Chapter 19 Tom Swift and his Chest of Secrets by Victor Appleton
KOKU IS FOUND
Tom Swift lost little time in putting into operation such means as were at his command for tracing the missing chest of secrets and the vanished giant.
He pressed certain push buttons connected with distant summoning bells, located in different parts of the works, and soon there came flocking into his office several of his foremen and Garret Jackson, who had general charge of the works.
As the last of these helpers arrived, Ned Newton and his father reached the office for the day’s work, and it was with no little surprise that they observed this gathering.
“What’s wrong, Tom?” cried Ned. “Has anything happened?”
“I should say there has!” cried the young inventor. “My chest of secrets has been taken away!”
“Whew!” whistled Ned.
“With Koku here to guard it!” cried Mr. Newton. “How was that possible?”
“Well, the robbers took Koku also,” explained Tom. “He’s gone, and so is my chest.”
“Both gone!” cried Mr. Jackson. “Is there any coincidence here, Tom? Maybe Koku took the chest!”
“Nonsense!” exclaimed Tom. “I’d trust that giant with my last dollar. Besides, Koku hasn’t any more notion of the value of the plans and patent papers in my chest than he has of how to work out a cross-word puzzle. It isn’t in him to plan or carry out anything like this, even if he had the wish, which he hasn’t.”
“What’s your theory, Tom, of the two disappearing at the same time?” asked Ned.
“Well, Koku must have surprised the robbers at work lifting my chest out,” explained Tom. “That being so, he went at them. They killed him and carried him off with them, or else his body is hidden around here somewhere. That’s why I summoned you men,” he went on to his foremen. “I want a search made of every part of the house and grounds. Let the work go for the day. Koku and the chest must be found!”
“It would take a pretty big and husky bunch of robbers to overcome Koku,” suggested Ned. “And if there was such a big gang here they would have made a noise, which I should think you’d have heard up at the house, Tom.”
“I didn’t hear a thing. Perhaps having taken a headache powder would account for that. But neither Eradicate nor Mrs. Baggert heard anything out of the ordinary, I’m sure, or they would have said something about it to me. As for dad, when he goes to bed he sleeps, and does little else.”
“Even if you didn’t hear a row, Tom, there must have been one,” insisted Ned. “Koku wouldn’t let that chest be taken away without a fight, and when he starts to fight something breaks.”
“Yes, that’s the puzzling part of it,” admitted the young inventor. “There isn’t any evidence of anything having been disturbed here. But I found one of the outer doors open, and the electric alarm cut, which shows how the robbers entered and left. They probably used a skeleton key to open the place, and didn’t lock the door after them when they left. I wish I had done what I’ve been planning to do—kept my plans in a burglar-proof vault. Now I’m going to start to build one right here.”
“Any signs of a fight or a struggle in Koku’s bedroom?” asked the foreman of the pattern shop.
“No. The clothes are thrown back off the bed as though the giant got up in the usual way,” answered Tom. “There is no sign of violence. But several heads are better than one, and that’s why I summoned you all here—I’d like your advice on the matter.”
The men were trained observers, quick and accurate in their work, as they needs must be to build the complicated machines evolved by Tom Swift and his father. In a sense, they were as good observers as detectives would have been, and Tom did not want to call in the police. He did not want his loss broadcasted.
“This is fierce!” exclaimed Ned, as the extent of the loss was more fully realized. He and Tom were sitting in the office while the foremen moved about the place, looking for possible clews in the place where the chest had stood, in Koku’s room, and outside the building.
“It sure is,” agreed the young inventor. “All my plans for the train-stopping device were in that chest. Now they’re gone, and I have no duplicates!”
“And your tidal engine, too,” suggested Ned.
“Yes,” sighed Tom. “I guess my dream of harnessing the ocean will not be realized for some time. Of course I may be able to work out the ideas in some other way, but it means a big loss. And there are other papers, too. There were dad’s designs of the gyroscope flier, and——”
“What’s that about my gyroscope flier?” asked Mr. Swift, at that moment entering the place. “I’ve come for those plans now, Tom. I have just thought of a new idea in connection with the engine.”
“I’m afraid you can’t have the plans, Dad,” returned the son. “They’re gone! The whole chest of secrets has been stolen!”
Tom had been debating in his mind whether or not to tell his father the bad news, fearing the effect it might have on the elderly man’s heart. But Barton Swift was no weakling. Like a charger sniffing the powder of battle from afar, he drew himself up and together at the same time crying:
“So our enemies are at some of their old tricks, are they, Tom? Well, don’t let them see that we mind! Don’t show the white feather. We’ll fight ’em, Tom! We’ll fight ’em!”
