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diff --git a/75322-h/75322-h.htm b/75322-h/75322-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a75e031 --- /dev/null +++ b/75322-h/75322-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5987 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + Tom Swift and His House on Wheels | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } +hr.full {width: 95%; margin-left: 2.5%; margin-right: 2.5%;} +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +x-ebookmaker-drop {display: none;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.smcap { font-variant:small-caps; } + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +.caption p +{ + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0; + margin: 0.25em 0; + font-weight: bold; +} + +div.titlepage { + text-align: center; + page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; +} + +div.titlepage p { + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.5; + margin-top: 3em; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } +table.autotable td, +table.autotable th { padding: 4px; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} + +.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } +.ph1 { font-size: x-large; margin: .83em auto; } + +.ph2 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } +.ph2 { font-size: large; margin: .83em auto; } + +.ph3 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } +.ph3 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75322 ***</div> + +<div class="titlepage"> + +<div class="figcenter x-ebookmaker-drop"> + <img src="images/illusc.jpg" alt=""> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<h1>TOM SWIFT AND HIS HOUSE ON WHEELS</h1> + +<p>OR</p> + +<h2>A Trip to the Mountain of Mystery</h2> + +<p class="ph1">By VICTOR APPLETON</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Author of<br> +"Tom Swift and His Motorcycle,"<br> +"Tom Swift Among the Diamond Makers,"<br> +"Tom Swift and His Talking Pictures,"<br> +"The Don Sturdy Series,"<br> +Etc.</span></p> + +<p><i>ILLUSTRATED</i></p> + +<p>NEW YORK<br> +GROSSET & DUNLAP<br> +PUBLISHERS</p> + +<p>Made in the United States of America</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1929, by</span><br> +GROSSET & DUNLAP, <span class="smcap">Inc.</span></p> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""> + <div class="caption"> + <p>"A RACE! WE'LL SEE WHAT YOU CAN DO AGAINST THE HOUSE ON WHEELS!"</p> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table> +<tr><td class="tdr">I.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><span class="smcap">Strong Words</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">II.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><span class="smcap">The New Invention</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">III.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><span class="smcap">Ned's Suspicions</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">IV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><span class="smcap">Surprising News</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">V.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><span class="smcap">Work and Worry</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">VI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><span class="smcap">The Tryout</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">VII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><span class="smcap">The Race</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">VIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><span class="smcap">Cunningham on the Wire</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">IX.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><span class="smcap">Dismal Mountain</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">X.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><span class="smcap">Jealousy</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><span class="smcap">Trailing the Mystery</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><span class="smcap">The Warning</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><span class="smcap">The Deserted House</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XIV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><span class="smcap">A Strange Disappearance</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><span class="smcap">On the Trail</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XVI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><span class="smcap">Two Strange Men</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XVII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><span class="smcap">The Captive Escapes</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XVIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><span class="smcap">Shots from Ambush</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XIX.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><span class="smcap">Prisoners</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XX.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><span class="smcap">In the Castle</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><span class="smcap">Plots and Plans</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><span class="smcap">The Escape</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><span class="smcap">Setting the Trap</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXIV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><span class="smcap">Just in Time</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><span class="smcap">Wedding Bells</span></a></td></tr> +</table> + + +<hr class="chap"> + + +<h2>TOM SWIFT AND HIS HOUSE ON WHEELS</h2> + + + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">STRONG WORDS</p> + + +<p>Tom Swift, with a negative shake of his head, shoved several papers +across the table that separated him from a burly, red-faced man whose +eyes narrowly observed the young inventor.</p> + +<p>"Then you refuse this contract, Mr. Swift—a contract for constructing +over one hundred thousand dollars' worth of machinery on which you can +make a handsome profit? You absolutely refuse it?"</p> + +<p>The red-faced man in his eagerness was leaning forward now.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Cunningham, I refuse!" was Tom's crisp answer. "The Swift +Construction Company does not care to handle it."</p> + +<p>Mr. Barton Swift, father of the young man who thus calmly turned down +what seemed like a good business proposition, nodded in affirmation of +what his son had said.</p> + +<p>"Is that your last word?" asked Basil Cunningham, who plainly showed +his English ancestry, not only in his face and figure but in his +general bearing and manner. "This refusal is final?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"Quite final and complete," answered Tom, as he added another document +to the pile of those he had pushed toward his visitor. They were blue +prints, specifications, and contract forms, but they all went across +the table. "The matter is closed."</p> + +<p>"But, look here! I say, now!" and Mr. Cunningham began to wax excited, +not to say wroth. "I can't understand——"</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say you don't understand English?" asked Mr. Swift, and +the smile on the face of the aged inventor took away whatever sting +there might otherwise have been in the words. "I thought my son spoke +very plainly. He said 'no,' and that's what he means."</p> + +<p>"But look here, Mr. Swift! Do you agree with him?"</p> + +<p>"Absolutely!"</p> + +<p>"And you won't consider the contracts further?"</p> + +<p>"The matter is closed, I told you!" and Tom Swift's voice was a bit +sharp now.</p> + +<p>With an imperious gesture the burly Englishman gathered up his papers +and began to stuff them into a leather brief case bulging with other +documents. If possible the red of his face deepened.</p> + +<p>"Well," he began, "of all the——"</p> + +<p>Tom Swift looked up sharply. He was on the verge of saying something +that, he himself admitted, he might later have been sorry for when the +door of the private office opened and a veritable giant of a man fairly +squeezed his way through the doorway.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Koku?" asked Tom, not quite pleased with such an +interruption at this time.</p> + +<p>"Excuse, Master," murmured the foreign giant, whose struggle with a +strange tongue sometimes got the best of him. "But new engine him have +come an' Mr. Jackson say him got to be lift up—so I lift if you want."</p> + +<p>As if to demonstrate his strength, the giant put one finger under the +edge of the heavy table around which the three men sat and, with as +much ease as if he were lifting a feather, tilted it.</p> + +<p>"My word, man! Don't do that!" cried Mr. Cunningham, for one of his +feet was close to the leg of the table and he evidently feared the +weight would come down on his toes when Koku let go.</p> + +<p>"Don't worry," said Tom, with a smile. "Koku won't drop it."</p> + +<p>Fascinated by this remarkable exhibition of strength, by which the +giant raised several hundred pounds on one finger, the Englishman +started to move from his proximity to Koku. But there was no need of +alarm, though the timely entrance of Tom Swift's gigantic henchman had +evidently stopped a tirade that was on the lips of the visitor.</p> + +<p>"That will do, Koku," said Tom, in a low voice. "I will see Mr. Jackson +shortly and look at the new engine."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Master," murmured the giant, whose whisper, however, was a hoarse +bellow in contrast with others.</p> + +<p>Koku took himself out and Cunningham, staring at the closed door as +though he could not believe what he had seen, continued to stuff his +rejected contracts into his case.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry about this," said the Englishman in more subdued tones than +he had used before the advent of Koku. "I'm not only sorry, but I'm +disappointed and I think I haven't been fairly treated." His anger was +rising again, that was evident.</p> + +<p>"How do you mean—not fairly treated?" asked Tom sharply.</p> + +<p>"Why, dash it all, when I first broached this matter to you I was as +much as given to understand that your firm would go ahead and make the +apparatus for me."</p> + +<p>"You were given to understand nothing of the sort," replied Tom quietly.</p> + +<p>"I say I was!" and the Englishman banged his fist hard on the heavy +table that Koku had raised with one finger. "I tell you I have been +shamefully treated here, and I'm not going to stand it. I——"</p> + +<p>Again the door suddenly opened and Basil Cunningham made a move as if +to hide beneath the table he had so lately pounded. But instead of +Koku, this time the intruder was an aged and decrepit colored man whose +whitening, curly hair made a pathetic frame for his black, wizened +face. No gentler creature, as a man, could well have been visioned, and +Mr. Cunningham, who had evidently been expecting a return of the giant, +looked a bit foolish.</p> + +<p>"Did yo' all call me, Massa Swift?" asked the negro gently.</p> + +<p>"No, Rad, we didn't call," said Tom, with a kind smile at the aged +servant who often claimed, regarding the young inventor: "I done +nussed him from a baby, dat's whut I done!"</p> + +<p>"'Scuse me, Massa Tom," went on Eradicate. "But I thought I done heard +a noise in here, an'——"</p> + +<p>"We were just talking, Rad, that was all. We have about finished," and +Tom looked significantly at the red-faced Briton. "I'll call you if I +need you, Rad."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sah," and Eradicate shuffled out.</p> + +<p>"There is no use in further wasting your time or my own, Mr. +Cunningham," proceeded Tom Swift, when the three again faced each +other. "My mind is fully made up, and you see that my father agrees."</p> + +<p>"I agree fully with my son," added aged Mr. Swift.</p> + +<p>"Then I'll have to get somebody else to carry out this contract!" +snapped Mr. Cunningham. "I'll go to some firm that knows how to take a +big profit when it's offered."</p> + +<p>"That's your privilege," replied Tom, smiling. "We don't want it."</p> + +<p>There was something so final in his words that Mr. Cunningham knew +better than to try other arguments. The last paper was thrust into the +case, and the way in which the Englishman snapped the lock showed his +anger. He caught up his hat, muttered a "good-day," and hurried out.</p> + +<p>"Well, that's that," said Tom Swift, with something between a sigh of +relief and regret.</p> + +<p>"Tom, you did just right!" exclaimed his father. "I didn't want to +interfere, but you gave him the right answer. We want nothing to do +with his sort, even though we may have to close down the plant on +account of lack of orders."</p> + +<p>"We are running a bit short," Tom admitted. "And with all I spent on +the talking pictures, with no prospect of any substantial revenue from +them for some time, we may be financially up against it soon, Dad."</p> + +<p>"Don't worry, Tom. We'll pull through, somehow. You can keep busy, +can't you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I've got to finish my House on Wheels," and Tom fairly +spoke of it in capital letters, so near to his heart was this newest +invention.</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes, Tom, your House on Wheels," and Mr. Swift chuckled a little. +"I've been looking it over now and again. Seems as if you had a pretty +good thing there."</p> + +<p>"I hope it will work out," responded the young man.</p> + +<p>"Looks as if you were fitting it up for a trip around the world," went +on his father smiling. "Are you?"</p> + +<p>"Not exactly, Dad."</p> + +<p>"I might make another guess, Tom, my boy," and still the aged man was +laughing.</p> + +<p>"Well, there's no law that I know of, Dad, to stop you from making +guesses," and Tom busied himself over several papers that seemed to +need close attention.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, Tom, I'll guess that you're going to use your new House on +Wheels for a wedding journey. How about that?"</p> + +<p>"Who says anything about a wedding trip?" cried Tom, his face almost as +red as the Englishman's had been.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no one has <i>said</i> anything, Tom," his father answered mildly. "But +from the manner in which you and Mary Nestor have been going about of +late, looking into furniture store windows and——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, there's too much talk going on in this town!" exclaimed Tom, and +his father laughed heartily at his son's evident discomfiture.</p> + +<p>"Well, wedding trip or world tour, your new House on Wheels appears to +be a clever bit of work," went on Mr. Swift. "When will it be finished?"</p> + +<p>"Can't say, exactly. Though now that the new engine has arrived, +as Koku informed me, I can rush things. I've been waiting for the +machinery. That's why I'm glad, in a way, I didn't have to take on the +Cunningham contracts."</p> + +<p>"Valuable as they were," remarked Mr. Swift.</p> + +<p>"Valuable as they were," agreed his son. "And now, if you'll excuse me, +Dad, I'll go take a look at that new engine."</p> + +<p>"I have some matters to attend to myself," said old Mr. Swift, who, +though he had given up active participation in the plant some time +before, still maintained a general supervision over certain matters. +He left the private office just as Ned Newton, the young financial +manager, entered in some haste. Nodding to Tom's father, Ned turned to +the young inventor and asked:</p> + +<p>"What's this I hear about you turning down Cunningham's work?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, Ned, what you heard, nor how, so I can't reply."</p> + +<p>"I was just coming in through the yard when I saw Cunningham getting +into an auto with a man who had a face like a rat's. He was a stranger +to me; but I knew Cunningham, of course. Say, he was mad, that +Englishman! I heard him muttering something about your having refused +his contracts and, as nearly as I could make out, he was cussing you up +hill and down dale and threatening not only to take his contracts to +another firm but to get even with you as well."</p> + +<p>"Yes he was angry when he left here," admitted Tom. "But that's all +bosh about his going to get even. It was a plain business proposition. +Cunningham is a good business man, whatever else he may be, and +business men don't look for revenge just because one firm won't do +their manufacturing for them."</p> + +<p>"Maybe not. It might have been a lot of superheated atmosphere. But +I can't understand, Tom, why you didn't take his work. There would +have been a good profit in it, you told me, after the preliminary +investigation."</p> + +<p>"Yes, the profit was there."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, what was wrong with such a handsome contract for the very +kind of machinery that we are so well equipped to manufacture?"</p> + +<p>"If you really want to know, Ned, I'll tell you."</p> + +<p>"Of course I want to know."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, it's my opinion that Basil Cunningham is a plain, +unvarnished, first-water crook!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">THE NEW INVENTION</p> + + +<p>Ned Newton stood for several seconds intently gazing at his chum and +business associate after Tom Swift's emphatic rejoinder. Then, feeling +that as financial manager of the Swift plant he ought not too easily +give up a chance for making money, Ned remarked:</p> + +<p>"Well, Tom, I suppose you know your own business best, but you ought to +have something to back up your opinion that Cunningham isn't straight."</p> + +<p>"I've got enough to convince myself, Ned, though maybe not enough to +make you see things the way I do. In fact, I haven't any documentary +evidence, but I still maintain that Cunningham is a crook."</p> + +<p>"In that case, of course we don't want anything to do with him," agreed +Ned. "But what sort of evidence have you, Tom?"</p> + +<p>"I may be mistaken," replied Tom, who was willing to give any man the +benefit of a doubt; "but I have a very strong suspicion that the +delicate machinery Cunningham wanted us to manufacture for him would +infringe on the patents of certain English machines used for scientific +and optical work."</p> + +<p>"Infringement!" exclaimed Ned.</p> + +<p>"That's what it would be if we undertook it, and if it were found out +we would be liable to prosecution," stated Tom. "Even if we weren't +found out, of course I wouldn't undertake such work."</p> + +<p>"Of course," agreed Ned heartily. "But are you sure? You have been +making some strong assertions against Cunningham."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe I'll be called on to prove them in court, for this is +just between us," said Tom. "But I looked over the preliminary sketches +of the machinery this Englishman wanted us to make for him. At first +I was inclined to go on with it. But the other day I saw a notice +in an English publication concerning some new scientific machinery +just completed and it was almost identical with the blue prints and +specifications Cunningham showed me. If we turned out the machinery for +him he'd set up a shop over here for making those instruments and it +would get us in Dutch once it came out."</p> + +<p>"That's right, Tom. I guess you acted wisely in turning him down. +He's mad, mad as a wet hen, but let him splutter. That's what he was +doing to the Queen's taste when he got in the auto with that rat-faced +individual."</p> + +<p>"Yes, let him splutter," agreed Tom. "He can't harm us."</p> + +<p>However, later on, he was to revise that opinion of the Englishman.</p> + +<p>"Of course it's too bad to lose all that good money," mused Ned. "On a +hundred-thousand-dollar contract we could probably knock down twenty +per cent. at least."</p> + +<p>"Yes," agreed Tom, "it would have been picking up a nice bunch of cash. +But I'm not going to make patent imitations under cover for anybody. +I want nothing to do with fraudulent stuff. We can get enough good +contracts, I think."</p> + +<p>"Well," remarked Ned, with a shrug of his shoulders, "good contracts +aren't going around these days begging some one to take them into their +shop. But I dare say we shall pull through."</p> + +<p>"Maybe I can get a lot of orders for my House on Wheels when I get it +completed," chuckled Tom.</p> + +<p>"Nothing doing!" declared Ned, with a laugh. "You'll make only one +House on Wheels and I can see you and Mary rolling off in that to the +music of——"</p> + +<p>"Hey! Where do you get that stuff?" exploded Tom, making an ineffectual +reach to punch his chum. "That's the second crack to-day. Dad made one +and now you. Where do you get it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, since you turned down the Cunningham contract," went on Ned +somewhat hastily, producing some papers from his pocket, "suppose we +go into this Blakely matter. It isn't such a big thing, but we want to +keep the wheels turning."</p> + +<p>"Sure," agreed Tom, and the two were soon deep in calculations.</p> + +<p>To the old readers of these books Tom Swift needs no introduction. +But those to whom this volume comes as their first venture, it may be +necessary to say that Tom Swift was a brilliant young inventor who +lived with his father in the town of Shopton on Lake Carlopa.</p> + +<p>The initial volume, entitled "Tom Swift and His Motorcycle," related +how Tom became possessed of a machine that was damaged when Mr. +Wakefield Damon, its rider, tried to climb a tree.</p> + +<p>That was the beginning of Tom's mechanical activities, for he bought +the motorcycle cheap, repaired it, and had some wonderful adventures +on it. The tree-climbing incident also served to start the friendship +of Tom and Mr. Damon, a friendship that had lasted, though the +eccentric man, who blessed everything from his fountain pen to his +boots, was much older than Tom Swift.</p> + +<p>After his experience with the motorcycle, the young inventor had many +startling and dangerous experiences in aircraft, submarines, and +in turning out, with the help of his father and with Ned Newton as +financial adviser, many strange machines.</p> + +<p>Tom's latest invention is told of in the volume just before this one +you are now reading, entitled "Tom Swift and His Talking Pictures." +He made a machine which brought the images and voices of public +performers directly into the home. The making of this machine had +taken considerable cash, and though Tom had sold certain rights to a +syndicate, the money would not be coming in for some time.</p> + +<p>"And that's one reason I was so anxious for this Cunningham contract to +go through," remarked Ned, who was talking business matters over with +Tom following the departure of the Englishman.</p> + +<p>"We'll get other work to do," declared Tom. "To tell you the truth, +I'm not over anxious to clutter the shop up with any other stuff until +I get my House on Wheels well out of the way."</p> + +<p>"Say, just what is this new invention, anyhow?" asked Ned. "I've been +so busy I haven't paid much attention to it."</p> + +<p>"Well, the name tells just what it is," said Tom. "Briefly, it is a +glorified auto—a veritable house that one can not only live in but +travel in."</p> + +<p>"You mean a house with rooms and a bath and—and—everything?" asked +Ned.</p> + +<p>"That's it—a bath and everything. Of course, the rooms aren't large, +and the beds are to be folded back against the wall when they aren't in +use."</p> + +<p>"What about eats?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"There's to be a kitchen with an electric stove," replied Tom.</p> + +<p>"Run a stove from a storage battery?" exclaimed Ned. "Say, it can't be +done! You'd have to have such a big battery that it would be a job to +cart it around."</p> + +<p>"Not a storage battery," explained Tom. "My House on Wheels is to be +operated like some of the new, big jitneys, by a gas-electric motor. +There's a gasolene engine of twelve cylinders, and, by the way, it's +just arrived from Detroit, so Koku told me. Well, that motor operates +a dynamo which furnishes the current that drives the auto, operates the +stove and other appliances."</p> + +<p>"Then you don't take power directly from the gasolene engine?" asked +Ned.</p> + +<p>"Only in case of emergency; that is, if the electric motor goes on +the fritz. By using my gasolene motor to generate the current to run +the car I get a much smoother flow of power, and there are other +advantages."</p> + +<p>"Does the dingus look anything like a house?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"I object to your calling it a 'dingus,'" laughed the young inventor. +"But in outward appearance it is like a small house."</p> + +<p>"With doors and windows?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and even window shutters. Aside from an entrance back of the +driver's seat, there is only one door, however, and that is at the +rear."</p> + +<p>"How about a pair of steps?" asked Ned, thinking to stump his chum.</p> + +<p>"I've provided for those, too. There are steps at the rear for easy +access to the interior, as my catalogs will say. Only, to keep small +boys from hitch-hiking on them, the steps fold up out of the way when +the House on Wheels is moving."</p> + +<p>"Then you're really going to tour in it?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"Sure!"</p> + +<p>"Going to be pretty heavy, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, around two tons, I guess."</p> + +<p>"It's no flivver, at any rate. But won't it move like a canal boat?"</p> + +<p>"Canal boat! Do you want to insult me?" cried Tom. "On good roads +she'll do fifty or sixty miles an hour."</p> + +<p>"Whew!" whistled Ned. "Guess I'd better go and take a look at this +thing."</p> + +<p>"Come on," invited Tom.</p> + +<p>He was preparing to lead the way out of his private office to that +part of the shop where he was constructing the new invention, when Mr. +Jackson, the manager, entered with an air that caused Tom suddenly to +ask:</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">NED'S SUSPICIONS</p> + + +<p>"Have you given any orders about unpacking the new engine that just +arrived from Detroit?" asked Mr. Jackson of Tom Swift.