Chapter 10 Tom Swift and His Sky Train by Victor Appleton
ANXIOUS DAYS
“Careful, Tom!” warned Ned in a low voice. He knew Tom’s righteous anger when it was aroused, as it might easily be now.
“Oh, I’ll be careful,” Tom murmured. “But I’m not going to let him get away with anything like this. It was an accident pure and simple. I can’t understand his antagonism.”
“You can’t move that glider until you pay the bill for damages in full!” went on the angry banker. “And I want you to get off my premises!”
“I certainly don’t want to stay here,” Tom retorted. “I only came to see if my pilots were hurt. I’m glad to say they aren’t.” Tom did not mention the missing Daniel. That was another part of the mystery to be looked into. “And I will say that I shall be glad to pay for the damage my craft has done,” Tom went on. “But it seems unfair not to permit me to take away my property. Certainly I can’t dip into my pocket now and pay for your damaged greenhouse. But I will.”
“There is more than the damaged greenhouse to pay for, Lester!” broke in a new voice. “There are the lovely flowers!” Mrs. Willam, rather a pathetic, drooping figure, appeared in company with her maid.
“Certainly he shall pay for the orchids, too!” declared the banker.
“And then there are my nerves!” said Mrs. Willam. “Oh, I never had such a fright! I was just going in when there came that terrible crash! I thought the world had come to an end! I shall require a doctor for many months. My nerves are all shattered!”
“Tom Swift shall pay for it all!” stormed Mr. Willam. “And now you had better go in,” he said to his wife. “Take her away,” he told the maid. And to Tom: “Well, what are you going to do about it?”
“I told you I would settle for all damages,” the young inventor said. “I realize I am liable, though the accident was unavoidable. I shall be glad to pay as soon as I can get around to it, and you send me a proper bill.”
“You’ll pay!” sneered Mr. Willam. “But what with? Didn’t you come to me for a loan the other day? Where are you going to get the cash?”
“We have the cash,” put in Ned, quietly. “I suggest that you look at our account in your own bank, Mr. Willam. You will find it plenty large enough to pay any fair claim.”
“Your account in our bank large?” he exclaimed, incredulously. “Since when?”
“Since yesterday,” said Ned with a smile. “We succeeded in raising all the cash we needed from other sources than the Shopton bank, Mr. Willam. We have plenty of cash.”
This seemed to take the angry man aback. He swallowed his feelings with difficulty, started to say something, changed his mind and then rather awkwardly stated:
“Well, if you give me your assurance that my bill for damages will be paid, you may take your machine out of my greenhouse.”
“You may take such an assurance as given, Mr. Willam,” spoke Tom with some stiffness.
“And if you will call up your bank,” went on Ned, “you will be told what our balance is.”
“Oh, I’ll take your word for it,” said Lester Willam. But he was, obviously, puzzled and put out. “I’ll send you my bill later,” he added.
“I’ll send some men over from my plant as soon as possible,” went on Tom. “Meanwhile may I ask that the glider be left alone and not disturbed? I want to see what caused the coupling to part,” he added. “Blanchard—Lee—can one of you stick around here until I can send Mr. Jackson over with a crew?”
“I’ll stay,” Lee offered. He was less cut and bruised than his fellow pilot.
“Then you come back with us, Blanchard,” said Tom, motioning to Ned to accompany him to the runabout left down the drive. “And we must try to locate Daniel,” he went on in a lower voice. “I hope he came out of the ’chute jump safely.”
“He seemed to know just how to do it,” commented Blanchard. “I never saw a chap do it so quickly and neatly. No sooner had the glider cut loose than over the side he went. Almost as if he knew it was going to happen.”
“And just what did happen?” asked Tom when, having left Lee on guard, he, with Ned and the pilot, were speeding back to Shopton.
“I wish I knew,” the pilot said. “We were running along nicely, following every move of the plane, the communication was perfect. We were expecting an order to cut loose any moment.”
“But I didn’t give the order,” Tom said.
“I know you didn’t, Mr. Swift, and we didn’t cut loose. But, all at once, down we started. That office man of yours jumped, but Lee and I stuck to the glider. We thought we could make an easy landing for, after all, it was no more than what we had been expecting—to be cut loose. But the controls froze and we couldn’t escape the greenhouse. Boy, what a crack-up!”
“It’s lucky it was no worse,” Ned commented.
“Right!” exclaimed Tom. “I shall have to look over that coupling device carefully,” he went on. “There must be some defect in it if it let go without being operated either from the glider or from the plane.”
“Seems so,” was Blanchard’s opinion. First aid had been given him by some in the crowd that gathered after the crash, and he was now fairly comfortable. Tom had him sent to the plant hospital as soon as he reached his place. Then he dispatched a crew of men to get the smashed glider out of the Willam greenhouse. Not until then did the young inventor and his financial manager find a spare moment to sit down, look at each other and take stock of matters. They had not forgotten Daniel, but, as there was no way of knowing where he had landed with his parachute, they must wait until they got some word in order to send out and bring him in with the life-saving device.