“That’s the talk!” cried Ned, while Tom was much delighted to note that his father took the blow standing up.
“I can reconstruct those gyroscope plans!” cried the old man. “I remember most of them, though it will set me back very much to have them taken. Of course it’s a big loss, Tom. The whole chestful gone! How did it happen?”
He was told, and then he confirmed Tom’s first idea that he had heard nothing during the night to indicate an attack on the shop.
“I done t’ink I heard somethin’,” Eradicate said when they asked him about the matter. “It was a sort of hootin’, hollerin’ sound. But I figgered it was an owl bird, an’ I went to sleep again!”
“That was probably Koku shouting at the robbers,” decided Tom. “He’s either still after them or they’ve done for him.”
“Koku gone?” cried Rad, and when told him that the giant was missing the colored man forgot all his petty animosity against the big fellow and expressed only sympathy. “I’s gwine to find him!” declared Eradicate. “I go look for him!”
Tom did not pay much attention to his colored helper, since there were other matters that needed his attention. The net result of the searching on the part of his men was nothing. There were no clews that could be followed. Reconstructing the crime, it was thought that the gang of men had gained entrance by means of a false key. Then, being unable to open the chest because of the special locks on it, they had carried it away.
Surprised at this by Koku, they must have silenced the giant in some manner and have carried him off while he was unconscious. Doubtless an auto was used, though so many of these came and went at the Swift office that the tire marks of no special one could be picked out.
“All that remains is for us to make a search,” suggested Tom. “And we have this much to go on—that I suspect my chest was stolen by the same men, or some representing them, whose offer I turned down when Mr. Damon made it on behalf of Mr. Blythe.”
“Then why not have Mr. Damon over here,” suggested Mr. Swift. “He may be able to give us some clews as to these scoundrels.”
“I’ll do it!” cried Tom, and he sent an airship for Wakefield Damon at once.
“Bless my fire insurance policy, Tom Swift, but this is a terrible affair!” cried the odd man when he entered the office a little later. “I wouldn’t have had it happen for a million dollars! Bless my check book if I would! And it’s all my fault.”
“How do you make that out?” asked Tom, with a smile.
“I was foolish enough to bring you that offer from Mr. Blythe, though I took it in good faith, and never knew he was such a scoundrel! To think of his kidnapping Koku and taking your chest.”
“Blythe didn’t do it!” exclaimed Tom. “Nor did he have anything to do with it! Blythe isn’t that kind of a man. I know that from my oil-gusher dealings with him. Doubtless he has been deceived by these men as I was deceived by Barsky. And I think if we could get hold of Barsky we’d have the key that would unlock this whole puzzle. Why we sent for you, Mr. Damon, is to ask if you could give us any clews as to the men associated with Blythe.”
“I think I can,” was the answer. “Oh, Tom Swift, to think that such a thing could happen! Bless my overshoes! it’s enough to make a man a misanthrope all the rest of his life.”
By dint of further questioning Tom and Ned gleaned certain facts from Mr. Damon, and these were a little later communicated to Mr. Plum, the lawyer, with instructions to set certain confidential investigators at work in distant cities.
“Do you think, Mr. Plum, that this robbery here had any connection with the theft of the Liberty Bonds of which my father is accused?” asked Ned.
“I don’t know,” was the answer. “It’s possible. There’s no obvious connection, but I’ll check up on the matter and let you know.”
With this Tom and Ned had to be content for the time being. After all the information possible had been collected, the foremen went back to their shops and work was resumed. Mr. Swift at once began to redraw his gyroscope plans, and Tom, sick at heart over his big loss, late in the afternoon spoke to Ned about the advisability of going for a ride across country.
“We might get a trace of Koku or the robbers in that way,” Tom said.
“Good idea,” commented Ned. “It will be something to be on the move. Nothing is worse than sitting still waiting for news. Come on.”
As they were about to start in the electric runabout, Eradicate, who had disappeared soon after the discovery of the robbery, came hurrying to the garage.
“Massa Tom! Massa Tom!” cried the colored man, much excited. “I’s done found ’im!”
“Found them? You mean Koku and my chest of secrets?” shouted the young inventor.
“No, I didn’t find de chest, but I found Koku! I found dat big giant!”
“Is he—is he dead?” faltered Tom.
“No, Massa Tom. Dat giant’s off in de woods tied to a tree! I couldn’t loose de ropes or I’d a set him free. Dat’s why I came back fo’ you all. But I done found Koku!”