</p> + +<p>"You mean the twelve-cylinder engine for my House on Wheels?" the young +inventor inquired.</p> + +<p>"That's the one."</p> + +<p>"Why, no. Koku informed me only a little while ago that it had come. +But I couldn't come out to look at it because that Cunningham chap was +in the office. Why, is it being unpacked? And by whom?"</p> + +<p>"It is, and by a couple of strange young men who say you just put them +on the pay roll yesterday to help with your new invention. They went at +the work as though they knew what they were about, but I thought I'd +speak to you."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad you did!" exclaimed Tom. "I've hired no new hands, young or +old, for a long time. I wouldn't without consulting you."</p> + +<p>"That's what I thought. But these fellows seemed to know what they were +about, and I didn't like to tell them to lay off."</p> + +<p>"There's something crooked here!" exclaimed Tom. "This must be looked +into. Come on!" he called to Ned Newton.</p> + +<p>As the three walked along a corridor that led to one of the main shops +where Tom's latest achievement in a mechanical way was in process of +construction, the young inventor closely questioned Mr. Jackson.</p> + +<p>"Had they got the motor out of the packing case when you left them?" +Tom was anxious to know.</p> + +<p>"Not yet. It's a pretty big piece of machinery and won't be unpacked in +a hurry."</p> + +<p>"Then we may be in time!" Tom ejaculated.</p> + +<p>"Time for what?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"To stop any funny work."</p> + +<p>"Whew!" whistled the financial manager. "As bad as that? Whom do you +suspect?"</p> + +<p>"You never can tell," was Tom's reply. "Ever since I've been in this +business I've had to fight crooks and sharps. And I didn't like the way +Cunningham acted after I turned down his proposition."</p> + +<p>"He sure was mad," declared Ned. "But do you think he knew anything +about your House on Wheels, and might try to put sand in the motor +bearings or hire some one to do it?"</p> + +<p>"You never can tell," said Tom again. "Though if it was Cunningham, it +was pretty quick work."</p> + +<p>"Crooks very often need to act quickly," observed Ned.</p> + +<p>Tom hurried forward and was the first of the three to enter the shop. +In one corner was a heavy case and opening it were two men, the only +occupants of the place just then. At the sound of Tom's entrance they +turned, straightened up and looked apprehensive. And well they might, +for Ned cried:</p> + +<p>"The rat-faced man, Tom! Look! The one who was with Cunningham!"</p> + +<p>He pointed to one of the two whose countenance, especially in his +appearance of fright, did resemble that of a rat. An instant later he +and his companion dropped the tools they had been using and leaped from +a near-by open window.</p> + +<p>"Stop them!" yelled Tom. But the rascals were too quick, and when +the young inventor and his friends reached the casement the two were +running across the yard toward the main gate which was, just then, open +to let in a truck.</p> + +<p>"Stop those men!" yelled Tom, seeing several of his workman, as well as +Eradicate and Koku, loitering in the yard.</p> + +<p>Not stopping to ask questions, several hands gave chase. The old +colored man joined in with a yell of:</p> + +<p>"I'll get 'em fo' yo', Massa Tom!"</p> + +<p>But his will was better than his deed, for his aged limbs refused to +take him over the ground fast enough. As for Koku, the giant would only +need to get within hand grasp of the rascals to put a stop to their +flight. But, like most big men, Koku was slow in getting started, and +the two plotters were beyond the gate before any of their pursuers were +within catching distance.</p> + +<p>Tom and Ned leaped out of the window also, but reached the gate only +in time to see the two plotters disappearing down the road in an auto +that, evidently, was in waiting.</p> + +<p>"Come, on, Tom! Chase 'em!" cried Ned. "Get out your electric runabout +and we'll overtake 'em!"</p> + +<p>"Not a chance," Tom replied. "My runabout is having its batteries +charged and all the other fast cars are away on the other side of the +works. No, they've got us beat. I only hope they haven't damaged my new +motor."</p> + +<p>"I think they didn't have a chance to do that," said Ned encouragingly. +"But who were they, Tom?"</p> + +<p>Neither the young inventor nor any one else around the shop, including +Mr. Jackson, knew. The two men, one of whom looked like a rat, had +appeared at the main gate early that morning, it was learned on +checking up. They presented an order signed, apparently, by Tom Swift, +authorizing them to come in. It was a rule that any but the regular +workmen must have such an order to gain entrance to the plant. But this +order was forged.</p> + +<p>So the two got in and falsely stating that they had come from the +Detroit plant of the concern which had made Tom's new motor, they +gained access to the shop where it had been left by a truck from the +freight office.</p> + +<p>Had it not been that Mr. Jackson saw the men at work and wondered +enough about them to tell Tom, they might have carried out their plans, +whatever they were. That the plans were based on an intent to work Tom +Swift or his possessions some injury, could not be doubted.</p> + +<p>A hasty survey, however, showed that the motor had not been taken from +its case, so it was not damaged.</p> + +<p>"What was the game, Tom?" asked Ned, when orders had been given to +admit no more strangers to the plant on any pretext.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll say Cunningham, as a guess."</p> + +<p>"You mean he put these men up to wrecking your motor after you turned +him down?"</p> + +<p>"That's the way it looks to me, Ned. Of course it may have been some of +my other enemies. But since you recognized the rat-faced chap, why, it +looks suspicious to me."</p> + +<p>"But what would be Cunningham's object? He didn't want you to make him +a House on Wheels, did he? Or sell him any stock in the enterprise of +manufacturing them?"</p> + +<p>"No, he didn't mention the matter. I didn't even know that he knew I +had such a thing in mind, much less almost completed."</p> + +<p>"Well, he found out in some way."</p> + +<p>"Very likely. And when I refused to help him make machinery to turn +out infringements on English patented apparatus, he turned nasty and +decided to make me sorry."</p> + +<p>"So it looks, Tom. Lucky you caught the plot in time."</p> + +<p>"That's due to Mr. Jackson's foresight. It was a narrow escape. Half an +hour later and that motor would be fit only for the scrap-heap. Look +here!"</p> + +<p>Tom held up a small bottle of a very powerful acid—one capable of +eating into and corroding the hardest steel.</p> + +<p>"I picked that up where one of the scoundrels dropped it," Tom said. +"They evidently wanted to get at some of the valves on the cylinders. +A few drops of this acid in each one and the walls would have been so +scored that even reboring would not have made them fit to use again."</p> + +<p>"A dirty trick!" exclaimed Ned. "I wish we could have caught them."</p> + +<p>"So do I, for the sake of what may happen in the future."</p> + +<p>Leaving Koku and Eradicate on guard over the new motor, Tom took +Ned to where the chassis and body of the House on Wheels were being +constructed. It was the first time Ned had seen the new invention and +at a glimpse of it, standing in the middle of the shop where it was +receiving its final coat of paint, the young manager exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Say, that's a peach!"</p> + +<p>"Glad you like it," commented Tom.</p> + +<p>The house stood up on a framework corresponding to the chassis on which +it would later be mounted. Tom opened the back door and a pair of +steps, hitherto concealed in a recess, unfolded, let down, and could +be used for entering the little dwelling.</p> + +<p>There were four rooms within, two containing folding cots that made +comfortable beds. One room of those remaining was used as a kitchen. +The other was a living room, though if needful the two bedchambers +could also be utilized for this purpose, when the cots were folded away.</p> + +<p>"And that's the electric stove, is it?" asked Ned, pointing to the +apparatus.</p> + +<p>"That's it. And here's the pantry, the ice box, and so on," added Tom, +indicating the various conveniences.</p> + +<p>"Pretty slick!" was the enthusiastic comment of Ned Newton.</p> + +<p>"But where do you work the thing from?"</p> + +<p>"The motor goes out there," and, going to the front of the house, Tom +showed where the big machine was to be mounted under a regulation auto +hood. "This little compartment will contain the driver's seat and the +controls," he went on, showing a space divided by a partition from the +sleeping quarters.</p> + +<p>The kitchen was in the rear of the House on Wheels, and in front of +that was the combined sitting and dining room, the sleeping quarters +being forward.</p> + +<p>"Putting the kitchen in the rear insures the odors being carried away +as the machine moves along," explained Tom.</p> + +<p>"Then you're going to cook as you travel?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"Sure!" assented Tom.</p> + +<p>"That is you are—or some one else," chuckled Ned.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"I mean that my suspicions are confirmed," went on Ned, with a +laugh, and taking care to get beyond Tom's reach before making his +next remark. He added: "I know where the first stop will be for this +traveling House on Wheels!"</p> + +<p>"Where?" asked Tom, unsuspiciously.</p> + +<p>"Honeymoon Lane!" yelled Ned, making a leap to escape his chum.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">SURPRISING NEWS</p> + + +<p>After all, Tom Swift had sense enough to take good-naturedly the +chaffing to which Ned Newton subjected him.</p> + +<p>The young inventor could not but admit that his latest invention, +coupled with the fact that he and Mary Nestor had been more than +ordinarily chummy recently, would lead to the suspicion that there +might soon be a closer relationship between them than heretofore.</p> + +<p>Mary and Tom had know each other a long time. Once her family and Tom +were marooned on Earthquake Island, and Tom had managed, under great +difficulties, to rig up machinery and send a wireless message. Mr. +Nestor had held a great opinion of the young man's ability and skill +ever since.</p> + +<p>"I'll Honeymoon Lane you if I get hold of you!" threatened Tom as he +and Ned left the shop where the House on Wheels was nearing completion.</p> + +<p>Various matters occupied the attention of the two young men for the +remainder of the day. Ned, charged with keeping track of the finances +of the company, was busy with negotiations looking to the securing of +manufacturing contracts that would keep the plant running. He was a +little disappointed that the Cunningham proposition had been turned +down, but he could but agree with Tom that to take a contract about +which there was any suspicion of wrongdoing would be poor policy.</p> + +<p>As for Tom Swift, once he saw that the chassis and upper structure of +his new House on Wheels was nearing completion, he arranged with Mr. +Jackson to get the new motor on the block for a test. This took until +nearly night, and then Tom had things in shape for a preliminary tryout +of the machinery the next day.</p> + +<p>"No need to ask where you're going, Tom," chuckled Ned when, after the +evening meal, which, as on many former occasions, he shared with the +Swift family, he observed the young inventor getting out the electric +runabout, the batteries of which were now fully charged.</p> + +<p>"It's none of your business where I'm going!" said Tom with a smile +which took any possible sting from the words.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm on the same sort of errand," commented the financial +manager. "Mind if I take the roadster and give Helen a little spin?"</p> + +<p>"Consider yourself a top and spin away!" chuckled Tom, and a little +later he was on his way to see Mary Nestor while Ned piloted the small +but speedy car in the direction of his sweetheart's home.</p> + +<p>"Well, Tom, what's the latest news?" asked Mary when she had greeted +him and they were seated on the porch.</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing much." Tom decided not to tell her about the Cunningham +matter or the discovery of the two men tampering with the motor. "The +new House on Wheels is coming on pretty well, though."</p> + +<p>"That's good. Am I to get a ride in it?"</p> + +<p>"Of course!"</p> + +<p>"Tell me about it," she suggested, and Tom launched into an +enthusiastic description of the interior of the new van-like vehicle, +telling of the rooms, the electric stove, the little pantry and ice box +until Mary exclaimed in delight:</p> + +<p>"I can hardly wait until it's finished!"</p> + +<p>"Which won't be long," commented the young inventor. "If the motor +tests out all right, and I think it will, all that remains to be done +is to put it in place and see how the whole affair works—I mean +whether I have designed it properly so that it will keep to the road +at high speeds."</p> + +<p>Then they talked of other matters until some uneasy movements on the +part of Mrs. Nestor, in the house, warned the young man that the hour +was getting late and that he had better leave.</p> + +<p>"I'll see you to-morrow, Mary," said Tom, as he started down the drive +to where he had left the runabout.</p> + +<p>"Yes—I guess so," said Mary, and it was not until afterward that Tom +noted and remembered the curious hesitancy in her voice. But now he was +thinking of other matters.</p> + +<p>It was when he was half way along the road that lay between Mary's +house and his own home that, passing along a lonely stretch of highway +at moderate speed, Tom saw, thrown across the road in front of him, in +bold relief by the brilliant rays of the moon, a gesticulating shadow +of a man.</p> + +<p>The shadow was waving its arms as though in signal to the oncoming +motorist to stop, and when Tom sensed this he began to be uneasy and +was about to press the lever that would give him full speed ahead.</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to be fooled by any trick!" he murmured. "There have +been too many hold-ups of late along this road. And if it isn't a +hold-up it may be another attempt by Cunningham to annoy me. Look out +there!" he yelled as the signaling figure and its accompanying shadow +took the middle of the road. "Out of my way or I'll run you down!"</p> + +<p>"Bless my accident policy, don't do that!" cried a voice.</p> + +<p>For Tom the reaction was so great that his hand slipped from the +electric speed lever, unconsciously pulling it toward the stop notch, +and the runabout began to slow down.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Damon!" cried Tom. "Is that you?"</p> + +<p>"That's my name," said the voice of the man and he and his shadow both +stepped to one side as the electric car rolled up and came to a stop, +with the application of brakes, opposite him. "Thanks for picking me +up. I don't know you, and I'm surprised that you could recognize me in +the darkness, but——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you know me, too!" chuckled Tom, and then the man cried:</p> + +<p>"Bless my opera glasses! It's Tom Swift!"</p> + +<p>"Of course!" agreed the owner of that name.</p> + +<p>"Well, how in the world did you hear of my accident and come to get +me?" asked Mr. Wakefield Damon, for he it was. "Bless my carburetor, +but this is remarkable!"</p> + +<p>"I didn't hear of any accident," said Tom, "and I'm sorry to learn +that you have been in one. I just happened to come past this way. At +first, I thought you were a highwayman. But when I heard you bless your +accident policy I knew you."</p> + +<p>"It's lucky I spoke promptly!" chuckled the eccentric man.</p> + +<p>"What happened?" asked Tom, as he made room for his friend on the seat +beside him. "Are you hurt?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. But my auto stalled about two miles back and I couldn't get it +going. There wasn't any garage near, and I hated to go to some strange +house, rouse them and ask to use the telephone to have a towing car +come out to get me. So I started to walk, thinking I might meet some +kind-hearted motorist. I never dreamed you would come by."</p> + +<p>"It was just chance," said Tom. "But what's the matter with your car, +and where is it? Maybe I can fix it for you."</p> + +<p>"No, it isn't worth while. I think the points need filing and that +isn't easy to do in the dark. If you'll run me to your house I'll stay +all night, provided you have room. My wife is away so she won't miss +me. It will be time enough in the morning to send a garage man out to +get the car."</p> + +<p>"All right," assented Tom. Truth to tell, he was tired and did not +relish working over a refractory auto at this hour of the night, or +rather, morning, for it was now past twelve. "We'll be glad to put you +up, Mr. Damon."</p> + +<p>"And I'm glad it happened, Tom, for it will give me a chance to see +this new House on Wheels of yours. The last time I was over you were +just planning it," said Mr. Damon. "I expect, by now, it is making +regular trips."</p> + +<p>"Not quite so fast as that. But we're about ready for a tryout."</p> + +<p>"Then I'm just in time, bless my tooth brush!" chuckled Mr. Damon.</p> + +<p>Next morning, Mr. Damon, after a view of the House on Wheels, to which +he gave enthusiastic praise, arranged with a garage worker to come and +get him and take him to where his stalled car had been left. Tom busied +himself over the motor block test and, to his delight, found that the +new engine was even better than rated.</p> + +<p>"Of course it needs to be broken in," he told Ned. "But that is only a +matter of time. I'm going to rush things through now."</p> + +<p>Orders were given for an extra shift of workmen to assemble the House +on Wheels and put the motor in place. Aside from some refinements and +equipment, the big, new car was almost ready for the road. To such +good end did the men work that day, urged on and aided by Tom, that +by night the motor was in place, connected to the drive shaft and the +machine looked almost finished.</p> + +<p>"You could almost run it out as it is now," said Ned.</p> + +<p>"Not for a couple of days," replied Tom, with a shake of his head. "But +at least it looks the part, so I think I'll telephone Mary and see if +she can't come over and take a look."</p> + +<p>He hurried to the telephone in his workroom and was soon in connection +with the Nestor home, as Ned could tell by the talk. Mary was on the +wire, and the financial manager heard Tom say:</p> + +<p>"What's that, Mary? You're going away? Why—why——"</p> + +<p>Then came a pause. Ned knew Mary was speaking, and what she said seemed +to be surprising news for Tom Swift, judging by the look on his face.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">WORK AND WORRY</p> + + +<p>Some matters of business routine called Ned Newton from the room while +Tom was still telephoning, and when the financial manager returned he +heard his chum say:</p> + +<p>"Well, of course if it's all arranged there isn't anything more to be +said, I suppose." A pause. Then: "Of course I'll come over to see you +off. But—it's pretty sudden. What's that? Oh, yes, of course." Then +the good-bye.</p> + +<p>Tom hung up the receiver with leaden fingers, and there was a +listlessness in his walk as he went back to where he had been working. +Ned tried to assume an air as if he had heard nothing, but it was +impossible to ignore the fact that Tom had received some unpleasant +news. If he wanted to speak of it—all right. If he didn't——</p> + +<p>But Tom blurted it out.</p> + +<p>"Mary's going away!"</p> + +<p>"Away?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, not for good," and Tom laughed nervously at Ned's startled +implication. "It's just on a visit to some relatives she had been +promising to go and see for a long time. Matters are now arranged and +she is going."</p> + +<p>"Rather—er—sudden, isn't it?" asked Ned. For Tom had spoken of his +call on Mary the night before and had then made no mention of an +impending visit.</p> + +<p>"Yes, very sudden. She didn't tell me until just now, when I asked +her to come over and take a look at the House on Wheels. But she says +she will be too busy packing. Very sudden!" and Tom's voice had a new +quality in it.</p> + +<p>"Any special reason for her rush?" asked Ned, who felt privileged now +that his chum had given him the opening.</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, in a way. The relatives to whom Mary is going on a visit +are giving a house party for one member of the family who is soon +to sail for Europe. Unless Mary starts to-morrow she won't see this +forty-second cousin, or whatever she is, and it seems there are family +reasons why she should."</p> + +<p>"Then she's going soon?"</p> + +<p>"Takes the train to-morrow morning."</p> + +<p>"Going to be gone long?"</p> + +<p>"She isn't sure how long. Hang it all! This upsets all my plans!" and +Tom moodily paced the floor.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, it isn't forever! Cheer up!" consoled Ned. "She'll be coming +back. My girl went away once."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know. But these people—they——"</p> + +<p>Tom paused, significantly, it seemed.</p> + +<p>"Well, what's wrong with them?" Ned wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing much, except they're fairly bursting with money."</p> + +<p>"Well, that's a good thing, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Not considering what money means and does nowadays. Mary's going out +of her depth, so to speak and——"</p> + +<p>"Say, look here!" exclaimed Ned. "You needn't worry about your girl. +She's got a level head."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know. But when she gets among millionaires she's likely to lose +that level."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe so. Why, you're no poverty-stricken chap yourself, +Tom, though I admit our bank account isn't as big as it will be when +the dividends from the talking pictures will come in."</p> + +<p>"I'm not one, two, six in money matters compared to the Winthrop +family," complained Tom moodily. "They're filthy rich, and it isn't +going to do Mary any good mixing up with that bunch."</p> + +<p>"You mean she'll come back dissatisfied with the simple life of Shopton +and vicinity?"</p> + +<p>"That's what I fear."</p> + +<p>"Oh, cheer up, disciple of gloom!" laughed Ned. "You'll find Mary just +the same when she comes back as she is now. Is she eager to go?"</p> + +<p>"That's just it!" complained Tom. "She seems very keen about it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, a girl likes a change. And it can't last forever."</p> + +<p>"No, I suppose not. Oh, well, I'm a grouch not to wish Mary to have a +good time. But I did want her to see this House on Wheels," and Tom +acted like a small boy who has been kept home from a party.</p> + +<p>"She'll see it soon enough," predicted Ned. "And it will look all the +better when it's complete and has had a tryout."</p> + +<p>"Maybe," was all Tom would say, and then he plunged into work.</p> + +<p>Ned expected that his friend would again go over to the Nestor house +in the evening, but Tom, with rather a set look on his face, announced +that he intended to work until late on his newest invention. However, +he did telephone to Mary and arranged to call for her the next morning +to take her to the station.</p> + +<p>What took place at the train when Mary departed Ned did not know. But +Tom came back looking more gloomy than before and plunged into work +with a zeal which left his devoted chum far behind.</p> + +<p>The Swift plant was a busy place in the days that followed. There +was always more or less of routine labor in connection with several +machines which Tom and his father had perfected, patented, and had put +on the market for general sale.</p> + +<p>The latest invention of the young man, excepting the House on Wheels, +had been a machine for showing moving pictures in the home, in +simultaneous connection with vocal and instrumental effects by radio. +It was possible to sit in one's parlor and not only see a distant +theatrical performance, but actually hear all that went on. The vision +of the actors and actresses was reduced in size, but the pictures were +very clear. And the radio, of an improved type, clearly brought every +word and every note of music through the air.</p> + +<p>This invention, or a share in it, had been sold to a syndicate which, +for a time, had fought Tom Swift fiercely. But now matters were +straightened out, though there was much detail to finish.</p> + +<p>With that, and with overseeing the completion of his House on Wheels, +Tom Swift had plenty of work to keep him busy. He was also worrying, as +Ned easily guessed.</p> + +<p>Though Tom received and wrote letters, the worried air did not depart +from him and Ned knew his chum had a sore feeling in his heart. He was +disappointed that Mary had not seen the new car before going away.</p> + +<p>But if the young inventor was not privileged to listen to Mary's +praise, he had the chance to hear the enthusiastic comments of Mr. +Damon who came over a few days after his night break-down.</p> + +<p>"Bless my safe deposit box, Tom!" exclaimed the eccentric man, "but I +regard your House on Wheels as one of the most marvelous inventions of +all time!"</p> + +<p>"Strictly speaking it isn't an invention," said Tom. "It is merely an +adaptation of several existing ones. I've simply taken a small house +and put it on an automobile body."</p> + +<p>"But you have done it very cleverly," said Mr. Damon. "This is an age +of travel, Tom, and everybody is doing it. Now the one great drawback +of travel is to find a place to stay at night, for no one likes to +journey after dark, unless in a sleeping car.</p> + +<p>"So it has come about that there are hotels and you know what a +bother it is to arrange for a night's stay. But now you come along +with a house in which a person can travel all day, as in an ordinary +automobile. Then at night, when getting to a town, instead of having to +hunt up a garage and then a hotel, you just pull your bed down from the +wall and tumble in. It's great!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I thought of that," Tom said. "I'm hoping it will be the success +I think it may be."