“That was a queer one, wasn’t it?” began Ned.
“You mean our glider crashing into Willam’s greenhouse?” asked Tom.
“Yes. Seemed like retaliation for his refusing that loan.”
“His bill for damages will make our interest rate higher than it ought to be,” sighed Tom.
“And what about Mrs. Willam’s nerves?” asked Ned with a laugh.
“I’m really sorry for her,” Tom stated. “She must have been shocked.”
“A glider going through a greenhouse roof does make a bit of a row,” and Ned chuckled. They could smile, now that the affair was over, with no loss of life. But Tom was still worried about Daniel, and more worried as to what had caused the glider to cut loose. He was going to try and discover the reason for this as soon as possible.
Shortly before the wrecking crew came in with what was left of the glider, the telephone rang and Daniel reported that he had come down safely, some miles beyond Redstone Hall. He asked if a car could be sent to bring him back with the parachute, and Tom ordered one out.
“Well, Daniel, did you get hurt any?” Tom asked when, toward evening, the parachute jumper had arrived.
“Hardly a scratch, Mr. Swift. That parachute worked fine. I landed like a bird in some low bushes in a big field.”
“Ever jumped before?” asked Tom.
“No, never. But I’ve seen lots do it and I know how to work a parachute. I just counted ten, after I jumped and pulled the ring. For a few seconds I was afraid it wouldn’t open. But it did.”
“Lucky for you,” commented Ned.
“How did you happen to think to take a ’chute when I said you could go up in the glider?” Tom wanted to know.
“Oh, I just had a sudden thought that it would be a good thing to have one along in case anything happened.”
“You didn’t expect anything to happen—did you?” Tom asked quickly.
“Why, no, Mr. Swift! Of course I didn’t,” Daniel replied. “But you know a glider broke loose the other day and——”
“You thought it might break loose again, is that it?” interrupted Tom.
“Why, yes, something like that.”
“Oh,” said Tom, briefly. “Well, it happened all right. I have yet to discover why. You didn’t see what caused the coupling to part, did you?”
“Why, no, Mr. Swift. All I know is that we were riding along in your sky train, the same as the gliders in front of us. All of a sudden I heard Blanchard, or Lee—one of them, I couldn’t be sure which—give a shout—like they were afraid. Then I felt us cut loose and I saw we were falling and I jumped—that’s all.”
“I see,” said Tom. “Well, I’m glad there were no worse results than a smashed glider and a broken greenhouse. Money will mend both those. It wouldn’t have paid for a life. Better take a day or two off, Daniel, to rest up after your jump. There’s no great rush of work for you, until after I find out where the defect is in my coupling.”
“Oh, I don’t need a rest, Mr. Swift. I’ll be at the office in the morning as usual.”
“Well, suit yourself as to that.”
That night was a busy one for Tom Swift. He had the coupling of the glider, that had fallen through the greenhouse, brought into his laboratory and, until a late hour, he and Ned, with some of the shop experts, went over it carefully. It seemed to be in perfect order, as far as could be told in its smashed condition. The magnetic switch worked all right.
“Lee,” said Tom, speaking to the pilot who had come back with the wrecked machine, “did either you or Blanchard touch the coupling in any manner after the sky train was moving?”
“No, sir, I didn’t and I’m sure Blanchard didn’t.”
“Was this other man—Daniel—anywhere near it?”
“Well, I didn’t see him near it. You know that was a big glider, Mr. Swift—a pattern of the kind you’re going to use in the sky train, and there’s plenty of room to move about in the cockpit. Sometimes Daniel did come up front from where he had first been sitting at the rear. He looked at the coupler and asked questions about it, which either Blanchard or I answered, for we knew, as long as it was patented, there was no secret about it.”
“No, it isn’t any secret now,” Tom said. “But did Daniel touch the coupler in any way?”
“Not as far as I saw. I’m sure if Blanchard had seen him he’d have stopped him. We both heard what you said, Mr. Swift, about watching it carefully until we got word to either cut loose ourselves or to stand by while you did.”
“Then I guess it was an unavoidable accident,” Tom said with a sigh. “As it is now, I don’t know what caused the rear glider to cut loose from the plane without a signal being given. I’ve got to do some hard work.”
Which Tom did—very hard work—in the anxious days that followed. It was a baffling problem. He spent many nights in his laboratory while Ned took up with the Swift lawyer and the attorney for Mr. Willam the matter of settling for the greenhouse damage.
At last one midnight, when Ned was working late over the books, and Tom was in his private laboratory, the financial manager was startled by a sudden shout from his friend. It was like a cry of alarm.
“What’s the matter, Tom?” Ned cried, rushing down the corridor.