Chapter 18 Tom Swift and his Chest of Secrets by Victor Appleton
TWO DISAPPEARANCES
Despite the fact that he was tired, upset in his mind and that his head was beginning to ache again, Tom Swift could not help laughing at the fright shown by Eradicate as the colored man made the best time possible away from the “ghost.”
“Come back here, Rad! Come back! Nothing’s going to hurt you!” cried Tom, running down toward the upset lantern. “I’m no ghost!”
Hearing his master’s voice, the colored man halted. Still not altogether convinced, he stood looking back and ready to run, as he asked:
“Am dat—am dat you, Massa Tom?”
“Of course it is, Rad! Who else would it be? I came out of the old cistern.”
“Oh, den you’s daid! You shore am daid an’ it’s yo’ h’ant I sees!”
Eradicate would have run away again, but Tom called more sternly:
“Wait a minute! Don’t be foolish! Of course I’m not dead, though I’m in pretty bad shape after what that scoundrel Barsky did to me. Have they been looking for me, Rad?”
“Yes, Massa Tom—dat is, ef you is Massa Tom,” he added, as a qualifying remark. “Dey has been done lookin’ fo’ you. But we done thought you gone off to see Massa Damon, maybe, and maybe you done took dat Barsky with you, ’case he’s done gone, too!”
“Yes, I reckon he’s gone all right!” muttered Tom. “But I’ve been around here all the while, Rad. Barsky knocked me senseless, bound me, and dropped me into the cistern under the old shop. I just managed to get out through the tunnel.”
“Yes, sah, Massa Tom. I’s mighty glad you done got out. But is you suah—is you quite suah—Massa Tom, dat you isn’t a ghost?”
“Of course I’m sure!” laughed the young man. “What makes you think I’m a ghost?”
“ ’Case as how you’s all white like.”
Then Tom looked down at his clothes and saw that he was covered with a white powdery substance which must, in the darkness, have given him a weird appearance, especially to the superstitious colored man.
“It’s chalk dust, or something like that,” said Tom, as he slapped at his coat sleeves and trouser legs, thereby setting free a haze of white, powdery stuff. “I remember now that there are soft white rocks in the earth of the cistern and the tunnel. I must have brushed off a lot of the stuff on my clothes as I came along. No wonder you took me for a ghost.”
“Yes, sah, dat’s jest whut you done look like,” said Eradicate.
“Well, you know now that I’m no ghost, don’t you?” asked Tom, as he continued to get rid of the white dust on his clothes.
“Um—yes, sah, I done reckon so,” answered the colored man, a bit doubtfully. “Anyhow, you says so, Massa Tom, an’ whut you says mus’ be so.”
“It is in this case, anyhow,” replied the youth. “But it isn’t Barsky’s fault that I’m not a ghost. Now we’ll go back to the house and relieve their anxiety, for I suppose they must have been a little anxious about me, Rad.”
“Oh, yes, sah, dey has done been huntin’ all ober fo’ you,” was the answer. “Yo’ pa, he done think you done gone to Mr. Damon’s. But Massa Ned he know better, ’case as how Mr. Damon say on the tellyfoam dat you isn’t dere. Koku, he out lookin’ fo’ you, too.”
“Were you also looking for me, Rad?” asked Tom. “And, like Diogenes searching for an honest man, were you looking for me with a lantern? Or were you digging to find my body?”
“I doan know dat fellah doggoneyourknees,” stated Eradicate. “An’ I was goin’ to look fo’ you right soon. But jest now I come out to dig fo’ night-walker worms. I’s gwine fishin’ to-morrow.”
“Oh, so that’s why you were so mysteriously digging, was it?” chuckled Tom. “After night-walkers! Well, I guess I’d better do a little night walking, myself, back to the house and tell Ned he needn’t get up a searching party for me. Light your lantern, Rad, and get all the worms you can. Good luck to you!”
“Yes, sah,” murmured the colored man, who often went out in the fields and garden at night to dig for the big worms that did not venture abroad until after dark. “An’ I’s mighty glad, Massa Tom, dat you isn’t a h’ant!”
“The same here,” chuckled Tom.
The young inventor decided to see Ned before going into his own house, and a little later he was being greeted with delighted surprise by Ned and Mr. Newton, who were much puzzled to account for the long-continued absence of the young inventor. It was now close to midnight, and he had disappeared in the morning.