</p> + +<p>"Of course it will be!" declared Mr. Damon. "You can book my order for +one now, Tom."</p> + +<p>"Consider it booked!" and the young inventor smiled for one of the few +times since Mary had gone away.</p> + +<p>In spite of the fact that the House on Wheels was, to the unobservant, +well nigh complete the day Mary Nestor went away, Tom said considerable +yet remained to be done, and for another week he and his men labored +hard over the structure.</p> + +<p>But finally the last coat of varnish was applied and given time to dry. +Not all the fittings were in place, but that was a small matter. The +big twelve-cylinder motor was connected and the brake test had been +satisfactory.</p> + +<p>Then one evening, as Ned was about to leave to go to his home, Tom +remarked to him:</p> + +<p>"Can you spare the time to make a trip with me, Ned?"</p> + +<p>"A trip where and how?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know just where, but as to how—in the House on Wheels."</p> + +<p>"Is she all ready?"</p> + +<p>"We'll give her a tryout to-morrow. Maybe the thing won't work as well +as I planned, but we'll soon know. If it comes anywhere near the mark +I've set, will you go with me?"</p> + +<p>"On a trip? Sure!"</p> + +<p>"All right," said Tom, pacing the floor of his office. "Well have the +tryout to-morrow. After that—well, we'll see!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">THE TRYOUT</p> + + +<p>Tom Swift took his place in the driver's seat of the House on Wheels. +This compartment was not unlike the front seat in any large, van-like +truck, except that it was more comfortable and was equipped with a +number of dials, indicators and controls.</p> + +<p>"Well, Ned, coming?" asked the young inventor, looking down at his chum +and smiling.</p> + +<p>"I guess so, if you're quite sure she won't blow up."</p> + +<p>"If she does, we'll go together!" joked Tom.</p> + +<p>It was the day of the tryout, and while some work yet remained to +be done on the new machine, it was in shape for a road test. It had +been run around the big yard of the Swift plant and had acted in a +satisfactory manner. What it would actually do under road conditions +and off the level, was something yet to be demonstrated.</p> + +<p>The big twelve-cylinder motor had met the block test and had been +able to propel the heavy car around the shops. Tom felt sure there was +plenty of reserve power, or would be when it had been tuned up.</p> + +<p>Ned now climbed to the seat beside his chum. There was room for three +in this compartment, but though Mr. Damon had been invited to come over +for the initial run, the eccentric man had not appeared.</p> + +<p>With Ned on the seat beside him, Tom touched his foot to the button of +the self-starter and with a roar the powerful motor sprang into life. +Though it was big and had the strength of many horses, so well was it +balanced that there was hardly any vibration, which spells the death +knell of many machines otherwise perfect.</p> + +<p>Letting the motor warm up a bit, Tom carefully tested the various gear +and control levers. Then, gently letting in the clutch, the House on +Wheels rolled slowly out of the shed where it had been constructed.</p> + +<p>"There she goes!" cried Mr. Swift, who was almost as eager as his son +over the success of the venture.</p> + +<p>"Rolling like an egg!" exclaimed Mr. Jackson, who had had no small +share in building the machine after Tom had planned it.</p> + +<p>"By golly! She suah am a reg'lar ark!" was Eradicate's comment. +"Mistah Noah he'd suah be livin' pretty if he'd had one ark like dat +when de flood come! Ha! Ha!"</p> + +<p>There was a subdued cheer from the assembled workmen as Tom Swift +proved that at least his machine would run smoothly, and with Koku +loudly warning idlers away from the gate, the House on Wheels +approached the open highway for the first time.</p> + +<p>As might have been expected, any activity at the Swift plant was sure +to attract attention from the residents of Shopton. Though they were +accustomed to seeing many strange machines issue from the big gates, or +perhaps fly over the high fence, the matter never lost its interest. +So, on this morning, there was a crowd of sightseers.</p> + +<p>Nor were they disappointed with the first view of Tom's new wonder. +Bright in its gay colors and varnish, the House on Wheels was a sight +for those who appreciate fine cars and machinery. Majestically it +rolled out on the big rubber-tired wheels and, driving slowly until +he was sure of the feel of the control wheel, Tom eased his machine +through the gates and straightened it out on the broad road.</p> + +<p>"Hurray!" yelled a boy in the crowd. "It's a regular circus wagon!"</p> + +<p>"I wish I had one like it!" echoed a companion.</p> + +<p>For a little way, so slowly did Tom nurse the motor along, the +crowd could keep pace with the machine. Then, when he had the feel +that everything was going smoothly, the young inventor pressed the +accelerator down a little.</p> + +<p>The result was at once apparent. As smoothly as a big locomotive, and +with the same hint of power in reserve, the big House on Wheels went +ahead so rapidly that the running crowd of boys and girls and men was +soon left behind and Tom and Ned had the road to themselves save for +an occasional motorist. But as this section was not ordinarily much +traveled, they were not bothered by many other machines.</p> + +<p>Drivers of cars who passed or approached the House on Wheels stared +curiously at it, and more than one was heard to remark to a companion:</p> + +<p>"Some advertising stunt, I guess."</p> + +<p>"That might not be bad," commented Ned, after one or two repetitions of +this.</p> + +<p>"What?" asked Tom, who was intent on listening to the hum of the motor +to detect a false note or failure of the oiling system.</p> + +<p>"Using this for advertising," said Ned. "Many a firm would pay +big money to have a sign painted on the sides of this car, calling +attention to the merits of Blank's chewing gum or Hank's breakfast +food."</p> + +<p>"There are no advertisements going on this!" decided Tom. "I'll make my +money some other way."</p> + +<p>"Even if you have to take on Cunningham's proposition?" teased Ned.</p> + +<p>"I'll never have anything to do with that crook!" said the young man as +he slowed down to turn a corner which would take them out on the big +state highway. "I'll close down the plant before I'll help him infringe +on other inventors. I've had that done to me too many times not to know +what it means. No Cunningham in mine!"</p> + +<p>They were now in comparatively open country, and though there was more +traffic on the state road than on the thoroughfare they had left in +coming from the Swift plant, there was not enough to worry a driver of +Tom's experience.</p> + +<p>"You need a hill for a real stiff test," remarked Ned.</p> + +<p>"That's the idea, and we'll come to one soon if we keep on going."</p> + +<p>"Well, there doesn't seem to be anything to stop you," was his chum's +opinion. "Hop right to it!"</p> + +<p>They were bowling along at an increased speed when Tom suddenly leaned +over and bent forward as if listening, which is exactly what he was +doing.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" asked his companion.</p> + +<p>"Sounds like a knock."</p> + +<p>They both listened intently, for though Ned did not have Tom's skill in +inventiveness he was a good driver.</p> + +<p>"There's something wrong," decided Tom, pulling over to the side of the +road to be out of the way of passing traffic. "I'm thinking one of the +oil feeds is clogged. Yes, she's heating up," he added, as he pointed +to the motor temperature indicator which was one of many dials and +gages on the instrument board.</p> + +<p>The House on Wheels was brought to a halt and then Ned and Tom raised +the hood for a look at the motor. There was an unusual wave of heat as +soon as the sides were raised, and Tom's quick eye at once found the +seat of trouble. A small valve that supplied oil to one of the many +working parts was partly closed so that not enough of the lubricating +fluid reached the shaft.</p> + +<p>They resumed the journey, and Tom ventured to open the throttle a +little, though he had no intention of getting up to maximum speed, +which should not be done with any new motor until after it has been +limbered up for at least five hundred miles.</p> + +<p>The House on Wheels responded well and stepped along rather fast.</p> + +<p>"This is the life!" cried Ned gaily. "When do we eat, Tom?"</p> + +<p>"Not on this trip. I didn't pack in any grub. And you can't turn in and +go to bed, either. This is just a preliminary run so I can decide what +changes are needed."</p> + +<p>"It seems to me that everything is fine," said Ned. "She's running now +like a sewing machine."</p> + +<p>"Got to try her on a hill yet," was Tom's answer.</p> + +<p>"I suppose so. If you go honeymooning in this you'll have hills to +climb," observed Ned, and he noticed that Tom did not now resent a +reference to a possible approaching marriage.</p> + +<p>"We'll soon know what she can do on the up grade," said the young +inventor, with a look ahead. "We're coming to a hill now and it grows +stiffer the higher you climb. Yes, this will be a good test."</p> + +<p>The first part of the hill was taken in fine fashion, somewhat to +Tom's delighted surprise. He had imagined the machine might labor, +especially while new and stiff. But up went the House, never faltering.</p> + +<p>Then, after a little comparatively level stretch, the hill took a +sudden upward climb. For the first part of this the machine did well, +there being no undue strain. But suddenly, when about half way up, +there was a little jar, a sort of nervous shiver, and the motor stopped +dead.</p> + +<p>So quickly did it happen that Tom had no time to apply the brakes and +Ned cried:</p> + +<p>"Were backing downhill, Tom!"</p> + +<p>"I know it!" responded the young inventor, a grim look on his tense +face.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">THE RACE</p> + + +<p>The House on Wheels was half way up a steep slope when the motor +stopped and the heavy, and somewhat clumsy car—clumsy because of +its bulk—began to go backward. Of course there were brakes. Tom had +provided a double set, and they would hold. He had tested them under +severe strains. But it took a moment for both the young men to realize +what had happened and to decide what to do.</p> + +<p>Of course there was only one course of action after Tom had quickly +discovered that the stoppage of the motor was not momentary, and that +it could not be galvanized into action by the self-starter. The thing +to do was to jam on the brakes, which the young inventor did before the +backward motion of the House had gained it such momentum that it could +not be checked.</p> + +<p>"Whew!" whistled Ned, as he felt the machine come to what seemed like +a reluctant stop. "That was a close call!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," said Tom, half smiling. "I could have let her get up even +more speed than she had, rolling backward, and yet have brought her to +a stop with the one set of brakes."</p> + +<p>"On this hill?" Ned was a bit incredulous.</p> + +<p>"Yes, or on a steeper one. I want to try her on some mountain."</p> + +<p>"Maybe you'll get the chance," Ned remarked.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" asked Tom, for there seemed to be something his +chum was holding back. But as, just then, a peculiar buzzing sounded +from beneath the motor hood, Tom decided to investigate that before +asking any questions.</p> + +<p>The brakes were holding the House on Wheels midway up the rather steep +hill, but on getting out of the driver's seat, which the two young +men did very soon after the accident, their first care was to block +the rear wheels with a log of wood which they dragged from a near-by +thicket. After seeing that this would keep the car from rolling back +downhill, even if the brakes should let go, Tom fastened a rope to the +log and the other end of the cable to the rear of the House on Wheels.</p> + +<p>"What's the idea?" asked Ned. "Going to use that as a drag going +downhill on the other side?"</p> + +<p>"No. But haven't you often noticed that where motorists have to stop on +a hill, and use rocks or logs to block them, they go away after getting +a new start and leave the obstructions in the road?"</p> + +<p>"I've seen that many a time," agreed Ned, "and I've bawled 'em out for +it more than once. The trouble is that they aren't there to hear what I +think about 'em."</p> + +<p>"That's just it. Well, I may want to start up without having to release +my brakes suddenly, hence the log of wood. And as I don't want to leave +you behind to roll the log out of the way, I fastened on this rope. +We'll pull the log behind us up to the top of the hill, where it is +level, and then we can stop and take it off."</p> + +<p>"Good idea!" commented Ned. "Now let's see what's wrong. I do hope it +isn't anything serious."</p> + +<p>"No, it can't be," decided Tom. "The motor was too severely tested for +that. It's just some little dingus that's out of order—maybe a broken +oil pipe or a loose wire."</p> + +<p>It was the latter that proved to be the seat of the trouble when a +careful check-up had been made. In the haste with which the House on +Wheels had been assembled, this little item was overlooked. It required +but a short time to put the ignition cable back in place, and then, +having run the motor for some time, listening to the smooth purr of it, +Tom announced that he was satisfied there would be no further trouble.</p> + +<p>It was when they were ready to start on again that Tom's wisdom in +blocking the wheels was demonstrated. For there was no need of a sudden +letting in of the clutch, after racing the engine in gear to get +momentum and speed enough to make a flying start uphill. The brakes +were already released. The log prevented the House on Wheels from +rolling backward, and the machine started slowly up the grade as if +taking off from a level. The log was pulled along by means of the rope, +and did not remain in the road a menace to following travelers.</p> + +<p>"She's coming up in good style," commented Ned, as he observed the +increasing speed of the machine even though the grade of the hill grew +greater.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't be better," agreed Tom, with a satisfied smile. "All the +power I need and then some! When she gets broken in I expect great +things of her."</p> + +<p>"Looks so," murmured Ned.</p> + +<p>In a short time they were at the top of the hill and a long, level road +lay before them. They made a momentary stop to cast off the blocking +log and then went on.</p> + +<p>"I'm going back and take a look inside," said Ned after a while. "I +want to see how she rides."</p> + +<p>There was a passage leading from the driver's seat to the interior of +the House, and Ned was soon making his way through the various "rooms" +as they might be called, though compartments would probably be the +better term. He sat in the small chairs, let down one of the cots and +stretched out on it and sat at the table, pretending to eat, though, as +yet, there was no food aboard.</p> + +<p>"How is it?" asked Tom, as his chum reappeared in the communicating +passage.</p> + +<p>"Slick as oil!" was the enthusiastic comment. "Rides like an ocean +liner."</p> + +<p>"That's good. Then there's nothing wrong in the construction. I was +afraid she might sway too much."</p> + +<p>"There is a little swaying," admitted Ned. "But I think that will be +smoothed out when you get a load in."</p> + +<p>"I guess so," agreed Tom. "Well, come out here and try your hand at +it."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" Ned wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"I want you to drive for a while. You've driven lots of cars, and I +want you to get the feel of this. It seems a trifle stiff to me, and I +want to see if you get the same impression. I can loosen the gear up a +bit if it is."</p> + +<p>"You mean you want me to drive your House on Wheels?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"Sure! Why not?"</p> + +<p>"I may wreck her."</p> + +<p>"So might I. Accidents are always likely to happen. But I've got to get +some other impression than my own as to how she holds the road, takes +corners, and the like, and you're the best one I know to give me the +information I need. Besides, you'll be coming on trips with me, and I +can't always be at the wheel."</p> + +<p>"Me come on a trip with you in this?" chuckled Ned. "Well, I like that!"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean? Why wouldn't you come?"</p> + +<p>"On yours and Mary's honeymoon trip? Excuse me!"</p> + +<p>"Say, cut that stuff out!" and Tom seemed serious. "Who's said anything +about a honeymoon?"</p> + +<p>"Nobody—nobody's said a word. At least, you and Mary haven't," +admitted the financial manager. "But actions speak louder than words. +And I thought that's why you were getting this canal boat in shape."</p> + +<p>"Nothing of the sort!" exclaimed Tom sharply. "I mean—of course—that +is, I—Oh, heck! Come on out here and take the wheel!"</p> + +<p>"All right!" agreed Ned. "But don't blame me for what happens."</p> + +<p>"I won't," and Tom steered the machine over to the side of the road to +bring it to a stop out of possible traffic while he changed places with +his chum.</p> + +<p>After proceeding at a moderate rate for a mile or two, in order to +familiarize himself with the brakes and controls, Ned let out a little +more gas and the House on Wheels shot ahead on the smooth, level +concrete highway which the two had practically to themselves.</p> + +<p>"How does she feel, Ned?" asked Tom, as they sped along.</p> + +<p>"Fine."</p> + +<p>"And how does she handle?"</p> + +<p>"Light as a cork! There's no steering strain at all."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad of that. I wanted to make sure of it."</p> + +<p>"But take her yourself," urged Ned, guiding the House to the side of +the road in case any motorists were following. "You haven't had the +wheel when you had a chance to let out. Go ahead."</p> + +<p>"All right," agreed Tom Swift.</p> + +<p>He had not long been in the driver's seat, and was working up speed, +when from behind came a long, shrill whistle. For a moment the young +men thought it might be one of those signals connected to the exhaust +pipe of some speeding motorist. But a look into the rear vision mirror +showed a fast freight train approaching. Then, for the first time, Tom +and Ned noticed that they were running parallel to railroad tracks and +close to them.</p> + +<p>On came the fast freight, and the engineer seemed either to be trying +to attract the attention of the occupants of the peculiar car or else +saluting them. Then Tom cried suddenly:</p> + +<p>"I know what he wants!"</p> + +<p>"What?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"A race! And he's going to get it. Come on, steam baby!" yelled Tom, +noting that he was now even with the locomotive. "We'll see what you +can do against the House on Wheels!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">CUNNINGHAM ON THE WIRE</p> + + +<p>Three sharp whistles from the locomotive seemed to indicate, on the +part of its driver, an acceptance of the challenge. In answer Tom gave +three toots of his own horn and the race was on.</p> + +<p>No better speedway could have been devised for a test of the +comparative powers of the fast freight and Tom Swift's House on +Wheels than the concrete highway and the steel track along which the +respective machines were now rushing. There was not another automobile +in sight along a stretch of several miles, and no other train on the +railroad. It seemed to have been made to order.</p> + +<p>"Think you've got a chance, Tom?" yelled Ned. It was necessary to yell, +for the puffing, panting locomotive was so close that its exhaust +almost drowned one's voice. Nor was the House on Wheels altogether +quiet, for there was a subdued rumble and roar at its present high +speed which made talking anything but easy.</p> + +<p>"I've got a good chance!" answered Tom, with a grim tightening of his +lips as his hands grasped more firmly the steering wheel. "I'm going to +beat this baby."</p> + +<p>"It's a fast freight, Tom, the fruit express. It has the right of way +over everything except passenger trains. It's the crack freight of this +road and makes almost as good time as some of the through passenger +trains."</p> + +<p>"Can't help that," replied the young inventor. "I'm not going to sit +back and take his smoke!"</p> + +<p>Indeed, there seemed to be little danger of this. For though the +freight had crept up on the House on Wheels when she was gaining +headway, the two machines were not long on even terms before Tom's +House began to pull away.</p> + +<p>But if he thought to gain an easy victory, he was mistaken. A quick +glance showed that the fireman was busy shoveling coal under the boiler +of the freight engine. Out belched volumes of black smoke and the +increased staccato of the exhaust showed that not only was the throttle +being opened wider but that the link motion was being taken up, making +a corresponding quicker cut off of steam at one end of the cylinders +and a duplicate fast expulsion on the other end.</p> + +<p>"She's creeping up on us, Tom," observed Ned, looking back when, after +a little run, they had distanced the freight.</p> + +<p>"We've got to expect that. But I've got something in reserve yet. +Though I daren't let the House out for all she's worth, I can still get +the accelerator down a few notches without damage. The race isn't over +yet."</p> + +<p>Tom had taken part in many speed contests, and he knew how to jockey +with the best of them. He purposely let the freight slowly crawl up on +even terms with him. This was due not only to the increased speed of +the freight but also to Tom's slight slackening of his pace.</p> + +<p>"I'll fool this bird!" he told Ned.</p> + +<p>And when the engine was again up in front, so that the pilot was in +line with the bumper of the House on Wheels, Tom turned on more gas, +after a momentary cut-off, and again shot ahead.</p> + +<p>He and Ned could almost see, in fancy, the chagrin on the faces of the +engineer and fireman as they were thus gently mocked. But the railroad +men were good sports and were not going to give up easily.</p> + +<p>Again there was a frantic shoveling of coal, and there must have been a +more advantageous adjustment of the draft, or perhaps a forced one was +turned on, for suddenly the safety valve popped, which, at the speed +the engine had already attained, showed an increased pressure of steam.</p> + +<p>"He's coming right after us!" cried Ned, as they swayed along.</p> + +<p>On no other road but this concrete highway would it have been safe to +run the House on Wheels at the speed she was going. And few drivers +other than Tom Swift would have been capable of handling the heavy +machine with such skill and judgment.</p> + +<p>The race was now on in earnest. Tom knew that it would not be safe to +push his motor much faster. Not that it was not capable of a higher +rate, but it would need to be broken in somewhat before he dared risk +it. On the other hand, the locomotive was not thus limited. So if it +was not yet at its maximum, there would be no danger in pushing the +mechanism to that point. And if the maximum was greater than Tom's +temporary one, then he would lose.</p> + +<p>However, though forced draft was used, the big freighter appeared to +have reached the limit. For perhaps half a mile she held her own on +even terms with the House on Wheels. Then Ned asked:</p> + +<p>"Can you do a bit better, Tom?"</p> + +<p>"I'm going to risk it," was the quick answer.</p> + +<p>The House slowly began to draw ahead and there was no replying response +on the part of the locomotive. Foot by foot Tom and Ned drew away. They +had a glimpse of the fireman desperately shoveling coal, but to no +purpose.</p> + +<p>Gradually the gap that separated the two widened, and though brakemen +on top of the cars yelled and seemed to urge their mates to greater +efforts, it was not to be.</p> + +<p>Tom Swift pulled away and won the race by a good margin. Not much +too soon, either, for when he was several lengths ahead the railroad +branched away from the highway it had been paralleling for several +miles and disappeared into the woods.</p> + +<p>In recognition of the beating by a better rival, the engineer saluted +with three long blasts, to which Tom responded with like signals from +his horn.</p> + +<p>"Well, that's that!" remarked Ned, as they slowed down, for they were +approaching another steep hill.</p> + +<p>"Yes," assented Tom. "It's all over and I'm satisfied. The House on +Wheels couldn't have done better. Not a strain and not a bearing +overheated," he added, as he brought the machine to a gradual stop and +made a hasty examination.</p> + +<p>"Going to take the hill?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"No, we'll give her a rest and drift back," was the answer. "She has +done her duty and there's no use putting on too much strain."</p> + +<p>"That's right," agreed Ned.</p> + +<p>He had alighted from the driver's seat with Tom to stretch his legs, +and as the two were climbing back into the compartment they saw a +sporty runabout flash past them. Two men, one young, were in it and +they seemed much interested in the House on Wheels at the side of the +road. One of them leaned out and looked back.</p> + +<p>At the sight of his face Ned exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Did you notice him, Tom?"</p> + +<p>"No. Who was he?"</p> + +<p>"That rat-faced chap who got into your shop and tried to put this motor +out of business."</p> + +<p>"No!"</p> + +<p>"I'm sure of it! Come on, let's chase after 'em!" proposed Ned eagerly. +But Tom Swift shook his head.</p> + +<p>"We haven't a chance," said the young inventor. "They've got a much +faster machine than mine and a good start. The House wasn't designed +to race runabouts, though it can hold its own in a fast freight race. +Let him go, whoever he is."</p> + +<p>The trip back to the Swift plant was without incident, except that when +Tom and Ned left the concrete highway and got into the heavier traffic +they were somewhat delayed by the crowding around and near approach of +other motorists who showed much curiosity regarding the strange, big +machine.