Chapter 18 Tom Swift and His Sky Train by Victor Appleton
MORE SUSPICIONS
“What’s the idea of that, Tom?” cried Ned. “Why did you cut the glider loose over the lake?”
“I didn’t!” Tom fairly shouted as he began frantically signalling to the motor compartment. “And Jorgin, in that tail glider, didn’t signal that he was going down. Something is wrong, Ned!”
“You don’t mean another accident?”
“I’m afraid so, yes!”
“This sure is bad, Tom! Even with all Mr. Damon’s influence, the bank may call our loan if they find we’re having cracks all the while.”
For a moment Tom did not answer. He had made the telephone connection with the motor compartment and was about to give orders to Lacter to stand by to go down when Ned, looking from the observation window, yelled:
“They made a perfect water landing, Tom! As nice as a wild duck, and the glider’s floating there right side up! Everybody in it is waving at us and they seem as happy as clams! Why, I really believe they think you cut them loose purposely!”
“You don’t mean to say,” spoke Tom, “that the glider isn’t smashed and that no one is hurt, do you?”
“As far as I can see, Tom, the glider isn’t even scratched, and there certainly is no one hurt. Not a bit of excitement down there. They’re cheering like mad!”
“Then by Jove, Ned, we may pull out of this all right yet. If the glider made a good water landing, isn’t cracked and nobody hurt, only you and I know that this was an accident and not intentional. If we keep still, this can be passed off as part of the test.”
“Then we’d sure better keep still, Tom.”
“Certainly. But, all the same, it was an accident, Ned. Something went wrong with the coupling, and that’s no joke, even if we can pass this off as a regular landing.”
“The gliders are equipped with pontoons, aren’t they, Tom? I seem to remember that.”
“Yes, retractable pontoons. It’s as easy for them to land on water as it is on the ground. And I must say the pilot did a nice bit of work guiding his craft down, especially when he was taken by surprise as he must have been. He didn’t know he was to be cut loose yet, remember, so it’s all the more to his credit.”
“We’ll have to raise his pay,” remarked Ned. “But what happened, Tom, old man?”
“I’d give a lot to know,” was the serious answer. “Stand by to let off more gliders, Lacter and Turtan!” Tom called to the Eagle pilots. This was quite a different message from the one he had intended to give when he realized that an accident had happened. But there were no bad results from the accident and Tom and Ned agreed to pass it off as a regular, scheduled happening.
“Stand by it is!” Lacter reported over the wire to Tom in the plane cabin.
A moment later the young inventor was in wireless telephone communication with the pilot of the plane that had dropped into Lake Carlopa.
“I’ll send a motor boat to have you towed ashore,” Tom said. “I want to drop off the other gliders now, and then we’ll plan for a pick-up test tomorrow. How did you land?”
“Like a duck, Mr. Swift,” was the pilot’s quick answer. “I never handled a glider that worked sweeter—perfect control every foot of the way. I must say, though, you rather took us by surprise letting us drop so suddenly.”
“That’s part of this game,” Tom said with a wink at Ned. The hearts of both had scarcely yet resumed their normal beat after the fright. They had feared many had been killed and the glider smashed. “I wanted you to practice an emergency landing. I’ll do the same to the other pilots soon. I suppose you noticed,” Tom went on, “that your control switch on the coupler was shut off, didn’t you?”
“Yes, Mr. Swift, I did,” the pilot said. “And I was just wondering about that when you let us go. I understood that no glider could be cut loose unless the double dual magnetic control was working. But of course you couldn’t let me down without warning if my switch had been operating.”
“Exactly,” Tom said, with another wink at Ned. “Well, I’ll soon have you ashore and I’ll pick up the glider later. Is it all right?”
“Not a stay or strut strained. Perfect condition.”
Tom cut off communication and turned to Ned.
“I had to do some quick thinking then,” he said. “If I hadn’t mentioned that the glider coupling switch was in neutral, those on her would think sure it was an accident. For you know, Ned, the gliders aren’t supposed to go down until two persons act in concert in setting switches.”
“That’s what I thought, Tom. But——”
“In this case something went wrong. There was a real accident all right, but, luckily, nobody was hurt. The wisest course for you and me, under the circumstances, is to pass it off as a scheduled event in our test. But, Ned, this doesn’t let us out. I’ve got to find what went wrong with that coupling.”
“How was it,” asked Ned, “that the control in the glider that fell, was in neutral?”
“Some one must have tampered with it.”
“And I’ll wager I know who!” exclaimed Ned as the Eagle went roaring and soaring on her way, pulling after her the other gliders.
“Who, Ned?”
“Young Daniel! I’ve been getting more and more suspicious of him for some time. I don’t like several things he’s been doing about the office after hours. I didn’t bother to speak to you as I knew you had enough on your mind. But why did you send him to that rear glider just before we went up, Tom?”
“I didn’t send him!”
“But he was there, and I’m sure, now, from what happened, that he did something to the control mechanism. I didn’t think much of it at the time, for I thought he knew what he was doing. But I’m sure he set the glider control switch at neutral and caused the car to fall. How he managed to work the switch in here, unless by wireless control, I don’t pretend to know.”
“He couldn’t do that,” said Tom with a shake of his head. “What probably happened was that this particular coupler was a bit weak. With one half the control in neutral, a sudden swerve of the line of gliders might have tripped the coupler and the glider fell. I see what else I must do. Before my sky train sets out on each trip I shall have to check up with each pilot to make sure all couplers and both control switches are in perfect working order. Then nothing like this can ever happen again.”
“That sounds like good sense,” Ned commented. “We’re mighty lucky, Tom. Whew! But I was all in for a few seconds.”
“So was I. But it came to me in a flash, when you said nobody was hurt, that we could pass it off this way. Well, now for some real, intended landings.”
In a short time Tom signalled for the second rear glider to let go, and it went down to a perfect stop, as did all the others. None of them landed in Lake Carlopa, though the last one was cut off so close to that water that the pilot of it, in a sort of spirit of show-off and ability tried to maneuver his craft to a place in the lake. He did not have enough height to make the distance and came down on the beach, much to the thrill of the crowd that had gathered when the first car fell.
“Everything worked perfectly, Ned!” Tom said exultingly. “I think we have success ahead of us at last!”
“How about picking up these big gliders, Tom? I know they can come down as well as the small, experimental ones, even when they get loose by accident. But what about taking them up and hitching them on in the air when the Eagle is roaring along?”
“That part of my sky train experiment yet remains to be proved. But I think I’ll have no trouble there. If the coupler works one way it will the other. Only I’ve got to use more skillful pilots to hitch a glider to my train than to drop one off.”
“Naturally,” Ned agreed. “It’s like the stunt of refueling a plane in flight.”
“Exactly. Well, we’ll send the Eagle down now, and arrange about getting that glider out of Lake Carlopa.”
Seeing that all his gliders were safely on the ground (one being safe afloat) Tom called to Lacter and Turtan to stand by to set the Eagle down. The ship was soon in the hangar and Tom was doing his best to satisfy a number of newspaper reporters who besieged him with questions. Word of the important test had been broadcast and many journals had their best men to cover the story. In addition there were newsreel photographers with the talkie arrangement.
“It was a big success, wasn’t it, Mr. Swift?” asked one reporter.
“Yes,” Tom said, with a quick look at Ned, “I think you may safely say that.”
Late that afternoon, when the glider had been taken from the water and was back at the plant, Tom asked Ned to come into the private office.
“I’m going to have a talk with Daniel,” said the young inventor, “and I want you to be present, Ned.”
“Going to accuse him of tampering with the glider?”
“I’ll see about that,” was Tom’s quiet answer.