“Well, for the love of my cash balance, what has happened to you, Tom?” cried Ned, as he greeted his chum.
“Lots,” was the brief answer. “Have you seen that scoundrel Barsky?”
“Barsky!” cried Ned. “Why, we thought you had taken him away to some quiet place to work on your train-stop invention. But we’ve been a bit worried about you for some time, and when, a little while ago, Mr. Damon said you weren’t at his place and Mrs. Baggert telephoned that you had not come home, we didn’t know what to tell your father. We’ve been keeping from him the fact that you haven’t been seen for a number of hours, and dad and I were just wondering how much longer we could keep him in ignorance.”
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t have to worry him,” said Tom. “I’m all right now. But we’ve got to catch this Barsky. Where’s Koku?”
“Out looking for you, I imagine. He seemed to think you might be about the grounds somewhere.”
“I was. In the old cistern. I got out through the tunnel.”
Tom quickly told all that had occurred up to the time when Eradicate mistook him for a ghost.
“Whew!” whistled Ned. “This means something, Tom! Those fellows are getting desperate!”
“I should say so!” agreed the young inventor. “I don’t just see what the game is, but it’s a deep one, I’m afraid. I must look at once to my chest of secrets.”
“It was all right when I left the office, Tom,” said Mr. Newton. “I looked at it the last thing.”
“I’m taking no chances,” was the grim reply. “I’ll just let my father know I’ve come back. Let him suppose that I have been over to Waterford. Don’t tell him what happened. It would do no good and only worry him. Then we’ll make some plans for catching this fellow Barsky and those in with him. For he isn’t working alone, I’m sure of that.”
“No, I suppose not,” returned Ned. “But now, Tom, you’d better go home and get some rest. It’s nearly midnight.”
“No, no, Ned! The first thing is to look around the shops and the yards. It’s better not to let the trail grow any colder.”
“Tom’s right,” declared Mr. Newton. “And Ned and I will go over with you, lad.”
Tom Swift looked at the older man and, seeing how white and weary he looked, he protested. But to his protests Ned’s father would not listen. Though the strain of the suspense and his shame over the question of his honesty in the matter of the theft of the Liberty Bonds—a matter which was by no means cleared up—was telling heavily against him and was depleting his strength, Mr. Newton insisted on accompanying Tom and Ned to the Swift home and the shops.
Though Mr. Swift had been given no intimation that there was anything wrong with the continued absence of his son, yet the aged inventor had begun to worry slightly. However, this was ended when he knew Tom was in the house, and then the old gentleman went to bed.
Tom, with the Newtons, made an inspection of the shop and found everything apparently all right there, with the chest locked and in its usual place in the small room.
Koku came back from one of his tours of the grounds, and he was delighted to find his master had returned.
“You must keep specially good watch tonight, Koku,” said Tom when the place had been looked over. “I’ve got to take something to stop my headache, and I’ll probably sleep like a top.”
“Koku watch,” was the grim answer. “Bad mans come—Koku knock ’um in mince pie pieces!” and he clenched his big fists.
Though much puzzled over what had happened, Tom realized that little could be done toward solving the problem until he had had some rest, food and sleep. His head was aching and he had a queer sense of foreboding.
“But I guess I’ll be all right after I’ve had a good night’s sleep,” he told himself.
The Newtons went home, Eradicate had long before come in from his worm-digging expedition, and by one o’clock the house, grounds and shops of the Swift company were shrouded in darkness and silence.
Tom awakened the next morning, feeling much refreshed. As soon as he was out of bed and had eaten breakfast he began to make plans for apprehending the man who had attacked him.
“If I get this fellow Barsky—though I don’t believe that’s his name—I may be able to trace the others in the plot,” reasoned Tom. “For I believe he’s acting with others. He was the spy. I must find Barsky!”
Tom hurried over to his office. It was early, neither Ned nor his father having arrived, and Tom was the first one to enter.
“Hello, Koku!” he called, for the giant slept in the place. “Any trouble during the night?”
There was no answer.
“He must be sleeping yet,” thought Tom, “Well, we were all up a bit late.” He went into the room where his chest of secrets, as Ned had named it, was kept, and the instant he opened the door Tom saw that the oak box was gone!
“They’ve got it!” he cried. “Koku! Come here! Where are you? How does it happen that my chest is gone? You’re a fine watchman!”
He threw open the door of the room where the giant slept.
Koku, too was gone!