</p> + +<p>"How was it, Tom?" asked his father, as they turned in through the big +gates of the plant.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't have been better, Dad," and he gave a short account of the +tryout trip, including the race.</p> + +<p>"Dat's fine!" commented Eradicate who, with the freedom of an old +family servant, had been listening. "Better put her to bed now, Massa +Tom, an' let her hab a good night's rest. Dat's what I used to do wif +de race hosses down in ole Virginny."</p> + +<p>"'Tisn't a bad idea," returned Tom, with a smile. "Give the motor a +thorough examination and test for any possible strains," Tom told one +of his men, who came out to help put the House on Wheels into the +special garage that had been built for it. "I pushed the motor pretty +hard, for a new one, and I want to be sure it's in good shape."</p> + +<p>"I'll look after it thoroughly, Mr. Swift," promised the man.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had Tom and Ned reached the private office, where some matters +awaited their attention, than the telephone bell rang. Answering it, +Tom showed some amazement when he learned the identity of the man at +the other end of the wire.</p> + +<p>"This is Basil Cunningham, Mr. Swift," came the loud, somewhat rasping +tones of the burly Englishman. "We'll let bygones be bygones, if it's +all the same to you. I want you to take my contract and I'll add a +special ten per cent. bonus if you will rush it through for me."</p> + +<p>For a moment Tom Swift was too surprised to reply. But he gathered his +wits together in a few seconds and called back:</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't take your contract, Mr. Cunningham, for even an additional +bonus of twenty per cent!"</p> + +<p>"You won't?"</p> + +<p>"No!"</p> + +<p>"Is that your final answer?"</p> + +<p>"It is."</p> + +<p>"But look here, Mr. Swift," and Cunningham's voice was almost whining +now, "what objection have you to making these machines for me?"</p> + +<p>"Will you tell me what you intend to use them for?" countered Tom.</p> + +<p>"No, I will not!" was the answer snapped back quickly. "It isn't any of +your affair!"</p> + +<p>From the manner in which Cunningham banged the receiver on the hook, +Tom felt that the Englishman was in a towering rage. Ned could only +guess at half of the conversation, but Tom gave it to him in detail a +little later.</p> + +<p>"Why do you think he is so secretive about what the machines are to be +used for?" the young financial manager wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"Because there's a nigger in the woodpile—that's my opinion!"</p> + +<p>"You still think Cunningham intends to infringe?"</p> + +<p>"I do. The fact that he comes back to me after my first refusal shows +that he has tried to get other concerns to take up his work and has +failed."</p> + +<p>"It would seem so," agreed Ned.</p> + +<p>"Well, this all goes to show that my first impression is right," went +on Tom. "Cunningham is a crook, I'm sure."</p> + +<p>"Then we're better off leaving him alone," commented Ned.</p> + +<p>They were about to go over some business papers again when the +telephone rang once more.</p> + +<p>"You answer, Ned," directed Tom. "If it's Cunningham say I will have no +further communication with him!"</p> + +<p>Ned picked up the instrument, listened a moment, and then cried:</p> + +<p>"What's that? Who are you? What do you mean? Don't be a coward! Give me +your name!"</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" asked Tom when Ned, by impatiently jiggling the +receiver hook, indicated that the person at the other end of the wire +had hung up. "Who was talking, Cunningham?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think so. But it must have been one of his men. For he said: +'Tom Swift will regret not taking this contract! He'd better watch +out!' I tried to make him tell who he was, but he wouldn't."</p> + +<p>"So," said Tom musingly, and with a little smile, "they are beginning +to threaten, are they? Well, I'm ready for them!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">DISMAL MOUNTAIN</p> + + +<p>"Well, Ned, I guess that's about all!"</p> + +<p>"Unless you want to put in another piece of bacon," was Ned Newton's +rejoinder to his chum's implied question.</p> + +<p>The two were sitting in the House on Wheels, about a week after the +sensational race with the freight train. In the intervening time much +work had been done on the new invention. The motor was thoroughly +gone over, tuned up, and minor adjustments made. The furnishing of +the interior of the House was completed, from kitchen articles to bed +linen, and the vehicle was now equipped for a long or short journey, as +the owner desired. Ned's particular province was the pantry, and he had +furnished it, as Tom said, "with enough grub to last a month."</p> + +<p>Following another and more severe tryout of the machine after the +freight train race, Tom had suggested to his chum that they go on a +week's crosscountry tour to further test the House on Wheels under +varying conditions.</p> + +<p>"Have you any particular object in view?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"Well, I thought maybe I'd surprise Mary," was the answer.</p> + +<p>"Surprise her?" questioned Ned. "What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"We could call on the Winthrops where she is staying."</p> + +<p>"Good idea. But where is it?"</p> + +<p>"Just outside Chesterport."</p> + +<p>"Chesterport!" exclaimed Ned, with every indication of excitement. "You +mean Chesterport in this state?"</p> + +<p>"Sure. Why not? What's wrong with it?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing. Only—Well, say, what are you going to do after you surprise +Mary in Chesterport?"</p> + +<p>"After that we can keep on touring, if you like. We can go as far +beyond Chesterport as you like."</p> + +<p>"We won't have to go far," murmured Ned, and there was a strange look +in his eyes. "Why didn't you tell me before that Mary had gone to +Chesterport?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't attach any importance to it, for one thing," answered Tom. +"And, for all I know, I may have mentioned it to you a dozen times."</p> + +<p>"No you didn't, or I'd have remembered it."</p> + +<p>"What did you mean by saying we won't have to go far beyond +Chesterport?" asked Tom. "What's there of such importance?"</p> + +<p>"It's queer you never heard of it," murmured Ned, looking over some +papers he hastily took from his pocket.</p> + +<p>"For the love of Pete! Heard of what?" cried Tom, a bit exasperated by +his chum's curious manner.</p> + +<p>"Dismal Mountain! The peak of mystery!" exclaimed Ned. "If you haven't +made any other plans after you pay Mary a visit, what's the matter with +keeping on to Dismal Mountain?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing the matter, as far as I can see," admitted Tom. "But it is +the first time I've ever heard of the beast and I'd like a little +information. Why is the mountain dismal and what's the mystery about +it?"</p> + +<p>"It's dismal because of the mystery," was the reply. "And as for what +that is, smarter lads than you have asked the question and haven't been +answered."</p> + +<p>"Oh, cut it out! Be yourself!" advised Tom, with a laugh. "Get down to +brass tacks and let's have a little first hand information."</p> + +<p>"That I can't give you, much as I'd like to," said Ned, with a serious +air, not at all in keeping with Tom's bantering words. "All I know +about Dismal Mountain is what I've heard or read, but that's plenty. +I've made a few notes here, and——"</p> + +<p>"I should say you had!" exclaimed Tom, looking at the documents his +chum pulled from his pocket. "Looks like an election ballot."</p> + +<p>"Well, they're mostly clippings from papers," went on Ned; "though I +have made some notes myself of what folks have told me. Look here! +Those are some newspaper clippings."</p> + +<p>He spread a sheaf of them out on the table in the living room of the +House on Wheels where this talk was taking place. The House was in the +garage, but was all ready to run out at a moment's notice.</p> + +<p>Tom saw that the clippings bore various heads, such as: "Dismal +Mountain Smokes Again," "Dismal Mountain Claims Another Victim," and +this appeared to be an account of a man who had disappeared somewhere +in the fastness of the forest around the place.</p> + +<p>"You don't need to read them all," advised Ned. "I can shorten it by +summarizing it for you. Dismal Mountain is some distance south of +Chesterport—just how far I don't know. It's in a lonely section of the +country, away from any town or city, though there are people living +not far from the foot of the mountain.</p> + +<p>"Some of these folks say the mountain is haunted. Others hold that it +is the resort of present-day moonshiners and bootleggers. I think that +comes as near the mark as any. Another version is that the strange +sights and sounds that are seen and heard are made by the moonshiners +or bootleggers to scare would-be investigators away."</p> + +<p>"I can well believe that," murmured Tom. "What else?"</p> + +<p>"Well, there's another theory that a squad of bandits or road agents +make the glens of Dismal Mountain their hiding places," went on +Ned. "They lie in wait there and hold up trucks carrying big loads +of valuable merchandise, such as bales of silk. There may also be +hijackers on the mountain—men who make a practice of raiding the +trucks sent out by bootleggers. Of course the latter being engaged in +breaking the law themselves, can't call on the law to protect them. So +the hijackers have it easy."</p> + +<p>"Sounds like a right bad sort of a place," commented Tom.</p> + +<p>"It's fully as bad as it sounds," declared Ned. "Not long ago, as you +can see by this clipping, there was a train hold-up not far from Dismal +Mountain. Some of the bandits are believed to have fled to that place +and may still be in hiding."</p> + +<p>"This is getting worse and more interesting!" exclaimed Tom Swift. "I +only hope you aren't stringing me," he added, with a sharp look at his +chum.</p> + +<p>"Indeed I'm not kidding you!" expostulated Ned. "You can read it there +for yourself. Of course I don't guarantee the truth of any of this, but +if I'm fooled, so are the papers."</p> + +<p>"It looks authentic," admitted Tom, when he had glanced through several +clippings. "At least there have been a number of crimes committed in +the vicinity of this Dismal Mountain, and it may hold the criminals."</p> + +<p>"That's what I think," said Ned. "And when I heard just now for the +first time that you are going to Chesterport, which is the nearest town +of any size to the mountain, I thought it would be a good chance to +visit the mysterious place."</p> + +<p>"You're right!" exclaimed Tom. "I'm glad you mentioned this. I wouldn't +have missed it for the world. It's queer I never heard about the +mountain of mystery before, and yet it isn't a hundred miles away."</p> + +<p>"It is only recently that all these stories became public," stated Ned. +"Besides, you were so busy working on your talking pictures and since +then on this House on Wheels that I don't blame you for not having +heard of this Dismal Mountain."</p> + +<p>"It's going to be just the thing!" cried Tom, his face lighting with +pleasure. "With Mary away, I needed something to stimulate me and keep +me from going stale. This will do the trick! Let's see if we can't run +down this mystery!"</p> + +<p>"I'm with you!" echoed Ned.</p> + +<p>He was putting away his clippings and other information and Tom was +going to ask about the roads to Dismal Mountain and the possibility of +taking the House on Wheels when they heard a noise at the outer door of +the garage where the new machine stood. Then the handle was cautiously +tried.</p> + +<p>"Look!" whispered Ned, touching Tom on the arm and pointing to the +latch that was slowly being raised.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">JEALOUSY</p> + + +<p>Together Tom Swift and Ned Newton watched the door of the garage being +cautiously opened. There was something peculiar in this. In the first +place, no one who had a right to swing the door would have been thus +cautious about it. In the second place, no one was supposed to be in +that part of the shop just now except Tom and Ned. The young inventor +had given orders that he was to be left undisturbed with his financial +manager to make a final inspection of his new machine.</p> + +<p>Rightly arguing that no one who had a right to be there would try to +enter in this manner, Tom Swift decided to find out who was opening +the door, and in such a manner as to capture the intruder if possible. +Accordingly, he made a sign to Ned to keep quiet and then began +creeping toward the door in as stealthy a manner as it was being +opened, which was a fraction of an inch at a time.</p> + +<p>Ned, seeing his chum's intention, followed him, and the two were close +to the door when, unfortunately, Tom stumbled over a piece of wood left +by one of the workman. The noise, though slight, was enough to alarm +the person on the other side of the door. It was at once pulled shut +and footsteps could be heard in hasty retreat outside.</p> + +<p>"After him!" yelled Tom, caution now being useless, and he and Ned made +a dart for the opening. They swung back the door, but it had stuck +a little, and the two youths were just in time to see a crouching, +running figure some distance away.</p> + +<p>"Catch him!" cried Ned.</p> + +<p>It was easier said than done. When Tom and Ned reached the place where +they had caught a glimpse of the running figure there was no sign of +the fugitive. Though an alarm was at once raised and a search made, no +stranger was discovered on the place.</p> + +<p>"Well, what do you make of it?" asked Tom, when the two had returned to +where the House on Wheels stood.</p> + +<p>"Hanged if I know what to make of it," Ned replied. "Whoever it was +thought no one was in here, and they thought they could either steal +your House or else damage it."</p> + +<p>"It would be hard to steal it," replied Tom. "But it wouldn't take +much to wreck it. Looks as if some of the old gangs were after me, or +else some new one."</p> + +<p>"I'm inclined to the latter theory," said Ned. "And the newest one who +would logically have it in for you is Cunningham. Isn't that the case?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose so. Yet I can't understand a man of his business +ability—and I must admit he is shrewd—being foolish enough to risk an +attack such as this might have been."</p> + +<p>"Unless he is so angry that he hasn't any common sense left," suggested +Ned.</p> + +<p>"That may be it, yes. Well, the sooner we get started away from here +the better it will be for us."</p> + +<p>"Do you think you'll escape your enemies, Tom, by starting on a trip in +the House on Wheels?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"Not exactly! We've had experiences before in being trailed by those +who wanted to injure me or my father. But it isn't as easy for them to +get at me when I'm on the move. I can keep them guessing."</p> + +<p>"There's something in that," admitted Ned. "Well, I won't be sorry to +be on the move, either."</p> + +<p>It was two days after this, following a tryout of the House on Wheels +fully loaded and equipped, that Tom and Ned started on what they +thought was to be a pleasant little excursion, but which turned out to +be the beginning of a series of strange events.</p> + +<p>"I'll let you know when I get to Chesterport, Dad," said Tom, when +bidding his father good-bye.</p> + +<p>"Yes, do," urged the aged inventor. "This is a different machine from +any you have traveled in, and I should like to know how it behaves. We +might make some money out of putting them on the market."</p> + +<p>"I'll think about that."</p> + +<p>Ned made his farewells to Helen Morton and then, amid a chorus of good +wishes on the part of Mr. Damon and the shop force, the two young men +started off in the strange machine which attracted much attention all +along the road.</p> + +<p>"Off to Chesterport!" gaily exclaimed Ned, as he sat beside Tom in the +driver's seat.</p> + +<p>"And the mountain of mystery!" added the young inventor.</p> + +<p>They reached Chesterport about the middle of the afternoon, but instead +of proceeding up the main street to the residence of the Winthrops, +who, Tom had told Ned, occupied a mansion in an exclusive part of the +town, the House on Wheels, under the guidance of its inventor, was +headed into a vacant lot near an automobile garage.</p> + +<p>"What's the idea?" inquired Ned, in surprise. "Something gone wrong?"</p> + +<p>"No. Why?"</p> + +<p>"Why don't you run her up in front of the Winthrop's and call on Mary +in style?"</p> + +<p>"That's just it, Ned. I'm afraid the Winthrop family wouldn't like +this kind of style. And it might embarrass Mary. You see, the Winthrop +people are old-fashioned, conservative people, dating back to the +Massachusetts Bay Colony, or something like that. Up to a few years +ago the older Mrs. Winthrop would never ride in anything but the +family carriage. She did grudgingly consent to an auto, in time. Her +daughter-in-law isn't much more liberal, and I'm afraid if we dashed up +and stopped in front of their place with this rather gaudy affair, the +ladies might have a fit and conclude that I wasn't the sort of person +Mary ought to marry."</p> + +<p>"I see!" laughed Ned. "Well, maybe the House is a bit too much like a +circus van to park in front of a proud old lady's house. I see your +point. But what are you going to do?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, we'll leave the House here under the eye of this garage man and +then you and I will hire a taxi and call on Mary in style."</p> + +<p>"Count me out. I'll stay with the House."</p> + +<p>"Nothing doing! You go with me!"</p> + +<p>The young men had been wearing old garments, for they had anticipated +having to do some work on the car. But there was a miniature bathroom +in the House on Wheels and after washing and changing to fresh +garments, the two young men hired a taxi from the garage, near which +they had left the House on Wheels and went calling.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm so glad to see you!" Mary exclaimed impulsively at the sight +of Tom and Ned. "Why didn't you send me word you were coming?"</p> + +<p>"We didn't decide to come until so short a time ago," Tom answered, +"that we didn't really have time."</p> + +<p>"He wasn't sure his old House could make the grade," chuckled Ned.</p> + +<p>"Oh, then you have the wonderful House with you!" cried Mary.</p> + +<p>"Yes, er—I—now—what pocket did I put it in, Ned?" asked Tom in mock +anxiety, as he searched through his garments. "I know I had it when we +came in, but——"</p> + +<p>"Think you're smart, don't you?" mocked Mary.</p> + +<p>Grace Winthrop came in just then to be introduced, and she and Ned +paired off quite well, "considering everything," as Tom said afterward.</p> + +<p>The story of the trip was told and both girls asked to be taken for a +ride in the House on Wheels, a petition that was quickly granted. Grace +Winthrop shared none of her grandmother's inhibitions against modernism!</p> + +<p>"Oh, boys, you're just in time!" exclaimed Mary, as they were having +some lemonade out on the shady piazza. "Aren't they, Grace?"</p> + +<p>"In time for what?" Tom wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"The dance!" answered Mary. "We're having one to-night. You can stay, +can't you, Tom? And you, Ned?" She looked appealingly at Tom.</p> + +<p>"Afraid not," he answered. "We have a number of engagements, and our +schedule——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Tom Swift!"</p> + +<p>Mary's disappointment was so genuine that Tom, who had been a little +stiff with her at first, relented and said:</p> + +<p>"We haven't dress suits with us."</p> + +<p>"It's an informal dance," Grace made haste to say, and after being +urged a bit more the two visitors consented to come to the affair that +evening. They refused an invitation to dinner, as both Tom and Ned +wanted to see how it would be to get their own meal on the electric +stove in the House on Wheels.</p> + +<p>The dance was a great success. Ned found Grace Winthrop a gracious +hostess, and he did not seem to miss Helen much.</p> + +<p>In fact, he was having such a good time that it was not until late in +the evening that he noticed Tom sitting by himself out on the porch +and looking in one of the long windows at the dancing floor. Among the +couples foxtrotting about were Mary and a young fellow named Floyd +Barton to whom Ned had been introduced.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, Tom?" asked Ned, who had come out for a breath of +air. "Hurt your foot?"</p> + +<p>"Hurt my foot! No! What makes you ask that?"</p> + +<p>"You aren't dancing."</p> + +<p>"I haven't had much chance!" was the somewhat grumpish answer, and Ned +saw his chum's gaze following Mary and her partner. To do him justice, +Barton was a fine dancer.</p> + +<p>"Oh, ho!" mused Ned to himself, as he took in the situation. "Poor old +Tom is jealous!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">TRAILING THE MYSTERY</p> + + +<p>The next day, after a late, lazy sleep in the bunks of the House on +Wheels, Tom Swift and Ned Newton, in fulfillment of a promise made the +night before, called to take Mary and Grace for a ride in Tom's latest +invention.</p> + +<p>Tom and his chum called in a taxi to take the girls out to the House on +Wheels, for the young inventor rightly guessed that Mrs. Winthrop would +not appreciate the sensation that would be caused should the big auto +stop in front of her house.</p> + +<p>"Hello!" Mary called to Tom and Ned as she came downstairs with Grace +to meet them. "Did you have a good time last night?"</p> + +<p>"Fine!" answered Ned, who had thoroughly enjoyed himself.</p> + +<p>"Are you all ready?" asked Tom, trying to smile but not making a great +success of it. He seemed anxious to avoid answering the question. But +Mary was not to be put off.</p> + +<p>"I asked if you had a good time last night, Tom Swift," and Mary's +voice had a new quality in it. "Aren't you going to answer me?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I beg your pardon. Of course! It was a lovely affair. And I must +say you danced very well, Mary—you and Mr. Barton."</p> + +<p>There was something in Tom's tone that made Mary look sharply at him, +but she said nothing more then.</p> + +<p>"Well, are you all ready for the thrill of your lives?" asked Ned, to +cover the little moment of embarrassment that followed the interchange +between Mary and Tom.</p> + +<p>"Does the machine go very fast?" asked Grace.</p> + +<p>"Not at all," Tom made haste to say. "It isn't a racer, by any means. +It's just a comfortable way of traveling, that's all. There won't be +any particular thrill."</p> + +<p>"I'm eager to see it since its completion," said Mary, and Ned noticed +that her manner toward Tom had changed a bit.</p> + +<p>However, once they were started, the party was gay enough and Ned +thought perhaps his chum's natural jealousy would wear off. He learned, +by judicious questions put to Grace Winthrop, that Floyd Barton was +a rich young man of the neighborhood who had been paying Mary much +attention since her arrival in Chesterport.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Barton thinks Mary is a lovely girl," said Grace to Ned.</p> + +<p>"Well, he is certainly right," was the answer. "So does Tom Swift."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, that's different. Mr. Barton is just a very good friend. Of +course I know that Tom and Mary are engaged. But a girl must be nice to +those who are nice to her."</p> + +<p>"Then you'd better start right in on me!" challenged Ned, and the two +laughed.</p> + +<p>This was more than Mary and Tom were doing just then. They seemed to be +talking seriously on the rear seat of the taxi, Ned and Grace occupying +the auxiliary folding seats ahead.</p> + +<p>However, once the House on Wheels was reached, the air cleared a bit. +Both girls went into raptures over the House, though Mary had seen it +before, when it was almost completed. They reveled in the appointments +and said the kitchen was "just darling," using so many other adjectives +to praise the other sections that Tom and Ned felt quite set up over +having had a hand in turning out the machine.</p> + +<p>The House on Wheels was taken for a spin into the country with the +girls as guests, and the party remained out all day, eating "on +board," if that be the proper term. In the evening, when the return +to Chesterport was made, Tom and Mary seemed to have patched up their +little differences. Ned had an inkling as to what was at the bottom of +the trouble when he overheard Tom say:</p> + +<p>"Well, but you didn't need to dance every number with him, did you?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't! I danced with you three times! If I had known you were +coming I'd have saved more for you."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry I didn't send you word," murmured Tom.</p> + +<p>"So am I," replied Mary, and then they talked of other things.</p> + +<p>But that Tom still felt jealous pangs was evident the next day, for +the boys remained over for a lawn party Grace had arranged in honor +of Mary. There was no dancing this time, for the affair was held out +of doors. But Floyd Barton was there, with other young men, and even +Ned, in what few moments he spent away from Grace Winthrop, could not +help noticing that Mary was very often in the company of the young +Chesterport man.</p> + +<p>However, she gave Tom some attention and called him to her side when +she had to preside at a little game. She seemed very sweet and +gracious, but there was a lowering look on Tom's face that did not +altogether vanish, Ned noticed.</p> + +<p>At the close of the lawn party Mary accompanied Mr. Barton to the gate +to bid him farewell. When she came back Tom further showed the canker +that was eating him.</p> + +<p>"Can't you stay over one more day?" Grace Winthrop was asking Ned, who +had announced that their plans called for starting off the next morning.</p> + +<p>"I'd like to," Ned replied. "But of course——"</p> + +<p>"We're going to pull out first thing to-morrow!" broke in Tom, with +more bruskness than seemed necessary.</p> + +<p>"Oh, in that case then you won't be here," said Mary, and her voice was +tantalizingly cool. "I thought you were having a good time."