Chapter 15 Tom Swift and His Talking Pictures by Victor Appleton
A SINISTER WARNING
Like an electrical flash it came into the mind of Tom Swift that there was something wrong here—something terribly and dangerously wrong. The drugged giant—nothing less than a drug could account for the helplessness of Koku—the appearance of that strange fruit, the noise behind—all these were warnings not to be ignored.
So, though his first impulse was to hasten to the aid of the giant, when he heard that noise back of him Tom turned.
He was only just in time. He had a glimpse of a figure gliding toward him out of the shadows, for that part of the corridor was not brightly lighted. And the figure was that of the man lately discharged—Greenbaum!
With uplifted hand, in which was some sort of a weapon Tom could not distinguish, Greenbaum glided toward him. Tom was taken so by surprise and was so off his guard because of what had happened to Koku that he might have fallen a victim to Greenbaum.
But at that moment occurred an interruption and a diversion that saved the situation, and perhaps Tom’s life. The door farther down the corridor opened and Mr. Damon and Ned, preceded by Eradicate, who had been serving as guard there, came out. The two performers, receiving no answer to their telephonic signal, had rightly concluded that Tom had finished experimenting for the night.
“At the same time I thought something might be wrong when you didn’t answer,” Ned explained later.
At any rate, the two performers and Eradicate were now hastening toward the young inventor. In a trice they realized that Tom was about to be attacked. But before the knife in Greenbaum’s hand could descend, the man received some missile full in the face with such crashing force that he staggered back. He dropped the knife, and with a cry of pain darted away, being lost to sight in the shadows of the hall.
“Good shot!” cried Ned.
“Bless my rubber boot, Eradicate hit the scoundrel with a shoe!” exclaimed Mr. Damon.
“Dat’s whut I done!” chuckled the negro. “I didn’t have nothin’ else, so I tuck off mah shoe!”
Eradicate had big feet and wore heavy brogans, so the hobnailed sole and heel made as effective a weapon for the purpose as could be desired.
Recovering from the astonishment into which the unexpected attempt on his life had thrown him, Tom Swift turned about and darted into the lower part of the hall in pursuit of Greenbaum. But he was too late. The slight start which the man had, served him in good stead and he made his escape. Though Tom sounded the alarm and got many of his night watchmen on the job, they could not capture the intruder.
Not until it was made certain that he was no longer on the premises did Tom turn his attention to Koku. Eradicate, however, had begun to minister to his fellow guard. Though there was jealousy between the two because each one desired to serve Tom alone, when one was in trouble the other always showed a friendly spirit.
“Somebody done chlo’fo’m him!” was Eradicate’s opinion, when Tom and Ned came back from the unsuccessful chase after Greenbaum, to find the giant just recovering consciousness. There was a dazed look on his face, but his eyes opened wider as he saw the fash melon on the floor near where he had fallen from his chair.
“Koku no dream then,” he murmured.
“What happened?” asked Tom, when he had sent several men to find out, if possible, how Greenbaum had eluded the guard and the electrically charged fence and so had gained entrance to the private laboratory.
Then the giant, whose immense bulk was proof against any ordinary means of making him unconscious, told what had taken place. He had been sitting in his chair on guard near Tom’s door after the little talk he had with the young inventor about his desire to have a fash melon once more. Then, as Koku explained it, a little later, there came rolling along the corridor toward his chair one of the very same fruits for which he had such a longing.
In a transport of joy at the sight and smell of the dainty, not stopping to consider how strange it was that the fruit should have appeared at such an opportune time, Koku stooped to pick it up. But he never got his hands on it, so he said, for a moment later he “went to sleep,” as he expressed it.
“You were drugged,” declared Tom. “Whoever rolled that fash in to attract your attention and keep you from being suspicious, whoever did that, must have sprayed some chloroform or ether up your nose. You went down and out.”
“Maybe so, Master,” admitted the giant humbly. “Koku very sorry.”
“Greenbaum brought it,” declared Tom. “He wanted to get Koku out of the way and then he thought he’d get me. Guess he didn’t count on Ned and Mr. Damon being so near.”
“He didn’t figure on Eradicate’s shoe, either,” chuckled Mr. Damon. “Bless my trolley fare, but that was a good shot!”
“But look here,” persisted Ned. “It’s all right enough for you to say that Greenbaum brought that fash here to tempt Koku. So much is evident and plain. What isn’t plain is how Greenbaum knew about the fash and where he got it. That’s what puzzles me.”
“It’s a small problem compared to the others we have to solve,” said Tom, with a serious look on his face. “What worries me is how Greenbaum passed the guard lines. It also worries me to know that the men who seem bent on preventing me from completing this invention are still on my trail.”
