Chapter 20 Tom Swift and His Sky Train by Victor Appleton
THE PRIZE OFFER
“What is it, Ned?” asked Tom, as he laid aside the coupler attachment, the defect of which he had just located. “Any more trouble?”
“Trouble? No! This is good news! That was an official of the World Exposition—one of the Eastern representatives. He says the management has heard about your almost perfected sky train, and also the cross-country dirigible outfit the Acton Aviation shops are putting out, and has decided to offer a prize for the first outfit to make a complete non-stop flight from the vicinity of New York to San Francisco. I told him you’d enter the race. Was I right?”
“Sure, Ned! I’ll be there all right, and, now that I’ve found out what’s the matter with my coupler I see daylight ahead of me. Of course I could fly my sky train, as it is now, from coast to coast without stopping, towing some gliders. But I won’t do it unless I can operate both features of what I hope will be a new travel service for people in a hurry.”
“You mean you want to start the sky train, drop off a couple of gliders, one say at Chicago and the other at Denver, pick up a couple of other gliders at the same places, and all this without stopping—is that it?”
“That’s it, Ned! And I challenge the Acton concern to do the same! Maybe they won’t attempt it in competition with me, and perhaps the double glider feature—one off and another on in full flight—will not be made part of the rules. But that’s the stunt I’ve set for myself, Ned, and I’m not going to stop short of it!”
“Good for you, Tom! And now let’s get busy on this. I can see some good newspaper publicity in it for us.”
“That’s your end of it, Ned. I’ve got to start the wheels moving in making longer couplers!”
Tom’s heart was lighter, now that he had discovered the defect which had so baffled him. But, as he worked away, he could not help wondering at the strange attitude of Daniel.
“Why wouldn’t he let me help save his boy’s eyesight?” mused Tom.
He had other matters that, temporarily at least, occupied his mind, and he threw himself with all his energies into making his sky train a complete success.
Several days after the failure to have the uprising glider attached to the sky train in flight, Tom and his helpers were ready for another trial. Once more the Eagle was sent aloft, towing two “cars” after it. Down below, the smaller, speedy plane waited with a loaded glider made fast ready to be hoisted into the air and attached to the tail of the train.
“Well, let’s go!” remarked Tom, as he gave a last look at the new couplers.
The motors roared, up shot the Eagle, pulling two heavily-loaded gliders. Once more the train was sent to and fro in the sky and then Tom, not without a little feeling of anxiety, in spite of his sureness that he was on the right track, gave the signal to cut loose. The tail glider dropped off and went skimming toward earth. There never had been much trouble about this stunt.
“Stand by to come up!” Tom called over the wireless telephone to the pilot of the plane waiting on the ground.
“Right!”
Up shot the speedy plane, lifting the glider behind and below it, as though it were a feather. Once more came that careful jockeying in the air—nervous, thrilling work for the pilots. Again came the little jar that told of contact.
There was a moment of anxious suspense. Then Tom and Ned, through an upper observation window, saw the small towing plane, without the glider, soaring off toward the ground.
“Hurray, Tom!” yelled Ned, clapping his chum on the back. “She stuck! The glider’s fast all right! It’s a success! Wow!”
“Yes,” Tom said, with a little catch in his voice, “I guess it is! The glider caught on all right, thanks to the longer coupler. Well, Ned, I think we can now have a go at that prize the World Exposition people are offering for the first sky train to reach the coast. How much did you say it was?”
“Twenty-five thousand dollars!”
“Not to be sneezed at!” commented Tom.
“I should say not—even if you had a cold!” answered Ned with a laugh. “But what are you going to do now?” he asked, as Tom went to the telephone instruments again.
“I’m going to tell the glider that just hooked on to cut off, and then I’m going to try to pick up from the ground the one that was first released. I want to make sure my new coupling will work more than once.”
Tom need not have had any fears. The improved device operated perfectly. As soon as orders were given the glider that had been picked up was cut loose and made a graceful landing. A little later the small plane once more towed aloft the “car” that had first gone down, and this was quickly attached to the sky train, amid the cheers of the passengers and those of the crowd on the ground below. All this took place while the Eagle was moving about over the Swift flying field, never once stopping either to drop a glider or pick one up.
“Well, now I’m satisfied,” Tom said with a sigh of relief as he gave the signal to go down. “I know my sky train is a success, but I still have to prove that we can make a non-stop trans-continental flight, both dropping off and picking up gliders. That’s next on the program.”
“And winning the prize,” added Ned.
“Right! Winning the prize!”
The week that followed was an exceptionally busy one. Now that Tom planned to fly his sky train across the United States, he needed a special permit from Washington to allow this. There was no difficulty about having this granted, as Uncle Sam was using several of Tom’s inventions, one or two of which the young man had donated to the War Department as part of the defense plans of the country.
When Ned, who went to Washington to get the necessary papers, came back, he said:
“You aren’t going to have it all your own way, Tom. The Acton people got the same kind of a permit just before I did.”
“You don’t say so,” and Tom was not a little perturbed. “Did you hear if they are going to drop gliders, or ‘cars,’ and pick them up as I plan to do?”
“I couldn’t get much information on it. I heard they plan to drop off small dirigible units, but whether they are going to pick them up I can’t say.”
“Well, we’re ready for any kind of competition they want to give us,” said Tom. “And now, Ned, I want you to get ready for a wonderful trip.”
“What do you mean, Tom? I hope I haven’t got to go out to Frisco to get more documents for you. I’m behind in my work here now.”
“No, you don’t have to go to Frisco until you make the trip with me in the sky train. But I mean I want you to come along on the first, real long voyage we’ll take in my new invention. I’m going to try out the sky train in a journey of several hundred miles, and on the way we’ll drop off gliders and pick them up. We’ll arrange to do this twice, at different points, just as we plan to do at Chicago and Denver. I’m finishing the details now. Yes, it will be a wonderful trip!”
“I’m sure it will!” exclaimed Ned.
A knock sounded on the door of the private office where Ned and Tom were talking.
“Come in!” the young inventor called.
Davis Daniel, holding a paper in his hand, advanced. There was a strange look on his sullen face.
“Here!” he said, thrusting the paper at Tom.