</p> + +<p>"We are!" exclaimed Ned.</p> + +<p>"Too good," said Tom. "I guess you're having a good time too, aren't +you, Mary?" His question was rather pointed.</p> + +<p>"Who, me? Oh, yes! Grace has entertained me lavishly, and——"</p> + +<p>"I guess she hasn't been doing all the entertaining," and Tom pretended +to be much interested in a troublesome hangnail.</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course her friends have been awfully sweet to me," said Mary, +purposely misunderstanding. "Well, if you boys won't stay, you won't! +Where are you going, Tom?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, off on a little exploring trip," and he glanced toward Ned to make +sure he would not mention Dismal Mountain, since they had agreed it +would be better to keep their plans secret. "Got to try out the House +under all sorts of conditions."</p> + +<p>"I suppose so," agreed Grace. "Well, can't you stop off again on your +way back?"</p> + +<p>"We'll try," was all Tom would promise, though Ned was enthusiastic +when he said:</p> + +<p>"I sure would like to!"</p> + +<p>"Do try, then," urged Mary. "I'm having such a lovely time on this +visit that I want every one else to have fun, too. And you have been +working hard, haven't you, Tom?"</p> + +<p>"A bit, yes."</p> + +<p>"Well, now you'd better take a rest on this trip. Don't think about +business and don't run into any danger. Will you?"</p> + +<p>She crossed the room and stood near him, while Ned and Grace went +outside.</p> + +<p>"Will you, Tom?"</p> + +<p>"Will I what?"</p> + +<p>"Be careful to keep out of danger."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I—Who'd care if I did get into danger?" His voice was hard.</p> + +<p>"Who'd care? Well, I like that, Tom Swift! Wouldn't your father care, +and my father and mother, and Ned and Koku and Eradicate and—lots of +folks?"</p> + +<p>"Anybody else?" asked Tom, with a half smile.</p> + +<p>"Of course, you silly boy! I would! Is that what you wanted me to say?"</p> + +<p>It would seem from Tom's pleased answer that it was.</p> + +<p>So the little rift in the heavens appeared to have passed.</p> + +<p>"All hands on deck!"</p> + +<p>Ned Newton heard this hail from the depths of drowsy slumber as he +turned over in his cot the next morning.</p> + +<p>"What's the row?" he asked sleepily.</p> + +<p>"All hands on deck!" repeated Tom. "Come on, if we're going to get +started."</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" yawned Ned, parting the curtains and peering out. +"Are you the little early bird after the earlier worm this morning?"</p> + +<p>"Somewhat. But we've been loafing long enough. Let's get on the move if +we're going to."</p> + +<p>They washed, dressed and had breakfast, and then, having paid their +garage bill and taken on a supply of gas and oil, they set out down +the main road of Chesterport, having said good-bye to the girls the +night before.</p> + +<p>They were on the road to Branchville, beyond which was the beginning of +the hills that rose to their limit in the peak known locally as Dismal +Mountain.</p> + +<p>"I hope we run across a batch of moonshiners, some train bandits, and +half a dozen road agents!" declared Tom, as he grasped the steering +wheel.</p> + +<p>"Ah, ha!" mused Ned. "The little green bug is still biting him!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">THE WARNING</p> + + +<p>Though not a very great distance separated the vicinity of the mountain +of mystery from Chesterport, Tom and Ned decided they would occupy two +days on the trip. By hard driving they might have covered the trail in +a day and a night, but there was no special need of haste. Then, too, +Tom Swift did not want to push the motor of his House on Wheels to the +safe limit even, for he wanted to get it well broken in and limbered up +before trying any stunts with it.</p> + +<p>"This is the life!" sang Ned, as they rolled along the level highway. +"Eh, Tom?"</p> + +<p>"It sure is! Makes a fellow glad to be alive!"</p> + +<p>"This is one of the best things you ever turned out of your shop," went +on Ned, indicating by a comprehensive motion of his hand the vehicle in +which they were riding.</p> + +<p>As they motored along, their big car attracted much attention, not only +from passing machines but on the part of persons in towns and villages +through which they passed.</p> + +<p>Noon came almost before the two travelers realized it, and, being +then on a country road with no settlement in sight, they pulled off +the highway, stopped under some trees and near a little stream, and +prepared to have lunch.</p> + +<p>The pantry had been well stocked, and Ned and Tom, being used to +camping, had no difficulty in preparing a light meal, part of which was +set to cooking on the electric stove. In a little while there was a +most appetizing odor in the air and either this, or perhaps a sight of +the big machine itself, caused a passing man to stop.</p> + +<p>He was obviously a hobo, a rather dirty, unshaven and ragged specimen +of tramp. Yet his face had an impudent, roguish smile and his manner +was ingratiating as he shuffled up in the dust until he was opposite +the House, outside of which Tom and Ned sat on stools in the shade. +They were waiting for the potatoes to boil.</p> + +<p>"How's business, Boss—maybe I ought to say Bosses?" asked the tramp in +a hoarse voice. He leered and smiled.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean—business?" asked Tom.</p> + +<p>"The lunch-wagon business." The tramp seemed surprised at the question. +Very evidently he took the House on Wheels for one of those roadside +refreshment places.</p> + +<p>"We haven't opened up yet," said Ned, carrying on the delusion.</p> + +<p>"Smells like you had," commented the tramp, hungrily sniffing. "If that +ain't hash and onions cooking may I never eat another meal!"</p> + +<p>He was vehement about it. From his looks he did not appear to have +eaten a meal recently.</p> + +<p>"Is it hash and onions?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Guessed it first shot," commented Tom.</p> + +<p>"But I can't see how you can expect to do much business here," went on +the hobo. "This road ain't much traveled."</p> + +<p>"We're our own best customers," chuckled Ned, and at the man's look of +surprise he added enough information to show the nature of the House on +Wheels.</p> + +<p>"Well, then it's a washout as far as it goes with me," sighed the +tramp. "I was goin' to ask if I couldn't do you folks some work for the +price of a hand-out, but if yours is a private concern——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I guess we can manage to get you something," said Tom +good-naturedly. A little later when he and Ned were eating in the +combined kitchen and dining room, they handed the tramp a generous +plateful, for which he expressed gratitude.</p> + +<p>"Travel much in these parts?" asked Ned, as the hobo was about to +shuffle along.</p> + +<p>"More or less, Boss."</p> + +<p>"Ever been to Dismal Mountain?"</p> + +<p>"No, I can't say I have. And, what's more, I don't intend to! So if you +folks is aimin' to have me go there to work for what you jest give me, +count it out! I'm sorry, but——"</p> + +<p>"Nothing like that," interrupted Tom. "I just wanted to know if we were +on the right road to get there."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you're on the right road," the tramp admitted, with a shake of +his head. "But what for you fellers want to go to Dismal Mountain, gets +me!"</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with the place anyhow?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know's there's much the matter with the <i>place</i>," and the +man emphasized the word. "It's the birds that hang out around there."</p> + +<p>"Ghosts?" asked Tom, with a smile.</p> + +<p>"Ghosts!" exploded the tramp. "I'd rather meet ghosts than some of the +guys what hangs out there. Tough babies—an' I don't mean maybe!"</p> + +<p>"A rough crowd, eh?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"Tougher'n what I like," admitted the tramp. "I don't claim to be no +saint, but I'm pretty decent compared to some of the hard-boiled eggs +that hide around Dismal Mountain."</p> + +<p>"Then you wouldn't advise us to go there?" Tom asked.</p> + +<p>"It's none of my business, Boss," was the answer. "You know what your +own game is better'n what I do. But I wouldn't advise you to take any +valuables with you when you go to Dismal Mountain."</p> + +<p>"Thanks," murmured Ned. "We aren't wearing any diamonds."</p> + +<p>"Some of the guys there'll steal the laces out of your shoes," went on +the tramp.</p> + +<p>"Just what kind of criminals hang out there?" inquired Tom.</p> + +<p>"A kind I never travel with," was the quick rejoinder. "I'm a bum—I +don't deny it—and I'm not lookin' for work. But I'd sooner work than +pull off some o' the things that those babies do. Keep your eyes open +if you go there."</p> + +<p>"We will," promised Ned.</p> + +<p>The tramp shuffled away, and when the two chums were again alone Ned +looked at Tom and asked:</p> + +<p>"Think we'd better follow through?"</p> + +<p>"Sure! Why not?"</p> + +<p>"Well, there are only two of us and if there are some tough gangs up +there, or even a small band, we might run into trouble."</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to run away from trouble," declared the young inventor. +"Maybe it would have been wise to have had at least Koku along. But I'm +not going back after him. We'll go on to Dismal Mountain and see what's +there. Are you with me?"</p> + +<p>"I sure am, Tom!"</p> + +<p>They rested after the noon meal, washed the dishes in the near-by +brook, to save the supply of water in the auto tanks, and then +journeyed on in leisurely fashion. They expected to reach the mountain +of mystery the following night.</p> + +<p>It was dusk when they stopped the House on the outskirts of a little +village and prepared the evening meal. Then, having disposed of that, +they decided to go into town for the sake of the exercise and to see if +they could buy a paper.</p> + +<p>They hired a couple of boys from a house near where they had parked +their machine to stand guard over it while they were in town, and one +can well imagine with what pride the youngsters accepted the commission.</p> + +<p>"We won't let nobody come near it until you come back!" promised the +older boy.</p> + +<p>"I got my baseball bat if they do!" chimed in his brother.</p> + +<p>Stopping for an ice-cream soda in the only store of the town that +dispensed this refreshment and having bought a paper, Ned and Tom +lingered a while to listen to the somewhat excited and loud talk +that was going on amid a crowd of men in the place, evidently the +headquarters of the village gossips.</p> + +<p>"And they got clean away!" one man declared. "Took every darn cent, +too!"</p> + +<p>"Did they hurt the guards?" asked another.</p> + +<p>"Shot at 'em, but missed. It was all over quick."</p> + +<p>"Didn't they see which way the robbers went?" some one wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"Off toward Dismal Mountain," another answered.</p> + +<p>"Might have known it!" commented several. "That place ought to be wiped +out."</p> + +<p>"This sounds interesting," remarked Tom to Ned in a low voice. "I'm +going to butt in."</p> + +<p>Accordingly, he addressed the principal speaker and asked what all the +talk was about.</p> + +<p>"Highway robbery, that's what!" came the vehement answer. "A couple of +men guarding the pay roll of the shoe factory here were held up this +afternoon and robbed of about four thousand dollars."</p> + +<p>"I just now heard you mention Dismal Mountain," went on Tom. "Is that a +hang-out for highwaymen?"</p> + +<p>"That and worse," was the reply. "Dismal Mountain is a good place for +honest folks to stay away from."</p> + +<p>"Well, my friend and I claim to be honest," said Tom, indicating Ned. +"But we are on our way to Dismal Mountain and——"</p> + +<p>"Don't go!" exclaimed an old man in the store. "I know more about that +place than most folks, and my advice to you is not to go there. Unless +you're officers aiming to arrest the scoundrels that hide there," he +added hopefully.</p> + +<p>"No, we aren't officers," stated Ned.</p> + +<p>"We were just going there to find out what gives the place its bad +name," added Tom. "We would rather like to solve the mystery."</p> + +<p>"Well, be warned by me and keep away," went on the old man. "I used to +live not far from the place," he added, "and I don't want to see any +more such goings on as I witnessed."</p> + +<p>"What were they?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't tell you," was the answer, with a dubious shake of the +head. "I've seen men go up that mountain and never come down. There +were queer noises and queer lights. Nobody that had a valuable horse +near Dismal Mountain ever left him in a field over night. If they did +he wasn't there in the morning."</p> + +<p>"This sounds interesting," said Tom.</p> + +<p>"<i>Interesting</i>, young man!" exclaimed the speaker. "It's <i>dangerous</i>! +That's what it is! <i>Dangerous!</i>"</p> + +<p>There was so much interest in the recent hold-up that the departure of +Tom and Ned was little noticed. They went back to the House on Wheels +where they found the two boys had been faithful to their trust, and, +having paid and dismissed them, the two travelers turned in for the +night.</p> + +<p>"Well, what about it?" asked Tom of his chum when they arose the next +morning and found it raining and blowing. "Shall we lay over?"</p> + +<p>"Not on my account," declared Ned. "This storm doesn't seem to be going +to amount to much."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it wasn't of the storm I was speaking."</p> + +<p>"What then?"</p> + +<p>"The warnings we had last night against proceeding to Dismal Mountain. +If you——"</p> + +<p>"Nothing doing!" interrupted Ned. "I'll go with you to the end of the +trail!"</p> + +<p>"That settles it. We keep on!" cried Tom.</p> + +<p>After a hearty breakfast, they took their places on the front seat and +started off. For a time they followed a good concrete road, but it +soon branched off, and their way lay along a highway that had once been +good but which was so no longer.</p> + +<p>As the day advanced, taking the travelers farther on their way, the +storm increased. By afternoon and after lunch, which they ate while +moving along, they were in the midst of a terrific downpour with a wind +which reached at times the velocity of a gale.</p> + +<p>"She seems to weather it all right, though," remarked Ned, indicating +their traveling House.</p> + +<p>"Standing up fine!" agreed Tom, much pleased with the staunchness of +his latest invention. "We'll be almost there by night in spite of the +storm and the bad road."</p> + +<p>Hardly had he spoken than there was a fiercer burst of wind, which +dashed the rain like hail against the protecting glass in front. Just +then Ned pointed ahead as a loud crash sounded and cried:</p> + +<p>"Look out, Tom! Stop! Danger!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">THE DESERTED HOUSE</p> + + +<p>Tom Swift, ever on the alert when driving any of his machines, from +the humble motorcycle to the more complicated apparatuses of the air +or undersea, lived up to his name in bringing the House on Wheels to +a quick but skillful stop as Ned Newton uttered the exclamation of +warning.</p> + +<p>It was just in time, for the front wheels were almost against a big +rotten tree that the gale had blown down across the highway leading +toward Dismal Mountain. Tom's attention had been taken momentarily by +some of his dashboard gages, so he had not seen the sway of the tree +before it fell. But Ned's quick eyes had sensed the danger and had +given ample warning.</p> + +<p>"Close call, that!" commented Tom, as he leaned back after pulling hard +on the emergency brake.</p> + +<p>"Don't want 'em any closer," agreed Ned, as he looked through the +driving rain at the fallen tree. "If we had gone full tilt into that it +might have scratched some of the paint off the House."</p> + +<p>"Worse than that," assented Tom. "It's lucky you yelled at me when you +did."</p> + +<p>"Well, what's the next move?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"Put on our umbrella clothes and see if we can cut that tree away," +suggested Tom. "I don't believe we can very well turn around and I +don't want to navigate backward."</p> + +<p>"No, it won't be easy," agreed Ned. "Well, let's hop to it. I don't +believe there's much traffic on this road, but what there is we don't +want to hold up."</p> + +<p>"Speaking of hold-ups," said Tom grimly, "maybe we could get some of +the hold-up residents of Dismal Mountain to come to our help."</p> + +<p>"They don't show up in any great numbers," remarked Ned, as he made his +way back into the interior of the car to get his raincoat and rubber +boots, which Tom had designated as "umbrella clothes."</p> + +<p>They were in a lonely part of the country, in the midst of an extensive +piece of woods, it appeared, on a seldom-traveled road, about at the +beginning of the big peak known as Dismal Mountain. They had seen no +habitation for some time, nor had they met any other travelers, which +last was not remarkable, considering the state of the weather.</p> + +<p>Tom carried a set of emergency tools in his House on Wheels and among +these were a couple of axes. In a short time he and Ned, fortified +against the elements, which appeared to be doing their worst just now, +were attacking the fallen tree with their sharp tools.</p> + +<p>Fortunately the tree was pretty well rotted, and though it was large in +diameter, the trunk was punk-like in its character and the axes easily +bit into it. Chopping out small sections, the two travelers dragged +them to one side of the road until at last, after an hour's work, they +had cleared a passage for their auto and for any other vehicles that +might follow.</p> + +<p>"Though if there are any other people foolish enough to drive up here +in a storm like this, they ought to be made to chop their own trees," +commented Tom, as he got back on the seat.</p> + +<p>"It wasn't so bad when we started up here," Ned reminded his chum.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm not kicking!" Tom made haste to say. "I'm just talking to hear +my own voice. Whew, it's going to be a nasty night!"</p> + +<p>"It already is one!" declared Ned, for darkness was rapidly falling and +they had no idea of what lay beyond them.</p> + +<p>"Want to stay here?" asked Tom, always willing to give in on the +matter of stopping for the night.</p> + +<p>"No, the road's too narrow in case anything else comes along, though +I don't believe it will. Let's push on, and maybe we'll get to some +decent place where we can pull up."</p> + +<p>The motor, which had been stopped while the fallen tree was being +chopped away, was again put in motion and once more the House on Wheels +began the gradual but steady ascent that led up Dismal Mountain, by +this time in the young men's minds, a veritable mountain of mystery.</p> + +<p>For about a mile the road was fairly good and firm. After that either +the highway had not been kept in repair or the heavy rain was washing +it away rapidly, for the House on Wheels careened from one rut into +another until it was swaying like a circus camel in the parade.</p> + +<p>"Not so good!" commented Ned, as he banged up against the side of the +seat after a particularly heavy lurch.</p> + +<p>"It is getting a bit thick and heavy," agreed Tom, trying to peer ahead +into the gloom which was pierced by two powerful headlights of the +auto. But powerful as they were, the gleams of the lamps appeared to be +swallowed up in the dark trees on either side of the road and by the +surface of the highway itself.</p> + +<p>A comparatively light surface is needed to reflect the gleams of any +auto lamps properly, as you have noticed when driving first on concrete +and then on asphalt. You can see twice as well on the former as on the +latter. And in driving through woods on a dirt road, nearly all the +illumination is absorbed so that you get the benefit of very little of +it.</p> + +<p>It was so in the case of Tom and Ned, and though for a little way in +front of the wheels they could see where they were going, beyond ten +feet all was gloom and darkness.</p> + +<p>It was still raining hard and the wind was blowing. Tom had set in +motion the wiper of the glass in front of him so the drops did not +accumulate and distort his vision. But he needed all the artificial +aids he could command on a night like this and under the circumstances.</p> + +<p>For the first time it began to be apparent to him and Ned that perhaps +they had done rather a foolish thing to come to Dismal Mountain in +this large van-like car. It was not exactly the kind of a machine +for prospect work, not being small or flexible enough for quick +maneuvering.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, it was a portable base of supplies and the occupants +of it could stop wherever they found themselves and be comfortable, +which was more than could be said for a small car. So they kept +plugging along.</p> + +<p>The motor was pulling powerfully. Tom was glad of this for he knew he +would need all the power he could command when they got into the upper +slopes where the grades would be stiffer.</p> + +<p>On and on, up and up, the House on Wheels was driven until Ned began to +wonder where his chum would stop. He did not like to suggest a halt, +for there seemed to be no good place to pull up. The road was still +narrow. The House took up considerable room and there were places where +trees grew so close to each side of the road that it seemed impossible +to squeeze the big vehicle through.</p> + +<p>But, somehow, Tom managed it, though once both sides of the car lightly +brushed great trunks that would have taken hours on the part of a +skilled lumberman to fell. However, luck was with the two venturesome +travelers.</p> + +<p>After a stiff ascent, in which Tom had to drop back to second gear for +one of the few times since the trip started, they came to a somewhat +level stretch, as was evidenced by the easier pull on the motor. Ned, +always enthusiastic, exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Hurray! We're up!"</p> + +<p>"Not half!" exclaimed Tom. "Don't fool yourself."</p> + +<p>"Oh, gee!" sighed Ned.</p> + +<p>"But we may reach a place where it will be wise to stop for the rest of +the night," went on Tom, trying in vain to pierce the dark forest ahead +and on either side. "The road is wider here and we can pull off it with +a chance for something else to pass."</p> + +<p>"Nobody but us two are crazy enough to be out here on a night like +this," commented the financial manager.</p> + +<p>"Guess that's about right," assented Tom. "Still, it's best not to take +any chances. I'll go along a bit farther and then we'll pull up and +call it a day's work."</p> + +<p>The going was better until there was a sudden lurch to one side.</p> + +<p>"In a hole!" cried Tom, and he quickly went into second and then into +first gear in an effort to pull out.</p> + +<p>However, it was not to be. The House on Wheels slowly settled down and +not all the power of the motor could stir it. Finally Tom realized that +he was only sinking the rear wheels deeper into the mud by churning +them around.</p> + +<p>"We've got to dig out!" he told Ned.</p> + +<p>There was no help for it. Once more they donned boots and raincoats +and, hanging a portable electric light over the bogged side, they saw +where the right front wheel had sunk into a deep hole. It took the two +the best part of an hour to dig a slope in front and fill it with small +stones to make a firm surface so the machine could climb out. This the +auto did after several false starts, and once more they were on their +way.</p> + +<p>The road shortly broadened and the trees were cut back from the highway +into a small clearing. This opening enabled the two to see better, +and in the gleam of the powerful lamps Ned noticed, just ahead, on +the right, a big house, from which, however, no lights showed. As the +car approached, it could be seen that the place was an old, deserted +mansion that had once been the stately home of some wealthy person, for +there were extensive grounds.</p> + +<p>"Look!" exclaimed Ned.</p> + +<p>"I see it," answered Tom. "Nobody home from the looks of it, but we can +pull up there and stop for the night. What say?"</p> + +<p>"Suits me!"</p> + +<p>Accordingly, Tom guided the big car into what seemed to have once been +a drive and he and Ned both experienced a feeling of relief. But if +they had known to what adventures the deserted house was a preface they +might well have hesitated.</p> + +<p>"What do you make it out to be?" joked Ned, as the House on Wheels was +brought to a stop at one side of the old mansion. "Is it a hang-out of +bootleggers or road agents?"</p> + +<p>"Take your choice," Tom answered, in equally light vein. "Luckily, we +don't have to depend on them for supper. We roll our own."</p> + +<p>"And I'm going to roll mine right soon!" added Ned. "Boy, I'm hungry +and I don't mean perhaps!"</p> + +<p>"Be with you in just a minute," Tom said, shutting off the motor and +putting on the emergency brake. He was glad to note that the ground +seemed firm beneath the wheels.</p> + +<p>As he and Ned were alighting, thinking to have a look around the +outside of the deserted house before getting something to eat, Ned +uttered a low exclamation which Tom heard above the noise of the rain +that was coming down more gently now.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" whispered the young inventor.</p> + +<p>"Did you hear a noise in there?" asked Ned in cautious tones.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE</p> + + +<p>Like game dogs, Tom Swift and Ned Newton froze in their tracks and +stood in the rain near the deserted house, waiting for they knew not +what. It was a lonesome, dreary place, dense woods being all around +them, and ahead, though some miles distant, the sinister summit of +Dismal Mountain with its suggestion of mystery. Only the fact that +the warm, comfortable and cozily lighted House on Wheels was near by +heartened the young men. They were rather tired from their trip, with +fighting the elements, and digging the heavy auto out of bog holes.