“Those are greater problems,” agreed Ned. “Very likely we are wrong in thinking these peculiar melons grow only in Koku’s country. This may have come from South America or Africa in a shipment of fruit. You know we get pears, or maybe it’s peaches I’m thinking of—anyhow, it’s something, from Australia. And if they can ship things that far, it wouldn’t be impossible to bring fash from where we got Koku. Only what puzzles me is how anybody knew of these melons.”
“We’ll consider that later,” suggested Tom. “But it occurs to me that the moving picture people have of late been sending men into all sorts of strange countries for travel news. It is entirely within the bounds of reason to suppose that some of them have penetrated to the land where Koku came from and where the fash grows. Some exploring movie men may have brought a few of the melons back with him. You know Koku said they keep an astonishingly long time.”
“Yes,” agreed Ned. “But that one won’t keep long,” he added, with a chuckle, for the giant was already opening his big pocket knife preparatory to cutting the melon.
“Not in here, Koku, if you please,” said Tom, motioning to the giant to go outside to cut the fruit.
It had a disagreeable odor when whole, but the aroma was tripled when the fash was cut. Koku had speedily recovered from the effects of the drug and was preparing for a feast. If Tom had been a few minutes later in opening his door, the giant might have been dead and the young inventor himself would have been in grave danger.
“Well, let Koku enjoy his fash,” Tom said as the big man went out into the night with his treasure, having first, however, offered to share it with his master. The offer was politely turned down. “We’ve got to investigate what happened.”
They could not find out how Greenbaum got in, and Tom began to fear there was still another spy in his working force. He resolved to have a strict inquiry next morning and made a note to charge Mr. Jackson with this.
“But how did the talking-picture work, Tom?” asked Ned when they were ready to close the laboratory and disperse for the night.
“Fine! Almost perfect! I’m on the verge of success!”
“That’s why those plotters are getting desperate, I guess,” suggested the manager. “They’re out to do you, Tom. Better clean this thing up and sell it. Then they’ll let you alone.”
“I’m thinking of that. But I want to make one more demonstration and have Mary, Helen, and some of their folks see it. There are one or two little improvements that occur to me that can be made, and then I’ll be ready for a final showing before I get my last patents. After that I’ll be ready to market my invention.”
“Going to give a sort of dress rehearsal?” asked Ned, with a smile.
“That’s it.”
A search next morning revealed little more than had been found out the night before. Nor was the strict inquiry the superintendent conducted fruitful of results. No spies were uncovered among Tom’s factory forces.
But, omitting no precautions, the young inventor took even greater pains to insure privacy in his personal laboratory. There he worked hard to perfect his invention, taking hardly any sleep for a week, so that he was almost exhausted. His father and Ned helped and so did Mr. Damon. Koku and Eradicate were kept on guard, and the giant, having satisfied his longing for fash, declared that he would not move from his chair again to pick up a dozen of the odorous melons.
And, laboring hard, Tom brought to what he thought would be perfection his newest invention. Mr. Swift was greatly interested in it, though he begged his son to proceed cautiously.
“You evidently have powerful enemies, Tom,” said the aged man. “They must think you will ruin part of their business in moving pictures and theatrical performances and that is why they are so anxious to get you out of the way. Be careful!”
“I will,” promised the young man. “But they can’t stop me now. Success is just across the line.”
He had entirely rebuilt the machine after the fire and blast, and it was larger and better than ever. Mary and Helen, with their families, had been taken into Tom’s confidence and he had promised them that they should see and hear the performance of Ned and Mr. Damon.
“It’s quite thrilling!” said Mary, with a fond look at Tom.
“I hope you’ll say so after the demonstration,” was his answer. “I may ask you and Helen to perform, also.”
“Oh, we’ll be glad to,” said Helen. “I can’t let Ned get away with all the honors.”
It was the day on which the final demonstration was to take place. Tom had arranged his apparatus and had invited the two girls and their families to come to the laboratory for the evening.
In the afternoon, about six hours before the time set, Tom was in his workroom putting some finishing touches to the machinery and testing the electrical wires when he heard Eradicate coming along the corridor. Something in the colored man’s step and the fact that he was muttering excitedly to himself, roused Tom’s curiosity and fears.
“What’s the matter, Rad?” he asked, opening the door in response to the faithful black man’s knock.
“Man jest give me dis,” answered Eradicate, holding out a letter.
“Where did you get it?”
“Out in de yard,” was the answer. “I was walkin’ round like yo’ done tole me watchin’ fo’ strangers, when de man come up an’ handed me dis. He were a stranger—I was goin’ to tell him to make his se’f skurse when he done hand me dat.”
Eradicate nodded toward the note which Tom held.
“Did he say anything when he gave it to you?” asked Tom.
“He say ‘gib dat to Tom Swift. It may be life or death to him,’ ” quoted Eradicate.
Tom hastily tore open the envelope. As he read the message a cry of rage and astonishment came to his lips.