Chapter 13 Tom Swift and His Sky Train by Victor Appleton
DISQUIETING NEWS
Silence, for the moment, seemed to fill the private office. Miss Mapes, who had been with Tom some time, looked flushed and uneasy. Ned Newton was plainly surprised at the mixup, the like of which had seldom occurred in the Swift plant. Tom reached over on his desk and pushed the button which summoned his newest assistant.
“We’ll have to thrash this thing out,” he said in a low voice. “Sit down, Miss Mapes,” he directed the girl.
“You rang for me, Mr. Swift,” suavely asked Daniel, as he entered.
“Yes. What about this mixup in the orders for the big gliders from the National people? Here is the original order and my letter confirming it and asking that delivery be made, at the latest, the end of this week. Here is a copy of my letter that I dictated to Miss Mapes. Now she tells me you dictated to her a subsequent letter saying there was no hurry about delivering those gliders. Did you send such a letter?”
“Why, yes, Mr. Swift. I did.”
“What for?” Tom’s voice was very stern.
“Why, I understood,” said Daniel, and his voice was calm and collected, “that your new attachment coupling would not be ready for some time. One afternoon, when you were out, some one from the National concern telephoned saying they were having difficulty in making the gliders. They asked for a little more time and as I had in mind what you said about the coupling not being ready, I wrote and told them it would be all right to ship the craft at the end of the month.”
“And you dictated a letter to that effect after I had written them, Daniel?”
“Why, yes, I told Miss Mapes to take the letter and——”
“That’s true,” the stenographer broke in. She was, obviously, flustered. “Mr. Daniel dictated the letter to me, though I know nothing of his telephone talk with the National people. But when he told me to take a letter, which countermanded your orders, I objected, Mr. Swift, for I remembered the letter you had sent. Only Mr. Daniel said he had been talking to the National concern on the wire and that as they were pressed for time, and you weren’t, and as you were out, he would take the responsibility of giving an extension.”
“I see,” remarked Tom, slowly, after a little reflection. “That will be all now, Miss Mapes. Thank you.” But turning to Daniel, after the stenographer had left the room, Tom asked: “Why didn’t you mention this to me, Daniel, when I have been wondering why the gliders didn’t come along at the time I ordered them to be delivered?”
“I suppose I should have done that, Mr. Swift, but it slipped my mind and——”
“It is likely to be a costly slip—I mean to my plans,” said Tom. “I will give you credit for acting in good faith, Daniel, but the next time you change my orders, let me know.”
“Yes, sir, I will, Mr. Swift.”
Was it a fact or did Ned Newton observe a half concealed smile of triumph on the man’s face as he left the office? Ned resolved to be doubly on guard but to say nothing more to Tom about possible underhand work until he could be more sure of it.
“Daniel will bear watching,” Ned mused.
For some little time Tom said nothing. He remained staring out of his office window, observing several of his men busy putting the finishing touches on a small airplane that was to be used in towing aloft the gliders to be attached to the sky train while it was in motion.
“I need some full-sized gliders to make a good test of the sky train,” Tom said at length, turning to Ned. “Let’s try a little bluff on those fellows. I hardly think they are working against my interests but I’m taking no chances. Get them on the wire again, Ned, and tell them unless all the gliders are delivered here within two weeks, I shall cancel the order and we’ll make them right here in our own shops.”
“But, Tom, we can’t do that.”
“You tell ’em so, anyhow, Ned old man!” and Tom chuckled.
Soon the wires were buzzing between the Swift plant and that of the National concern and finally Ned with a smile of relief turned to Tom and said:
“They’ll have ’em here on time.”
“I thought they would,” remarked the young inventor.
From then on the Swift plant fairly hummed. Tom was not trusting to luck, and so speeded up other work that, in case of necessity, he might be able to turn his full force at making gliders, with a good chance of getting them ready in time to send his sky train out to the World Exposition fully equipped.
Though Tom and Ned had more of an eye to Daniel than ever before, there appeared no need of it. The young man attended well to his work and was a great help to Tom in relieving that young inventor of much complicated detail work. Further tests were made of attaching and detaching the small, temporary gliders to the Eagle and everything went well. No gliders were unexpectedly cut off, and those swung up from the ground by the small, auxiliary plane, were attached after a few unimportant failures.
“But how things will work with big, loaded passenger gliders is yet a question,” Tom said.
“At any rate the double dual control works, doesn’t it?” asked Ned.
“Yes, the magnetic release, operated jointly from the Eagle and from the tail glider is fine,” Tom said. “I think we’re going to make a ten-strike, Ned.”
“Hope so, old man. But I say, what’s that, Tom?” Ned suddenly asked as a loud, throbbing roar sounded above the group of plant and office buildings.
“Some kind of plane or dirigible,” Tom said, recognizing the sound. “But the Eagle isn’t up, nor any of my big machines. This is a big machine, I can tell by the noise of the propellers.”
“It sounds so,” agreed Ned.
With one accord the two hurried to the door, intending to go out and look up to locate the source of the throbbing roar. But before they reached the portal the telephone rang. Jumping to it Tom heard the voice of Mr. Damon excitedly saying:
“Bless thirteen at a dinner table, Tom, but I’ve got bad news for you! Very bad news!”