</p> + +<p>For several seconds they stood there, Tom seeking to tune his ears to +what Ned had said he had heard—a noise in the deserted house. But as +no sounds came to him, the young inventor began to believe that his +chum was mistaken.</p> + +<p>"Guess it was only the storm," he said, still pitching his voice low.</p> + +<p>"Maybe," agreed Ned. "Yet at first I was sure the sound came from the +house."</p> + +<p>"It might at that, and still nobody need be in it," Tom suggested. +"In an old, deserted place like this there are always doors to swing, +windows to rattle, and shutters to slam."</p> + +<p>"I suppose so," agreed Ned. "Well, shall we go in and have a look +around?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know that it will do us any good or that we can learn anything +by going in this old mansion," was Tom's comment. "Yet as long as we're +here we might as well go in. If we're going to stay here all night——"</p> + +<p>"Stay here all night!" interrupted Ned, in surprise.</p> + +<p>"I don't mean in there," and Tom pointed to the dark and silent +mansion, "but in our own House. If we're going to camp out here it's +just as well to know the character of our neighbor."</p> + +<p>"Sure," assented Ned. "Well, come on in and let's get it over with. +Then we'll eat. I'm hungry!"</p> + +<p>"So am I. Got your flashlight?" and Tom produced one of these handy +little portable torches.</p> + +<p>"Never go without it when I'm traveling with you," chuckled Ned. "You +always end up in some queer situation or other." This was true, as Tom +knew from past experience, so he did not comment on it.</p> + +<p>A look behind the young men showed them that the auto was where they +had left it, the power shut off, the headlights glowing, and also some +lights turned on showing the cozy interior.</p> + +<p>"I'll sure be glad to get back in it," murmured Tom.</p> + +<p>"So will I," echoed his chum.</p> + +<p>The deserted mansion the two had discovered half way up Dismal Mountain +was like many other tenantless houses in lonesome country districts, +only this was rather larger and better.</p> + +<p>With the departing of the owner the place had been left to the mercy +of the elements and the whims of those who were more or less vandals +who took delight in needlessly breaking doors, windows and shutters. +Consequently there was no difficulty in getting into the place. The +front door gaped wide and, after flashing their lights into and around +a spacious entrance hall, Tom and Ned stepped inside.</p> + +<p>"I guess this a hang-out for tramps now and then," remarked Tom, as the +two advanced down the hallway.</p> + +<p>"Shouldn't wonder," agreed Ned. "They've got plenty of rooms at their +disposal, anyhow," he added as his light showed many apartments as +they continued on their way. Aside from broken boxes and barrels, with +here and there a litter of straw or leaves, there was no furniture in +the rooms.</p> + +<p>Dismal and eerie to the extreme was the deserted house. Paper peeling +from the damp walls hung in strips like festoons of Spanish moss. In +places the plaster had fallen, leaving gaping holes that were like +sightless eyes staring at the intruders.</p> + +<p>They went through the first floor, flashing their lights into nooks and +corners but discovering nothing. There were some signs of the place +having recently harbored such tenants as tramps. In one room a fire +appeared to have been burning not long since on an open hearth and some +empty tin cans scattered about seemed to give evidence that hoboes had +cooked a meal here some time.</p> + +<p>"Shall we go upstairs?" asked Ned, when their inspection of the first +floor was finished.</p> + +<p>"Might as well," decided Tom. "Then we'll know there isn't anything +here to annoy us after we get back to the House."</p> + +<p>The front stairway was a large and imposing one, sweeping up to a +balcony where there was space enough for a fairly large room. From here +one could look down into the lower front hall. As Ned followed Tom to +this balcony he saw the young inventor turn and gaze intently at what +appeared to be a panel in the back wall of the landing. Tom's start was +so obvious that Ned asked:</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?"</p> + +<p>"I thought—I wasn't sure—but I thought I saw one of those oak panels +slide as I came up the stairs," answered Tom.</p> + +<p>"You thought you saw a panel slide!" exclaimed Ned. "Say, this is like +a moving picture mystery."</p> + +<p>"Maybe it was only the shadow of your flashlight," went on Tom.</p> + +<p>He advanced to the rear wall and tapped on it. The lower part was made +up of what had once been beautifully carved, quartered oak panels. But +as far as the two adventurers could discover, all of them were in place +and none seemed movable.</p> + +<p>"It must have been a shadow," said Ned.</p> + +<p>"I guess so," agreed his chum.</p> + +<p>The rooms upstairs, like those below, were bare and deserted, devoid of +furniture, but with the same festoons of drooping wall paper. In some +of the chambers there were piles of old bags and leaves in some corners +showing plainly that tramps had been sleeping there.</p> + +<p>"It was probably these hoboes, who made this place a hang-out, that +gave rise to the stories about ghosts and bootleggers on Dismal +Mountain," commented Ned, and Tom agreed that this might be so.</p> + +<p>The number and arrangement of the upper rooms confirmed the ideas of +the young men that this mansion had once been the home of persons +who lived in luxury and moved in high society. There were a number +of bedchambers, each with a private bath. But the latter rooms were +in worse ruin than any other part of the house, for the fixtures had +been torn out, probably by those who wanted the lead and brass piping +to sell to junkmen. Some of the porcelain bath tubs had been wantonly +cracked and broken.</p> + +<p>It was when Tom, preceding Ned, walked out of one of the bedrooms into +the main hall that the young inventor gave another perceptible start +and uttered a low exclamation.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter now?" asked Ned, with half a laugh. "See another +moving panel?"</p> + +<p>"No, but, somehow, Ned, I feel as if we were being spied upon! Don't +you?"</p> + +<p>"Spied upon! What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Well, when I came out of that room," and Tom pointed back to it, "I +had a distinct feeling that eyes were following me. Didn't you ever +have such a feeling?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but not now. I think you're just over-worked and nervous. You did +most of the driving, and with that and the storm and getting bogged, +it's no wonder you're seeing things."</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe that's it," agreed Tom, but his heart did not appear to +be in what he was saying. "I am tired. I'll be glad when we have had +something to eat and can turn in for a good night's sleep."</p> + +<p>"Boy, you let loose an earful that time!" chuckled Ned.</p> + +<p>He saw that Tom was flashing his light back into the room they had just +quitted and he followed his chum's example. But nothing was seen save +the same dismal ruin that confronted them on every side.</p> + +<p>Going downstairs behind Tom, when Ned reached the landing where the +young inventor had said he thought he saw a panel move, he was suddenly +conscious of the same feeling that Tom had mentioned—that of unseen +eyes staring at him.</p> + +<p>"But it's all bunk!" said Ned to himself. "It's just nerves. I'm not +going to speak of it. Tom has enough to worry about now."</p> + +<p>However, he cast a quick look over his shoulder and even flashed his +torch on the oak paneling, a move which caused Tom to ask:</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing," answered Ned, prevaricating just a little. But he felt +he had a right to, since, as he reasoned, Tom Swift had been under a +strain for several days getting the House on Wheels in shape for this +test trip. There was no sense in adding to his worries, especially as +it was such an intangible something that Ned had felt.</p> + +<p>Yet he could not get over the sensation that he, too, as Tom had been, +was being watched by sinister eyes somewhere within that deserted +mansion. Eyes that were evil, that looked evil, and that hoped evil.</p> + +<p>"Might have been bats," thought Ned. "Always have been bats in an old +house. That's what it was—bats. I'll be getting them in my belfry if I +don't get something to eat soon," he thought, with a noiseless chuckle.</p> + +<p>Their footsteps echoed and re-echoed through the dark and eerie +mansion, but nothing happened, save now and then a distant and ghostly +hammering or clattering sound that plainly came from rattling windows, +banging doors, and swinging shutters.</p> + +<p>"Well," remarked Tom, with a sigh of relief, "we've proved that there's +nobody around here to annoy us. Now for a good night's rest."</p> + +<p>He stepped out of the front door, closely followed by Ned. The rain was +coming down hard and the wind had once more risen to the proportions +of half a gale. For a moment Tom and Ned stood on the big front porch. +Then Ned remarked:</p> + +<p>"We must have got turned around and come out the back way."</p> + +<p>"Why so?" asked Tom.</p> + +<p>"Because we left the House right where we could see it from the front +steps, and it isn't in sight now. We must have got turned around and +come out at the back instead of the front."</p> + +<p>"This is the front all right," said Tom in a queer voice. "It's where +we went in, but the House on Wheels is gone!"</p> + +<p>"Gone!" cried Ned. "It can't be!"</p> + +<p>"Look for yourself," asserted his chum. "You know where it was. In +plain sight with lights going, as we saw just before we went inside. +Now it's gone!"</p> + +<p>There was no doubt of it. The House on Wheels had vanished!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">ON THE TRAIL</p> + + +<p>Their hearts oppressed with a sense of foreboding which they could not +fathom, Tom Swift and Ned Newton hurried down the broad front steps +of the old mansion, out into the wind and rain, and hurried toward +the clearing where they had left the warm, lighted, and cozy House on +Wheels. For a moment they hoped that perhaps the lighting system had +failed and that they could not see the big auto because it was shrouded +in darkness.</p> + +<p>But as they lighted their way by means of their pocket flashlights and +reached the spot, near two large, distinctive trees where they had +halted the big auto, there was no question about it. Their car had been +taken away! It could not have rolled downhill, for it had been stopped +on a level spot, and Tom had taken pains to set the brakes.</p> + +<p>"Some one came and got it!" exclaimed Tom, when it was certain that +the machine had vanished.</p> + +<p>"Who was it?" came from Ned.</p> + +<p>"Hard to say. But I guess we weren't wrong, Ned, in suspecting that we +were being spied upon by unseen eyes in that old house."</p> + +<p>"I'm forced to believe that."</p> + +<p>"While some watched us inside, to make sure we wouldn't come out and +interrupt the theft, others stole the House," declared Tom.</p> + +<p>"Looks so," commented Ned. "Gee, but this is tough luck! What are we +going to do now?"</p> + +<p>"We've got to hit the trail, of course, and see if we can't get it +back," was Tom Swift's prompt answer.</p> + +<p>Though they were hungry and tired, the two young men did not hesitate. +In fact, they could not. Much depended on prompt action, for the House +on Wheels could not long have been taken away. Luckily Tom and Ned had +on rubber boots and rain coats, and their little electric flashlights +enabled them to see the trail. Without them they would have been at a +great disadvantage.</p> + +<p>But with these gleams, flashing occasionally so as not to wear out the +batteries too fast, the two first made sure where the big auto had +stood and then began to trail it.</p> + +<p>"They first swung around in a half circle and then went off this way," +said Tom, pointing to the peculiar marks in the mud left by the tires +of the House on Wheels. They were tires especially made for heavy duty +and marked with ridges designed to prevent skidding, so the trail was +easily followed, particularly as the wet ground took a deep impression.</p> + +<p>"It ought to be a cinch to trace her," remarked Ned, as the two young +men hurried on, their weariness and hunger forgotten in the excitement +of the chase.</p> + +<p>"Yes, for a way, anyhow," agreed Tom. "But we may not always have soft +dirt roads like this to retain the marks. Though I don't believe there +are any concrete stretches in this neighborhood," and he motioned +toward Dismal Mountain, up the trail of which the House on Wheels +clearly had been driven.</p> + +<p>"The ground will be soft for a couple of days after this rain, and we +can keep on following," suggested Ned.</p> + +<p>"They may get too far ahead of us to leave us a Chinaman's chance," +said Tom, with a sigh. "Remember, we're walking, and if the House only +crawled it could do ten miles to our one. Besides, they may run her +down off this mountain and onto a hard road, and then the tire marks +won't be one, two, six!"</p> + +<p>On they splashed in the rain and darkness. The road taken by the House +on Wheels, as evidenced by the tire marks, led up the mountain and the +deserted house, with its gloom, its secrets and its spying eyes, was +soon left in the rear of the young men who pressed on, now and then +flashing their torches to make sure they were still on the right trail.</p> + +<p>"Hark!" exclaimed Tom suddenly, when they had been thus going for +several minutes.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" asked Ned, coming to a halt.</p> + +<p>"Let's listen and try to hear the motor," suggested the young inventor. +"I have an idea those fellows, whoever they are, won't push the machine +too hard. They may run her only a little way and then lay over for the +night."</p> + +<p>Accordingly, the two stood there with the rain dripping on them, +listening. But the only sounds that came to their ears were those of +the storm—the wind and rain, the clattering of tree branches, and the +swish of wet leaves.</p> + +<p>"No use trying to hear anything," stated Ned, after a pause.</p> + +<p>"No, I guess there isn't. We'll keep on."</p> + +<p>Again the two plunged forward along the muddy road. They blessed their +lucky stars that had given them the forethought to put on rubber boots +and coats before venturing around and into the old house.</p> + +<p>Tom, also, was glad he had equipped his car with those heavy and +peculiarly marked tires, for they were very easy to follow, even under +the adverse circumstances of rain and darkness.</p> + +<p>In spite of the fact that the noise of the storm would seem to preclude +their hearing any sound made by the car ahead of them, Tom and Ned +stopped several more times and listened for any faint echo of a motor +ahead of them. But they heard nothing.</p> + +<p>"Maybe I'm wrong, Ned," said Tom, after a while, pausing at a sandy +stretch in the road, where the wheel marks were very plain, "but +doesn't it strike you that these tire impressions are fresher than they +have been for some time back?"</p> + +<p>"Fresher? Anybody would think we were trailing an elephant or some wild +animal."</p> + +<p>"Well, we are, in a way. But you see the rain has the effect of washing +out the marks after a certain time. Now these marks here are sharp and +fresh."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I admit it," said Ned. "But what of it?"</p> + +<p>"Well," and Tom's voice had a note of triumph in it, "to me this means +that my House has passed here within a short time—minutes I should +say—otherwise the hard rain would have washed down some of the tire +ridges."</p> + +<p>"Tom, you're right!" cried Ned. "She ought to be close now."</p> + +<p>"That's what I think. Come on!"</p> + +<p>Once more the two plunged forward. The tire marks continued to become +ever fresher until the seekers reached a place where a small road +branched off the main highway.</p> + +<p>"They went up here!" cried Tom, indicating the trail that led up the +branch road.</p> + +<p>"Sure enough!" assented Ned, flashing his light on the marks.</p> + +<p>Up the road the two fairly ran until, so quickly that it was startling, +they came upon the big auto at a standstill in the middle of the +highway. The House on Wheels was in darkness, but there it was.</p> + +<p>"We've found her!" exulted Tom, but he had the caution to speak in low +tones.</p> + +<p>"Sure enough," agreed Ned and his voice was hardly more than a whisper. +"But what's the game, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>That remained to be seen.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">TWO STRANGE MEN</p> + + +<p>There were two theories to account for the taking away of the House +on Wheels. These at once occurred to Tom Swift and Ned Newton as they +stood in the rain and darkness near the auto, hardly able to believe +their good luck which had brought them to the machine within half an +hour of the theft.</p> + +<p>One explanation was that the legal authorities of the place—state +police or local traffic officers—had come upon the parked House while +Tom and Ned were in the deserted mansion. Seeing no one in the big +auto, but observing that the lights were on, the authorities might have +concluded that there had been an accident or that the car was abandoned +and so had decided to drive it some place where it could be held +pending an investigation.</p> + +<p>Another and more plausible theory, was that ordinary thieves, happening +upon the car, had decided to appropriate it for themselves. For it was +a car that any one might desire to possess.</p> + +<p>As Tom and Ned stood behind the discovered auto, pondering over these +matters, it was more and more evident to them that the car had been +stolen and abandoned. But had it been abandoned for good, or were the +thieves just temporarily away from it?</p> + +<p>That last consideration must give them serious pause.</p> + +<p>For perhaps a full minute the two stood there, the rain dripping off +their hats and coats, while they considered. Meanwhile they were +using their ears and eyes to the best possible advantage; their ears +particularly. For soon after discovering the auto they had switched off +their torches and now stood in gloom. There was no light either in the +House on Wheels or at the headlamps, as Tom and Ned ascertained by a +quick glance forward.</p> + +<p>No sound came from the stranded auto. There was no noise of movement on +the part of those who had taken the vehicle away and who might now be +in ambush near it.</p> + +<p>"Well," questioned Ned in a whisper, "what'll we do?"</p> + +<p>"Let's circle the House and see if we can spot anybody," was Tom's +answer, just breathed into his chum's ear.</p> + +<p>The storm was making so much noise that ordinary sounds on the part of +the two would be covered, they thought. Still, they were not going to +take any chances and they used the utmost caution in proceeding.</p> + +<p>"Come on!" whispered Tom.</p> + +<p>"I'm with you!" answered Ned.</p> + +<p>Side by side they started around the left of the House, intending to +make their way to the front and gain control of the machine. They were +not half way to their objective when there was a noise up ahead—a +crackling and trampling of the bushes and voices coming out of the +darkness.</p> + +<p>Tom reached out and caught the coat of Ned who was moving away from him.</p> + +<p>"Hold on!" whispered the young inventor, pulling his chum toward him. +"Let's see who these birds are before we bump into them."</p> + +<p>It was good advice, as Ned admitted by following Tom into a little +recess of the underbrush about midway of the auto. Pushing themselves +back into the screen of shrubs, the two waited. They were not long left +in doubt as to the character or intentions of the men whose voices came +to them.</p> + +<p>There were two men, as evidenced by the different tones. One said:</p> + +<p>"Well, we got her all right!"</p> + +<p>"You said it."</p> + +<p>From the tones of the voices Tom and Ned judged one man to be big +and the other small, and, without sight of them, the hidden ones so +distinguished the two speakers mentally.</p> + +<p>"It was easy," went on Big, to give him a temporary designation.</p> + +<p>"Maybe it was too easy," suggested Small.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I mean those two lads won't give up their machine so easily. +They may come to get it back."</p> + +<p>"Let 'em!" chuckled Big. "We'll be ready for 'em."</p> + +<p>"I'd feel better satisfied if we had kept on," said Small. "I don't see +the sense in stopping here."</p> + +<p>"That's what the boss told us to do if we were lucky enough to get the +machine," said the other. "And we did."</p> + +<p>"Well, if the boss told us to stay here, we've got to, I reckon," +admitted Small. "But there's no use staying out in the wet. That's a +pretty nifty little outfit this fellow Quick turned out, and I don't +see why we can't take it easy in it and have some grub."</p> + +<p>"There's no harm in that," agreed Big. "But the chap who got up this +dingus is named Swift, not Quick."</p> + +<p>"It's all the same," chuckled the other. "And I can't get in out of +the wet any too quick and have something to eat. What say?"</p> + +<p>"I'll be with you in a little while."</p> + +<p>"Why, where you going?" asked Small, and there seemed to be a note of +suspicion in his voice.</p> + +<p>There was a moment before the reply came and in that moment Tom and +Ned made several rapid conclusions. There was no doubt now but what +their car had been stolen. These were no state police or local traffic +officers who had run the car away for its own safety. They were thieves +and had evidently acted from a well-planned motive.</p> + +<p>"They know you, Tom, or one of them does," whispered Ned.</p> + +<p>"Seems so! By golly! I'd give a good deal to know just who is back of +all this!" Tom's voice though low was tense and angry.</p> + +<p>"Maybe we can find out," whispered Ned.</p> + +<p>"Hush!" cautioned Tom, and at that moment Small spoke again, saying:</p> + +<p>"Where you going? What's the game? Why don't you come in with me and +help rustle some grub on that electric stove I saw."</p> + +<p>"I can't come just now," was the answer.</p> + +<p>"Getting cold feet?" demanded the other man sullenly. "Say, if you're +trying to double cross me——"</p> + +<p>"Don't be a fool!" snapped Big viciously. "It's all part of the game +we're playing for the boss."</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe it is. But I don't like you sneaking off this way leaving +me all alone in case anything happens."</p> + +<p>"I've got to go. I've got to go tell the boss."</p> + +<p>"You have?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Where is he?"</p> + +<p>"A little way ahead, waiting. His orders were, if we got the car, to +stop here and for me to come on alone and let him know."</p> + +<p>"All right, then I reckon you got to do it. But where is the boss?"</p> + +<p>"Near the entrance to the castle."</p> + +<p>"Oh! Well, all right. Go ahead, but don't leave me alone any longer +than you can help."</p> + +<p>"Ho! Who's getting cold feet now?" jeered Big.</p> + +<p>"Well, you never know what can happen," grumbled Small. "It's a nasty +night. Those fellows may get help and trace us here. I'm not afraid of +the two, but if they get a gang of police——"</p> + +<p>"Forget it! They'll never find us. Besides, where could they get any +police on a night like this to come to Dismal Mountain?"</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe they couldn't. Anyhow, don't be any longer than you can +help."</p> + +<p>"I won't," promised Big. "Soon as I let the boss know we've pulled off +the trick I'll come back. You can wait inside and be cooking your own +grub. I'll eat when I come in."</p> + +<p>"All right. Hop to it."</p> + +<p>The sound of one man striding away in the darkness through the brush +could be heard. The two had evidently gone on ahead after temporarily +abandoning the House and had come back to hold their talk in front of +the halted machine. Now one was going away and the other remaining.</p> + +<p>"What are we going to do now?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"Let me think a minute," suggested his chum. "Did you hear that remark +about the castle?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Have you any idea what it means?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I heard something about it when I was looking up the history of +Dismal Mountain before I had any idea we'd ever come here. The castle +is an old stone building, built to represent its name. It was started +by a rich man who had an idea he'd like to live somewhat after the +English style. But either he died or his money gave out, for the castle +was never quite finished. It's an old, rambling pile of stone near the +top of this mountain of mystery."</p> + +<p>"Anybody live in it?"</p> + +<p>"That I don't know. Probably it's deserted like the old house, but it +may be the hang-out of some of the gangs infesting the mountain, and +it's very evident that our car has fallen into the hands of one of +these same gangs."</p> + +<p>"Yes," agreed Tom. "But they won't have my machine long!"</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?"</p> + +<p>"Get it back, Ned. There's only one man there now and we ought to be +able to easily handle him."</p> + +<p>"He's likely to be armed. They both are I should say, and there is no +telling when Mr. Big may come back."</p> + +<p>"I aim to do up Mr. Small before Mr. Big shows up," replied Tom grimly. +"As for being armed, we've got our own automatics."</p> + +<p>"That's so!" agreed Ned, who, for the moment, had forgotten that before +getting out of the House on Wheels to go to the old house he and his +chum had put the weapons in their pockets. "Well, lead on, Tom."</p> + +<p>"We'll wait just a moment to see that Big doesn't change his mind and +come back," suggested the young inventor.</p> + +<p>But the echoes of the retreating footsteps of the other echoed fainter +and fainter above the sound of the storm and it was evident that he was +going on to seek the "boss," whoever that personage might be.</p> + +<p>Waiting another few seconds, Tom and Ned heard Small enter the House +and a moment later there was a gleam of light within the auto. Tom +drew a deep breath. He could not bear to have any hands but those of +himself and his friends touch his latest pet machine. But it was now, +temporarily at least, captured by an unknown enemy.