back and shouted:
“G’lang! Git a move on! We’s got to help put out dat fiah!”
But it was impossible to get up any speed with a cultivator, the pointed teeth of which bit deep into the earth as the old horse started forward under the urge of voice and flapping reins. Seeing that he was likely to be held there in the garden, Rad hastily unhitched the horse, leaped on its back, and then, with the traces flapping and jingling, rode to the scene of the blaze.
Koku, when he was not using his great strength to advantage at the works, employed himself about the Swift house and grounds. He happened to be watering the lawn just when the fire whistle blew.
“Ho! Me got just the t’ing for fire!” cried Koku. “Take squirty hose to ’um an’ put ’um out!”
Off he started on a run, but was soon brought to a standstill when he reached the limits of the hose which was screwed fast to a faucet. But a little thing like this did not bother the giant.
“You no come I make you come!” he cried.
Exerting but a little of his terrible strength, Koku gave one yank on the hose. It parted. Then, with one end dangling in his big hands while the other end, from which the water was still spurting, was attached to the faucet, the giant ran to the fire with the useless bit of rubber.
It happened that Eradicate and Koku reached the pattern shop at the same time, the giant with his hose and the colored man on his horse.
“I put out fire!” yelled the giant. “See! I bring hose!”
And then for the first time he seemed to realize that in pulling the hose apart he had cut himself off from the supply of water. A queer, blank look came over his face.
“Hose he come with me—water no come!” murmured the giant.
“Golly! Ef dat ain’t jest like de big booby!” chuckled Eradicate. “Dat’s about all de sense he’s got!”
It was Eradicate’s triumph, for Koku was completely flabbergasted by pulling the hose in twain and did not have a word to say.
However, this was only a side issue. Before Tom’s two jealous servants had arrived some men in the pattern shop had already unreeled the fire hose there and a stream was playing on the blaze, while others came up, some with a portable chemical extinguisher on wheels—a powerful fire-fighting engine—and a little stream from this served to end all danger.
Tom directed the work of his men, and had the satisfaction of seeing the danger rapidly pass. The blaze was in a pile of wood and other refuse in the pattern shop, and little real damage was done.
“Well, we came out of that rather better than I expected,” remarked Tom, as he stood with Ned and Mr. Newton surveying the still smoking interior of the pattern shop.
“I should say so!” agreed the manager, for well he knew that it needed but a small blaze to destroy many valuable patterns.
“What is it, Tom?” asked Mr. Swift, as he came up as fast as he could, having heard the alarm of fire.
“All over—nothing worth worrying about,” Tom answered. “Fifty dollars will cover our loss, and we’ve got insurance on everything.”
Mr. Swift looked in, to make sure just what had happened, and asked a few questions, to one of which a man replied:
“Yes, the fire started near where that new fellow was working.”
“You mean that Russian, Barsky?” asked Mr. Swift sharply.
“I think that’s his name,” the man replied. “We call him Whiskers in the shop.”
“There, Tom, I told you not to hire that man!” said the young inventor’s father in a low voice.
“But he had nothing to do with the fire, Dad,” explained Tom. “He wasn’t even near when it happened. I inquired about that. The thing happened because a plumber’s blow torch which one of the men was using to burn off some stuff overturned when a pulley broke and fell on it. Nobody’s fault at all. It was just one of those accidents you can never foresee. No one knew the pulley was split. The man using the blow torch had taken all precautions, but he couldn’t count on a pulley falling on it from above. And Barsky wasn’t even there.”
“Um! Well, I don’t like him just the same,” said Mr. Swift.
“I guess it’s all over,” remarked Ned to his chum when it was seen that the last, smouldering spark was out.
“Yes,” agreed Tom. “I must get back to my desk. I want to finish those computations by noon if I can, for I have to go to Mansburg this afternoon.”
“I’d better check up on this fire,” observed Ned. “There’ll have to be a report made of it to the insurance company, small as the damage was, and we’re entitled to a claim.”
“I’ll leave it to you,” returned Tom. “You’d better splice that hose, Koku,” he said, with a smile. “And look out for your horse, Rad. He might kick at some of the men. He’s a cross old beast.”
“He won’t lessen I tells him to. An’ they ain’t but one pusson I’d like to hab him plant his hoofs on!” snorted the colored man.
“I think I can guess who that is,” remarked Ned, with a chuckle.
The men from the other shops dispersed to their several places, the fire hose was reeled back into place, and Rad urged his horse back to the garden cultivator. Koku, still staring in puzzled fashion at the half length of broken hose in his hand, wandered back to his post, murmuring:
“Hose, he come along ob me—water, he no come. How can do?”
Clearly it was a problem too deep for his brain.
Tom hurriedly entered his private office, his mind intent on many things but chiefly concerned with a knotty problem in applying sufficient force to a train to stop it and at the same time, doing no damage to the passengers or to the tracks or the train.
“It’s got to be done with a recoil system, either of springs or hydraulic pistons,” said the young inventor.
As he entered the room Tom was surprised to see the form of Ivan Barsky, the new Russian pattern maker, making a hurried exit from it by the rear.
For a moment the young man was too surprised to quite take in the significance of the matter. As he slowly realized that strict orders had been posted to the effect that none of the men from the shop was to enter the private offices unbidden, Tom called:
“What were you doing in here?”
Sharp suspicion entered his mind.
Who was this foreigner and what was his game?