</p> + +<p>"Come on now!" whispered Tom fiercely to his chum, drawing his +automatic and stepping out of their hiding place.</p> + +<p>"I'm with you!" answered Ned, who had his own weapon in readiness.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">THE CAPTIVE ESCAPES</p> + + +<p>Instead of proceeding to the front of the House on Wheels, the opening +by which the remaining man had entered, Tom Swift turned to the rear, +somewhat to the surprise of his chum.</p> + +<p>"You can't get in that way," suggested Ned. "The back steps are up."</p> + +<p>"I know," whispered Tom. "But they can be let down from the outside if +you know the trick. I arranged a duplicate control, for I didn't know +when I might run my machine into a tree and have to get in and out the +back door."</p> + +<p>Ned knew that Tom was only joking with his reference to ramming +his beloved new car into a tree. But it was true that there was an +inconspicuous spring outside, on the rear of the machine. This, when +operated, let the folding steps down out of their safety recess and +enabled one to enter the rear of the House without reference to what +was going on in front.</p> + +<p>"We'll give him a great surprise," whispered Tom.</p> + +<p>Ned now understood what the proceeding was to be and he was close +behind his chum as the latter approached the rear of the big car. +Inside the lights were gleaming and the shadow of the intruder could be +seen passing to and fro at the windows. Evidently he had no suspicion +that the owner of the stolen machine was soon to take vengeance.</p> + +<p>Pressing the switch of his flashlight for a brief instant, Tom +located the control spring and as he pressed it the steps slowly slid +down so he and Ned could mount them. The lowering of the steps also +automatically unlocked the rear door.</p> + +<p>The storm, after a brief cessation, was raging again, and the noise of +this—rain on the leaves, drumming on the roof of the House on Wheels, +and the howling of the wind—was enough to cover any slight noises Tom +and Ned might make.</p> + +<p>With Tom in the lead, the two young men entered the car. The intruder +could be heard rummaging about up in front, evidently with the +intention of appropriating to himself such portable property as he +could before the return of his companion, with or without the "boss."</p> + +<p>For the first time the young inventor and his chum now had a sight +of the man whom they had designated "Small," because of his voice. +His stature was in keeping with his tones. He was a short, squat +individual, but looked powerful, and his face had an ugly look as he +was observed moving about in the compartment near the front seat.</p> + +<p>"Is that the rat-faced man you have been talking about, Ned?" Tom +inquired.</p> + +<p>"No, this fellow is a stranger to me."</p> + +<p>"I never saw him until now, either, as far as I remember," said Tom. +"But we're going to get better acquainted right away," he grimly added.</p> + +<p>Looking to make sure his automatic was in readiness, an example +followed by Ned, Tom stealthily advanced through the two back rooms of +the house to the front one where the man was rummaging about.</p> + +<p>Ned did not know just what Tom's plan of capture was, and perhaps the +young inventor did not himself. But suddenly, as Tom observed the +intruder pocket some toilet articles of silver, which, it developed +later, Tom had placed in a dresser for the exclusive use of Mary +Nestor, the young man's self control vanished.</p> + +<p>With an angry exclamation Tom Swift fairly leaped into the front +compartment where the man stood and, leveling his automatic at the +intruder, the command came:</p> + +<p>"Stick 'em up and do it quick!"</p> + +<p>If the fellow had any intention of reaching for his gun, and a +momentary deflection of one hand toward the side pocket of his coat +would seem to indicate that, he soon gave over the idea as Tom went on:</p> + +<p>"No tricks now! Put 'em up, and quick, or I'll let you have it!"</p> + +<p>Ordinarily Tom Swift was the soul of politeness. But the sight of the +vandal taking the things designed for Mary was too much for his self +control. He "saw red," he afterward told Ned.</p> + +<p>The look of amazement and fear on the man's face would have been +laughable had not the situation been so serious. There was but a moment +of hesitation and then up went the hands.</p> + +<p>"Take his gun away, Ned," ordered Tom, and this was soon done. That +momentary motion of one hand toward the coat pocket had indicated as +plainly as words could have done where the weapon was hidden. It was an +automatic of expensive make, and Tom put it in his own pocket with a +grin of satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"Now we've got you, let's hear your story!" ordered Tom, still +covering the man with his pistol. "What are you doing here?"</p> + +<p>"No-no-nothing," the fellow half stammered. "I just came here to get +out of the rain. I saw this machine on the road, with nobody in it, so +I crawled in. I didn't take anything——"</p> + +<p>"What about these?" and Tom reached one hand into another pocket and +took out the silver articles. "I suppose these grew here?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, those! Well, I didn't think——"</p> + +<p>"And I suppose you and the other man, who's gone to tell the boss, just +thought my car was parked back there for you to run off with. Is that +it?" went on Tom.</p> + +<p>"Oh, so you——"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'm the owner and I know all about you and I've got you dead to +rights!" snapped the young inventor. Part of his statement was true, at +all events. Though he was far from knowing all about the man. Yet he +decided to bluff some more.</p> + +<p>"I know you!" proceeded Tom. "Hanson's your name——"</p> + +<p>"You got me wrong there, chief," said the man, with an uneasy smile. +"Gorro is my name."</p> + +<p>"Gorro, then. I was coming to that!" snapped Tom, carrying out his +bluff. "But even if you aren't Hanson you're in with him and——"</p> + +<p>"No, chief, honest, I don't know Hanson."</p> + +<p>"Who was the fellow who went after the boss?" asked Tom. "You might as +well come through clean, for I'll find out anyhow."</p> + +<p>Whether the fellow saw through Tom's bluff or whether he was just +naturally stubborn did not at once develop. At any rate, a cunning and +ugly light came into the prisoner's eyes and he said:</p> + +<p>"Go ahead then. Find out the best way you can. I'll tell you nothing +and, what's more——"</p> + +<p>The fellow who had admitted his name was Gorro seemed about to shout +and give an alarm, which might have been followed by a reckless attack +on his part against Tom and Ned. But Tom guessed the man's intention +and, stepping closer to him, pressed the automatic against his stomach +and fairly growled out:</p> + +<p>"If I hear so much as a peep from you I'll let you have it!"</p> + +<p>Again Tom Swift was forcing himself to play a part. It is very +doubtful, except to save the lives of himself and Ned, that he would +have pulled the trigger. Yet Gorro undoubtedly thought that such might +happen, for he shrank away and turned pale as he muttered:</p> + +<p>"Don't shoot, chief! But I'm not going to give myself or my pals away."</p> + +<p>"Well, don't try any monkey business then! Don't you make a sound. Now, +Ned, you go through all his pockets while I keep him covered. We'll see +who he is."</p> + +<p>The man did not appear to fear that anything found in his pockets would +disclose anything, for he held his hands high and made no objections as +Ned went through his pockets.</p> + +<p>After taking out the silver toilet articles there was nothing save a +knife, some odds and ends, and a small sum of money. This last Tom told +Ned to put back.</p> + +<p>"Otherwise he might accuse us of having robbed him," said the young +inventor.</p> + +<p>There were no papers to disclose the fellow's identity or throw any +light on who his companion or the mysterious "boss" was. And Gorro +might as well be the captive's name as any other.</p> + +<p>"Sit down!" said Tom, giving the fellow a sudden push to a folding seat +on one wall. "I want to talk to you."</p> + +<p>The action took the man by surprise, and Tom counted on this and also +on the fact that a person standing naturally dominates the one sitting +down. Police chiefs have found this out in questioning criminals.</p> + +<p>But if Tom Swift thought to intimidate this man he was mistaken. Though +Tom and Ned took turns firing questions at him, under the threat of +the revolver, all Gorro would say was that he had seen the stalled car +there and had entered it to get shelter from the storm.</p> + +<p>"You're not telling the truth and you know it!" said Tom sternly. "You +and that other man picked up this car near the old deserted house when +we two were inside. You drove it here, branching off from the main +road, and then you and your pal got out to find out where you were and +how near to the place the boss said he'd meet you. Then you two came +back, your pal went off to find the boss to arrange about going on to +the castle and you came in here. You see I know all about you."</p> + +<p>The man's eyes opened wide at this evidence on Tom's part that he had +overheard some of the talk. Still he refused to answer any questions as +to his own further identity or that of the man who had gone to speak to +the "boss."</p> + +<p>"No use asking me, I won't talk," snarled Gorro, and he relapsed into +sullen silence out of which nothing seemed to stir him. Tom and Ned +were a bit disappointed, but they were rejoiced to recover the House on +Wheels and to have one captive as a result of their work.</p> + +<p>"Though what we're going to do with him is more than I know," +confessed Tom to Ned in a whisper, as they withdrew to the far end of +the compartment and eyed the hangdog prisoner.</p> + +<p>"Tie him up and leave him at the nearest police station," suggested Ned.</p> + +<p>"The trouble is there aren't any police stations around here on Dismal +Mountain," answered Tom. "And I don't like to have him in here with us, +even if he is roped."</p> + +<p>"No, he might get loose while we're asleep and do no end of damage," +agreed Ned. "Well, I suppose the only thing we can do is to read him +the riot act and let him go."</p> + +<p>"Yet I hate to do that," confessed Tom. "He'll only make more trouble +for us as long as we're in this neighborhood."</p> + +<p>"Then you aren't going to clear out once you get started again?" asked +Ned.</p> + +<p>"I am not! I'm going to solve the mystery of this mountain or know the +reason why!" asserted Tom Swift.</p> + +<p>During this talk the prisoner, for such he was though not held in +bonds, seemed to be cocking his ears and listening to something that +was going on outside. For a time Ned and Tom did not notice this, being +too intent on their consultation as to what was best to do.</p> + +<p>But all at once Tom Swift became aware that Gorro, if that was his +name, was listening to something more going on outside than merely the +fall of the rain and the howling of the wind.</p> + +<p>"Look at him, Ned," said Tom in a low voice, indicating, with his eyes, +the prisoner. "What's he up to?"</p> + +<p>Ned looked, but could form no guess. As a matter of fact, Gorro was +still sullenly sitting in the seat to which Tom had pushed him. But +there was a look in his eyes that boded no good.</p> + +<p>"I'll give you one more chance!" said Tom suddenly, more for the sake +of breaking the tenseness than of any hope that it would break down the +fellow's resistance. "Will you tell?"</p> + +<p>"No!" yelled Gorro. "And you won't be here much longer, either!"</p> + +<p>With that he dived off the seat to the floor, where he wriggled along +like some clumsy snake and a moment later before Tom or Ned could stop +him or before Tom could fire, if he wanted to go to that length, the +fellow was out of the front door and rushing away in the darkness.</p> + +<p>At the same moment there was another noise outside and a shout as +though some one had seen Gorro and had hailed him. Ned and Tom did not +doubt that the other man had come back and was taken by surprise to +see his pal thus leap from the House on Wheels they had so daringly +captured.</p> + +<p>"There he goes!" yelled Ned, which was really a useless exclamation, as +Tom could see very plainly what had happened. "After him!"</p> + +<p>"No!" shouted the young inventor, catching hold of Ned, who would have +followed the escaped prisoner. "Let him go! He's met his pal outside +and the other man has a gun. Let him go. Besides, we'd never locate him +in this downpour."</p> + +<p>As he spoke it seemed as if the heavens had opened and let down a flood +of water, so heavily was the rain now beating on the roof and sides of +the House on Wheels.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">SHOTS FROM AMBUSH</p> + + +<p>Standing near the seat where, but a moment before, Gorro had sat +practically at their mercy, Tom Swift and Ned Newton looked at each +other, a little dazed by the suddenness with which it had all happened. +They had been so confident of their prisoner, and now he was gone and +his secret with him. But the situation was not as easy as it appeared +on the surface.</p> + +<p>"Make everything snug!" exclaimed Tom, pulling himself together and +getting ready for action. "Look sharp!"</p> + +<p>"What's the idea?" Ned wanted to know. "Are you going after this +fellow?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed I'm not! But we're going to pull out of here as soon as we can. +I think it isn't a very healthy place. First, though, we've got to make +sure everything is all right, that the engine hasn't been damaged, and +look to make certain we haven't any more stowaways on board. Some one +may be hiding here."</p> + +<p>It did not take long to ascertain that Gorro had been alone in his +short occupancy of the House on Wheels. None other of the gang was in +the place. A test which Tom and Ned then applied to the motor showed +that it was in good working order. The men had run the House a short +distance, but, unless morning should disclose some damage to the +outside of the vehicle, it seemed to be as it was when the two young +men left it to examine the deserted mansion.</p> + +<p>As they hurried to and fro, making ready for a continuation of the +trip, Tom and Ned talked over what had occurred and speculated on what +it all could mean.</p> + +<p>"It sure is mysterious," declared Ned. "They seem to have been waiting +there for you, Tom."</p> + +<p>"Yet that couldn't be, for until I decided to come to Chesterport to +see Mary, not even you knew I contemplated such a trip. As a matter of +fact, I did not contemplate it until then."</p> + +<p>"That's right."</p> + +<p>"And we didn't mention Dismal Mountain to anybody that I know of."</p> + +<p>"We told Mary we were coming here."</p> + +<p>"Yes. But she isn't the kind of girl to broadcast such news. She never +talks of my plans."</p> + +<p>"Her friend, Grace Winthrop, might have," suggested Ned.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! As if either of those girls would be in communication with +Gorro and his gang!" scoffed Tom.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I didn't mean it that way!" Ned made haste to say. "But they might +have been talking our trip over between themselves while downtown +in Chesterport, and some of this gang might have overheard them and +decided it would be a good chance to get a fine new car easily."</p> + +<p>"It's possible, but not very probable," answered Tom.</p> + +<p>"Then there's that fellow," suggested Ned.</p> + +<p>"What fellow?"</p> + +<p>"Floyd Barton—the one who was showing Mary so much attention. She +might have let the object of our trip slip out to Barton and he may +have talked."</p> + +<p>But Tom Swift shook his head.</p> + +<p>"He's one of those rich chaps who don't care about anything but hanging +around girls and having a good time," said the young inventor, and Ned +surmised that there was little love lost between Tom and Floyd Barton.</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe we'll get at the bottom of this some day," went on Ned. +"But those fellows, whoever they were, must have known we were coming +and been on the lookout for us."</p> + +<p>"It seems so," admitted Tom. "And I wonder who the boss is! If we could +put our hands on him we'd have the key to unlock the whole mystery. +But, meanwhile, let's get going."</p> + +<p>"Which way?" asked Ned. "Do you mean to say you're going to keep on in +this storm?"</p> + +<p>"I certainly am!" declared his chum. "The House was built for rough +work, and this will be a good test. Besides, I have an idea that +staying round here isn't going to be exactly healthy. There was another +fellow with Gorro you know, and now that our late prisoner has gotten +away and met him, the two, in conjunction with the unknown boss, may +decide to make another attempt to capture our House."</p> + +<p>"That's so," agreed Ned. "The quicker we get down off Dismal Mountain +the better."</p> + +<p>"Down!" exclaimed Tom in a surprised voice. "I'm going on up!"</p> + +<p>"Up!"</p> + +<p>"Up, yes, to the top."</p> + +<p>"Whew!" whistled Ned.</p> + +<p>"Why, what's wrong with that?" Tom wanted to know. "Isn't that what we +planned to do—cross Dismal Mountain and find out the truth of some of +these weird stories?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—But the danger?"</p> + +<p>"There's more danger trying to turn around and go back down that steep +slope on a dark night and in a pouring rain when the roads may be +washed out than there is in going ahead," said Tom.</p> + +<p>"I can't quite see that," and Ned shrugged his shoulders. "The roads up +ahead may be even worse than those we came up, as far as washouts go."</p> + +<p>"Well, it will be awkward turning around, anyhow," Tom decided. "There +isn't any too much room to maneuver, and it will be safer to go ahead, +I think."</p> + +<p>"Then I'm with you!" declared Ned.</p> + +<p>Switching on the most powerful headlights, Tom Swift looked ahead as +well as he could up the dark and rain-swept road along which he was +soon guiding his vehicle. Back of him Ned was beating up the eggs and +slicing and chopping the ham to make an omelet. Already the delicious +aroma of boiling coffee permeated the House.</p> + +<p>"Grub'll be ready soon now!" called Ned, as he slipped the omelet into +the frying pan.</p> + +<p>"Good for you!" called back Tom from the driver's seat where he was +watching the road. It went on up the mountain in an easy slope and was +a fairly good highway.</p> + +<p>"Going to eat with one hand and drive with the other, or are you coming +back and sit at the table?" asked Ned, when the meal was almost ready.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll slow down and eat properly," Tom replied. "My coffee would +slop all over me if I tried to drink it while going along here."</p> + +<p>A little later Tom came to a wider place in the road. Here he pulled to +the right and, putting on the brakes, but leaving the engine running, +in case they had to get out in a hurry, Tom climbed back and joined his +chum at the table.</p> + +<p>"Not half bad, this, is it?" chuckled the young inventor, having tasted +the omelet.</p> + +<p>"It would be jolly if it didn't storm so," replied Ned, with a little +shiver. "Listen to that rain, would you!"</p> + +<p>It was dashing hard on the roof, sides, and windows of the House on +Wheels.</p> + +<p>"Can't get in, that's one consolation," Tom said. "And I never sleep +better than when I hear rain on the roof."</p> + +<p>"Do you intend to do any sleeping to-night?" Ned wanted to know, as he +filled Tom's coffee cup a second time. "If you do, I'd advise you to +reduce your quantity of coffee."</p> + +<p>"I don't reckon we'll get much sleep to-night," said Tom, and his air +was a bit anxious. "I want to get well away from this place, and if we +do that and keep a lookout the rest of the night, we won't have much +time for enjoying our rest."</p> + +<p>"No, I suppose not," agreed Ned. "Then coffee is the best thing you can +take. It will keep you awake," and he gave himself a second helping.</p> + +<p>Under other circumstances Tom and Ned would have made the occasion of +the night meal in their traveling auto a jolly affair. But now there +was too much to think of. So, when they had satisfied their appetites, +Tom climbed back to the driver's compartment and started the car again, +while Ned cleaned up in the kitchen.</p> + +<p>"Did you hear that?" Tom called to his companion after a period of +silence, broken only by the racket of the wind and rain.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Ned. "Sounded like a shot. What was it?"</p> + +<p>"Thunder. It's beginning to lighten again, and I think we're in for a +worse storm than any we've had yet."</p> + +<p>"Maybe it will be a clearing-up shower," suggested Ned.</p> + +<p>"Hope so," commented Tom.</p> + +<p>He drove on, the lightning flashes coming more vividly and oftener now. +Ned came forward to sit beside his chum, and once, during the period of +a vivid flash, both of them saw something that caused them to start and +Ned to cry:</p> + +<p>"Did you see that man with a gun?"</p> + +<p>"I did!" answered Tom. "Just ahead!"</p> + +<p>The lightning had revealed a sinister face peering out from behind a +bush.</p> + +<p>"Better slow up, hadn't you?" asked Ned, straining his eyes through the +added darkness that followed the flash to get another glimpse of the +armed man.</p> + +<p>"No, I think we'd better hasten on," was Tom's opinion. "He may have +been only a hunter who has lost his way."</p> + +<p>"I hope he isn't hunting us," said Ned grimly.</p> + +<p>There came another flash, but they had gone on past the place where the +man's face had been observed, and no other foes were now revealed by +the glare from the sky.</p> + +<p>"There's one thing we ought to do," said Ned, after the House on Wheels +had rumbled on a little farther, the grade being steeper now.</p> + +<p>"What is it?"</p> + +<p>"Put out those lights back of us. They only show us up to those who may +be watching."</p> + +<p>"That's right," agreed the young inventor. "Go in and douse 'em!"</p> + +<p>At the same time he reached forward and cut the switch that controlled +the illumination of his dashboard. This left the auto with but the +bright headlamps glowing, and they kept any one who might be in front +of the auto from seeing anything of the occupants of the driver's seat.</p> + +<p>In the darkness Ned sat beside his chum. The House on Wheels was being +driven on. Ned was about to ask Tom if he did not want to be relieved +for a while when there came a sudden sharp crack from the bushes on the +left of the road. At first Ned thought it was a preliminary to a burst +of thunder. A moment later he knew it had been a rifle shot.</p> + +<p>Then came several more reports, and one bullet, fired from ambush, +shattered a window back of the two who had dared to try to solve the +mystery of Dismal Mountain.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">PRISONERS</p> + + +<p>"They're firing at us!" cried Ned Newton.</p> + +<p>"Guess there isn't much doubt of that!" was Tom Swift's grim rejoinder. +"Are you hit?"</p> + +<p>"No. Are you?"</p> + +<p>"Not yet, but we both may be if this thing keeps up."</p> + +<p>That the bombardment was going to keep up was evident a moment later +when above the noise of the storm there were other shots and a second +window was shattered.</p> + +<p>"Come on!" cried Tom, and with a quick motion he shut off all lights on +the House on Wheels, leaving it in gloom.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"Get off this seat. We're in too exposed a position here. They're +trying to pick us off!"</p> + +<p>"It sure seems so!" agreed Ned.</p> + +<p>"Follow me before the next lightning flash, or they'll see us," called +Tom into Ned's ear.</p> + +<p>The motor was shut off and the auto stopped. The two slid down off the +driver's seat and plunged into the thick, rain-drenched bushes on the +right of the road.</p> + +<p>"Got your automatic?" panted Tom, as he lunged forward.</p> + +<p>"Sure!"</p> + +<p>"Have it ready."</p> + +<p>"What's the game?"</p> + +<p>"We'll try to spot those fellows who were taking pot shots at us. Maybe +we can do a little potting on our own account."</p> + +<p>"That would suit me," growled Ned.</p> + +<p>Their position was most uncomfortable. Neither had on any protection +from the rain now, for they had taken off their rubber boots and coats +on getting back into the House on Wheels. They had even dived off the +seat without their caps. It was like emerging from the protection of a +comfortable room into the rain-swept open.</p> + +<p>"Good thing we ate when we did, or we'd never have gotten anything," +remarked Tom, as he tramped along beside his chum.</p> + +<p>"That's right. But where are we, anyhow?"</p> + +<p>There was no means of knowing. They were somewhere on the slope of +Dismal Mountain, out in the storm and darkness, seeking unknown enemies +and being sought by them.</p> + +<p>For a little while after leaping from the car the two young men +remained in the vicinity of it. They could see its bulk looming over +the tops of the bushes by the glare of lightning flashes. Taking +advantage of this intermittent light, they now began to circle about, +trying to locate the man or men who had fired at them.</p> + +<p>But the ambuscaders were playing safe, and did not show themselves. Tom +and Ned skirted around, soon becoming soaked to the skin.</p> + +<p>Finally Tom, who was in the lead, saw by one long, bright flash a sort +of shelter where a group of big oaks grew amid some rocks.</p> + +<p>"Let's put in over there," he proposed to Ned. "We'll be a little drier +than out here."</p> + +<p>"Dry!" chuckled Ned good-naturedly. "I'll be wet for a week after this +soaking."</p> + +<p>It was somewhat better in the shelter, and the two adventurers stood +there a few minutes, listening to the storm. Their situation was +anything but safe or comfortable. For it could not be said what moment +they might be seen by their enemies and fired on again.</p> + +<p>Presently, above the racket of the storm, they heard voices in +conversation. Then, during a lull in the outburst of the elements, +several persons could be heard tramping through the underbrush and +approaching the rocks.</p> + +<p>"They're coming!" whispered Ned, grasping his automatic.</p> + +<p>"I think they haven't seen us," murmured Tom. "Keep still. Stoop down +and maybe we can hear what they are saying."</p> + +<p>The men—there appeared to be at least three—approached the outer +circle of rocks in the center of which the two young men were hidden. +Then, as the lull of the storm continued, Tom and Ned, to their +surprise, heard the name Cunningham mentioned.</p> + +<p>"Did you get that?" whispered Ned.</p> + +<p>"Yes," Tom cautiously replied.</p> + +<p>"Wonder if it's the same bird who wanted you to work for him."</p> + +<p>"Might be. Keep quiet and listen."</p> + +<p>What connection Cunningham's name had with the present activities was +not made clear, nor was it spoken again. But one of the men, evidently +more cautious than his companion, said:</p> + +<p>"Don't be so free with names."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" came the question.</p> + +<p>"You never know who may be listening. Those fellows are somewhere in +these woods."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and they'll be here for some time if they depend on that shebang +of theirs to take 'em out," went on another voice.</p> + +<p>Tom and Ned stiffened on hearing this. It seemed to portend something +desperate.</p> + +<p>"Why, did Jerkin drive the car away?" one of the party wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"That's what he did. Those fellows shut off the engine and put out +the lights before they dived off that seat. But they didn't put the +machinery out of business and Jerkin soon had it going again."</p> + +<p>"I'll say they dived off!" chuckled a voice. "I guess we would 'a' done +the same with bullets singing around our ears."</p> + +<p>"Jerkin oughtn't to be so free with his gun," growled a voice that had +not hitherto spoken. "He might have bumped one of them off, and there +wasn't any need of that."</p> + +<p>"The boss said to get that machine by hook or by crook," commented +another. "And I suppose that's what Jerkin was thinking of. But Cun——"</p> + +<p>"Go easy on names!" snarled some one. "I told you before!"</p> + +<p>"It was going to be Cunningham," whispered Ned.</p> + +<p>"Yes," agreed the young inventor. "But what would that Englishman be +doing with this bunch of criminals?"</p> + +<p>"There's no telling. We're getting an earful of more than rain, all +right."</p> + +<p>"Well, there's no use hunting around for those fellows any longer," +said some one. "What with this storm and the dark, we'll never find +'em. I want to get under shelter and have something to eat. It smells +as though they had cooked something in that queer auto of theirs."</p> + +<p>"They did."</p> + +<p>"Well, then I'm going to head for that and get some for myself. Where +is Jerkin going to park it?"</p> + +<p>"At the castle."</p> + +<p>The mention of this name caused Tom to nudge his chum. It was the +second time this place had been spoken of. Evidently it was a +rendezvous for the gang.</p> + +<p>"Well, then it's me for the castle," went on the hungry bandit. "Do you +think Barton will be there?"</p> + +<p>"Who, Floyd? Why he——"</p> + +<p>"Say, will you fellows quit naming names?" snarled out the man who was, +evidently, the most cautious of the party.</p> + +<p>"Oh, there's nobody around to hear," said one of the two who had spoken +the name of the young Chesterport man. "Come on, boys, let's go."</p> + +<p>In the darkness, Tom and Ned sought to look one into the face of the +other. What did this mean—this mentioning not only of the name +of Cunningham but that of Floyd Barton, the rich youth who was so +attentive to Mary Nestor? Surely this mystery was deepening!</p> + +<p>"Worse and more of it!" murmured Ned in Tom's ear, as they heard the +unseen talkers preparing to move away.</p> + +<p>"That's right," agreed the young inventor.</p> + +<p>They waited a little while, the sound of the retreating footsteps +growing fainter, and then, as the lull in the storm still held, Tom and +Ned started out of their hiding place.</p> + +<p>"We've got to head for the castle and get back our machine," stated Tom.</p> + +<p>"Surest thing you know!" agreed Ned.</p> + +<p>They were out from under the clump of trees and in the open when a +brilliant flash of light came. In the glare, the two young men stood +revealed as plain as by day. The lightning glare likewise showed to Tom +and Ned three men not far away.</p> + +<p>"There they are!" one of the trio yelled, pointing to the two.</p> + +<p>"Get 'em!" shouted another.</p> + +<p>"Come on!" cried Tom, and he leaped away, followed by his chum.</p> + +<p>But they were in unknown territory and, blinded by the flash, could not +see where they were going. They reached the edge of a little gully +and, before they could recover their balance, they went plunging down +it, falling and rolling over and over.</p> + +<p>"Come on! Come on!" yelled one of the three men, closely following the +fugitives. "We've got 'em!"</p> + +<p>A moment later they did have them. Taken at a disadvantage, pounced +upon as they rolled, stunned, to the bottom of the gully, unable to use +their weapons, Tom Swift and Ned Newton were quickly made prisoners by +their enemies.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">IN THE CASTLE</p> + + +<p>Stunned and bruised by their unexpected fall into the gully and +manhandled by their captors, Tom Swift and Ned Newton were in a bit of +a daze as they were roughly pulled along. The men—there were at least +four of them now, as two were on each side of the prisoners—walked +their captives down the gulch in the middle of which ran a stream of +water, swollen by the heavy rain.</p> + +<p>One of the four bandits—Tom and Ned mentally called them this—had +a flashlight which he used to pick out the path when the gleams of +lightning failed, as they did every so often.</p> + +<p>"Well, we got 'em both!" chuckled one of the men.</p> + +<p>"And without firing a shot!" added another. "It was easy!"</p> + +<p>"A slick bit of work," put in a third gruff voice. "If——"</p> + +<p>"No names now!" warned the fourth bandit.</p> + +<p>By this time, their spent breath having come back and the cool rain on +their heads having revived them, Tom and Ned were able to realize their +desperate plight, and that it was desperate they had little reason to +doubt.</p> + +<p>Each of them was in the firm grasp of two evil men who, it was evident, +would not hesitate to shoot if need be. But Tom Swift was not one to +endure mistreatment silently. As he walked along he turned to one of +his captors and demanded:</p> + +<p>"What does this mean? Who are you, anyhow, and by what right are you +taking us away?"</p> + +<p>"Keep your shirt on, buddy," responded the man in what, doubtless, he +meant to be a friendly and conciliatory tone. "You'll soon find out +where you're going."</p> + +<p>"And why!" added another, with a chuckle.</p> + +<p>"Look here!" burst out Ned. "Maybe you don't know who we are!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, we know all right, buddy," said the man who had first spoken to +Tom. "It's because you are who you are that we got you."</p> + +<p>"Orders from headquarters," said one who had not yet spoken.</p> + +<p>"Shut up!" some one snarled at him.</p> + +<p>The storm, after that outburst in which so many things had happened, +now appeared to be subsiding. The thunder was not so loud nor the +lightning so glaring and frequent. The rain, too, had slackened.</p> + +<p>"We have a right to know where you are taking us!" fiercely exclaimed +Tom. "If you don't tell us you'll have a fight right here and now!"</p> + +<p>He was prepared to try a sudden pull away from the men that held him, +knowing it would be but a desperate chance, though willing to take it. +But the man on his right warned him:</p> + +<p>"Don't try any rough stuff, buddy. We'll treat you decent as far as we +can, but we got orders to bring you in and we're going to do it. If you +come along peaceable you won't be hurt."</p> + +<p>"Then tell me where we are being taken!" demanded Tom.</p> + +<p>"To the castle, if that means anything to you," replied the man who had +warned against violence.</p> + +<p>They were soon led out of the gully and found themselves on a road, +bordered on each side with trees and bushes. It was evidently the main +highway leading up Dismal Mountain—the same road on which they had +been traveling in the House on Wheels. But what part of it they were +on, they did not know.</p> + +<p>"It ought to be somewhere around here," muttered one of the men, +looking up and down the road.</p> + +<p>"There it is—down by the bend," said another.</p> + +<p>Tom and Ned had a glimpse of a dark shape looming over the tops of +bushes and, for a moment, hoped it was their own car they had been +forced to flee from. But when they got up to it they saw it was an +ordinary auto.</p> + +<p>"Get in!" ordered one of the men, and Tom and his chum, feeling this +was no time to fight, did as they were told. The auto, a big touring +car, held the two prisoners and two guards in the tonneau. The other +two guards mounted to the front seat and they were soon traveling on +in the darkness. The storm was now almost over, though the trees and +bushes still dripped water. What the hour was the two prisoners could +only guess, but it must have been long past midnight.</p> + +<p>On up the dark and muddy road the big touring car was guided. It was so +gloomy that, aside from the fact that there were trees and bushes on +each side of the highway, Tom and Ned could see nothing.</p> + +<p>"How you feeling, Tom?" asked Ned, easing himself in the seat.</p> + +<p>"Pretty rotten!"</p> + +<p>"So do I! But I'm glad we had that ham omelet."</p> + +<p>"So am I!" laughed the young inventor. "But I'd like some dry clothes," +he added.</p> + +<p>"Same here."</p> + +<p>Their captors did not seem to object to their talk, for there was no +command to be silent. Nor, it was evident, did they fear any alarm +being given or pursuit undertaken, since no precautions were taken. +Tom and Ned guessed that the rascals knew they were pretty safe from +disturbance while on Dismal Mountain.</p> + +<p>How far they were driven, the two prisoners did not know. But about +half an hour after they had gotten into the auto it began to slow up +and the reason was evident. They had come to where a private drive led +off from the main highway. It was a drive leading between two great +stone posts which, in their day, must have supported immense iron +gates. But the gates had long since rusted away or been carried away.</p> + +<p>"Is this the entrance to the castle?" asked Tom of the man who had +called him "buddy" several times, though perhaps more out of habit than +affection.</p> + +<p>"This is the shack," was the answer. "You'll get out in a few minutes."</p> + +<p>The drive of the old mansion, which had come to be called a "castle," +was long and winding. But at length it came to an end in a big arc and +at the upper curve stood the old pile of masonry which had started out +to be a wonderful home, only it fell by the wayside.</p> + +<p>No sooner had the car come to a stop on the drive, which was overgrown +with weeds, than a door, in what was evidently an entrance hall, +opened. A man, whom neither Ned nor Tom recognized, stood framed in the +light.</p> + +<p>"Did you get 'em?" asked this man.</p> + +<p>"Sure thing!" answered "Buddy," as Tom and Ned designated the more +friendly of their guards. "Is their machine here?"</p> + +<p>"Rolled in just before you pulled up. Guess it isn't so easy to drive," +remarked the man in the doorway.</p> + +<p>"I hope they haven't damaged my House," murmured Tom, and Ned joined +him in this wish.</p> + +<p>However, just then there was no way of knowing what had happened to +the big car. It was not in sight. In one or two lower windows of the +old half ruined castle lights showed. All the upper windows were in +darkness.</p> + +<p>"Get down, you two!" gruffly ordered one of the guards.</p> + +<p>Tom and Ned, stiff from the wetting they had undergone and sore and +bruised from their fall, alighted.</p> + +<p>"Go on in," was the next command, and they thought it best to obey. A +night's rest, some more food, and a chance to consider their situation +was needed before they could make a break for liberty.</p> + +<p>The two captives found themselves in what had once been a stately +reception hall, but which was now in almost the same state of ruin and +decay as was the old mansion where the young men had first lost their +House on Wheels. However, they had little chance for observation, as +they were fairly rushed out through a rear door, along a dimly lighted +passage, and thrust into a dark room. The door was pulled shut and +locked after them.</p> + +<p>"Look here!" cried Tom angrily. "This is a rotten way to treat even a +dog, and we haven't done anything to you fellows! We want something hot +to drink and some dry clothes."</p> + +<p>"Keep your shirt on, buddy," advised the man on the other side of the +door. "You'll be treated decent—anyhow for a while. I'll see you get +some dry things in a short time."</p> + +<p>He was as good as his word, coming back in about fifteen minutes with +a pile of old but dry and serviceable garments. At the same time he +brought a tray of sandwiches and a pot of hot tea. This last was most +refreshing, and Tom and Ned ate and drank gratefully, once they had +taken off their wet clothes and put on the dry ones.</p> + +<p>By the light of a lantern their guard carried they saw that they were +prisoners in a fairly large stone room containing one window with iron +bars across it. Upon what this window looked they had no means of +guessing in the darkness outside it.</p> + +<p>"Where are we going to sleep?" asked Ned of the man who brought the +food and clothes.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with those bunks?" the man asked, with a chuckle.</p> + +<p>He held his lantern in a dark corner and there, where the prisoners had +not before noticed them, were two cots with pillows and blankets on +them. "Turn in there," was the suggestion, "They're as comfortable as +those in that traveling house of yours, I reckon."</p> + +<p>"Where is my House?" demanded Tom angrily.</p> + +<p>"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies!" replied the man, +though not unkindly. "Better take it easy now."</p> + +<p>With their bodily needs taken care of, Tom and Ned were free to wonder +and speculate on what had happened, what it all meant and what the +future held.</p> + +<p>"But it's all pretty much guess work," said Ned, when they were talking +it over.</p> + +<p>"That's right," agreed Tom. "However, let's get some rest."</p> + +<p>The bunks were comfortable, and in spite of their worry and anxiety +they soon fell asleep.</p> + +<p>The sun was shining in their barred window when they awoke. They had no +sooner opened their eyes than the door was unlocked and a strange man +came in with a tray of breakfast. The coffee smelled most appetizing.</p> + +<p>During the night Tom had had an idea. He determined to try to find out +something he much wanted to know. So, when the guard had set the tray +down and was going out, Tom suddenly shot at him:</p> + +<p>"Tell Basil Cunningham I want to see him at once!"</p> + +<p>"Wha—what's that?" stammered the guard, obviously taken by surprise.</p> + +<p>"I said tell Basil Cunningham I want to see him at once!" snapped out +Tom.</p> + +<p>The man appeared positively terror-stricken and hurried out of the +stone room.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">PLOTS AND PLANS</p> + + +<p>More than anything else on Tom Swift's part, it had been a bluff to +name Cunningham and say he wanted to see him. Still, since the mention +of the Englishman's name and that of Floyd Barton, both Tom and his +chum had felt certain that the two were in some way mixed up in the +queer doings on Dismal Mountain. But Tom had no notion that the mere +mention of the Englishman's name would so startle the guard.</p> + +<p>"Did you see that, Ned?" asked Tom, nodding toward the man who had left +so hurriedly.</p> + +<p>"I sure did. What does it mean?"</p> + +<p>"To my mind it means that Cunningham is a worse rascal than I thought +him, that he is one of the ringleaders of this gang, but that they are +surprised we have guessed it."</p> + +<p>"Looks so. But what are you going to do next?"</p> + +<p>"Eat," was Tom's laconic answer, and he moved toward the breakfast +tray which, to do their captors justice, was bountifully laden and +included a pot of steaming coffee.</p> + +<p>Tom and Ned felt distinctly better after the meal, and they almost +laughed at each other, for they presented a queer appearance in their +borrowed clothes.</p> + +<p>"But we'll have to wear them for some time," Ned remarked. "Our own +were so thoroughly soaked it will take a couple of days to dry them +out."</p> + +<p>"Guess so," commented Tom. "Well, I've been worse off. Did you save +your flashlight?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," and Ned produced it, having slipped it, with some other +possessions, from the pockets of his wet garments when the change was +made the night before. "They got my gun, though."</p> + +<p>"And mine," added Tom. "We'll have to sing small for a time, even if we +manage to escape."</p> + +<p>"Are you going to try that?"</p> + +<p>"I surely am! But not right away. First I want to see what's going on +around this castle."</p> + +<p>They had ample time that day, though not much opportunity, for +observation, since they were not released from the stone room. They +had some relaxation, however, for there was a bathroom connected with +it and they could wash and be comfortable. The man who came to remove +the breakfast tray was not the same one who had brought it in, but Tom +determined to experiment on him. Accordingly the young inventor snapped +out:</p> + +<p>"When is Mr. Basil Cunningham coming to see me?"</p> + +<p>The guard showed no alarm or even interest, merely grunting and +remarking:</p> + +<p>"You'll have to ask somebody else. That isn't in my department."</p> + +<p>"Gosh!" commented Ned, when the fellow had gone. "You'd think this was +a regular business!"</p> + +<p>"I'm beginning to believe it is," was Tom's comment.</p> + +<p>"What, a business place?" asked Ned, in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Yes. Cunningham is a business man, you know, though I don't like his +style. He's clever and I think he has surrounded himself with a bunch +of crooks like himself and is carrying on a regular business in this +old castle."</p> + +<p>"What sort of business?"</p> + +<p>"Come here and take a look," was Tom's reply.</p> + +<p>They could look out of the barred window into a courtyard. In it, +coming and going, were a number of men and auto trucks. The trucks +brought in rather large and heavy boxes. Some of these boxes were taken +on hand trucks into various rooms of the old castle.</p> + +<p>"That's been going on all morning," said Tom. "Once, when you were in +the bathroom washing, I looked out of the grating in the door and I saw +some men passing along the corridor carrying things that must have come +out of the boxes."</p> + +<p>"What sort of things?" Ned wanted to know.</p> + +<p>As if to save Tom the need of answering, one of the boxes being +unloaded from a truck suddenly slipped, fell, and broke open. Out of +it tumbled what Ned recognized as high class scientific instruments, +optical goods, binoculars, telescopes and the like.</p> + +<p>"That's the stuff they're bringing into this castle," said Tom.</p> + +<p>"My word! What for?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"To doctor it up and dispose of it, I believe," Tom replied.</p> + +<p>"But where do they get it? They don't manufacture those things here, do +they?"</p> + +<p>"Not yet. But I think they plan to," said the young inventor. "It was +machinery for turning out such goods that Cunningham wanted me to make +for him. But I saw his object—he wants to infringe on foreign patents. +This stuff costs money, with the duty and royalty that has to be paid, +and if Cunningham could bootleg it, so to speak, he'd get rich."</p> + +<p>"But he seems to be making it," and Ned pointed to where men were +hurriedly gathering up the scattered telescopes and other instruments.</p> + +<p>"No, he didn't make that! He stole it!" exclaimed Tom.</p> + +<p>"Stole it?"</p> + +<p>"Either he or some of his gang," was Tom's answer. "You know some of +those clippings you gave me about Dismal Mountain said that freight and +through express trains were held up and several cases of high grade +electrical, scientific and optical goods were taken."</p> + +<p>"I remember," assented Ned. "I thought at the time that it was pretty +queer stuff for train bandits to take."</p> + +<p>"Well, that's some of the stuff, I believe," went on Tom. "Cunningham +is evidently an expert in this line of goods and he knows how to +handle and dispose of them better than any other stuff that might be +stolen. I think he wanted me to make machinery to turn out tools like +these so he could say, if he were caught, that this old castle was his +manufacturing plant. But his greatest source of goods would be from +robbing trains."</p> + +<p>"It doesn't seem possible!" murmured Ned.</p> + +<p>"I know it. But there are the facts," said Tom, and his chum could but +agree with him.</p> + +<p>For two days Tom and Ned were kept close prisoners in the old stone +room. During this time they discussed many plans and plots for +escaping. None seemed to fit in, however, or else the time was not yet +ripe, so they remained in captivity.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the activity on the part of men bringing in cases of goods +and carrying them along the corridor and past the room where Tom and +Ned were locked kept up night and day. Except for small quantities of +what seemed to be bolts of silk, all the things were optical goods or +machines used by scientists—stuff worth a great deal of money. There +was a hum and buzz of work all through the old castle, but except for +men who came to bring them food, Tom and Ned had no contact with any of +their captors.</p> + +<p>Then, one night, the same guard who had shown perturbation when Tom +first mentioned Cunningham, again brought in the tray of food. It +needed but a glance to show that he had been drinking, and Tom, with a +whisper to Ned, decided the man's befuddled state would afford them a +good opportunity to do some more bluffing.</p> + +<p>So, having inspected the tray, as if to look and see that it contained +all he wanted, Tom stepped toward the man and in stern tones exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Did you give my message to Basil Cunningham?"</p> + +<p>Instead of being alarmed as he had been before, the man leered in his +drunken manner and thickly said:</p> + +<p>"Sure I did!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, did you?" Tom was rather taken aback by this reply.</p> + +<p>"I sure did, and he's coming to see you soon."</p> + +<p>This was more and different news, and Tom and his chum did not know how +to take it. But Tom had another card he wanted to play.</p> + +<p>Stepping toward the fellow the young inventor took him by one shoulder +and, giving him a shake, exclaimed sternly:</p> + +<p>"Never mind about Cunningham! Send Floyd Barton to me!"</p> + +<p>Tom had determined to try the effect of this name.</p> + +<p>To his surprise, it did not upset the man in the least. He leered at +Tom and Ned with drunken gravity and mumbled:</p> + +<p>"Barton's lucky—thash wha' he is! Lucky—hic—dog!"</p> + +<p>"Lucky! What do you mean?" snapped out Tom.</p> + +<p>"Mean he's goin' to marry a fine girl—thash wha' he ish! Lucky dog, +Barton—Lucky—hic—dog!"</p> + +<p>"Who's the girl?" asked Ned, more for the sake of giving his chum a +chance to think up his next verbal attack than for any desire for +information. "Do you know her?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't know her. But I know her name. Name's Mary—thash wha' it +is. Mary—Mary—hic!"</p> + +<p>Even yet the two were not suspicious, and Ned still joked.</p> + +<p>"Mary Hick! That's a queer name," he chuckled.</p> + +<p>"Not Mary Hick—no!" mumbled the half-drunken guard. "Not Mary +Hick—Mary Nestor. Thash who Barton's goin' marry—Mary Nestor—fine +girl—Mary—hic!"</p> + +<p>"What's that?" cried Tom Swift, hardly able to believe his ears. "You +dirty scoundrel, don't you mention her name again! What do you mean +bringing her into this conversation? What has she to do with that sap, +Floyd Barton?"</p> + +<p>"He's sap aw right—sure!" agreed the drunken fellow. "But he's got +money. Goin' to marry fine girl—Mary—hic—no, not Mary Hick—thash +wrong—Mary Nestor!"</p> + +<p>Tom could restrain himself no longer. He stepped back, raised his fist +and was going to let it drive full into the face of the guard when a +sudden interruption came.</p> + +<p>A man with a black handkerchief over the lower part of his face had +entered the stone room, and, as Tom was about to fell the insulting +guard, stepped between the two.</p> + +<p>"You rotten beast!" Tom hissed.</p> + +<p>He was suddenly pulled back by the masked man and swung to one side. +But Tom's blood was up. Nothing could stop him now.</p> + +<p>"Out of my way, you!" he yelled at the man who had hold of him. "Who +are you, anyhow? None of your masked tricks with me! Off with that!"</p> + +<p>Before the man who had stepped between Tom and the guard could put up +his hands to prevent it, Tom had torn off the black handkerchief.</p> + +<p>There, with a startled frown on his beefy red face, stood—Basil +Cunningham!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">THE ESCAPE</p> + + +<p>"Cunningham!" gasped Tom Swift, taken aback as much by the boldness of +the rascal in coming into his presence as by the force the Englishman +had used in swinging him aside. "You—Cunningham!"</p> + +<p>"Yes!" hissed the crook, but he appeared agitated because of having had +his mask torn off. "You made a wrong move that time, Swift!"</p> + +<p>"Wrong move! What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"I mean I came in here only to save this drunken fool from a beating +he well deserves. That has nothing to do with it. If you had kept +your hand to yourself and left my mask alone I would not have minded +so much. But, now that you have found me out, it will go hard with +you—both of you!" and he pointed an accusing finger at Ned.</p> + +<p>"I'm not afraid of you!" blustered the financial manager. "Come on, +Tom!" he yelled. "It's even now! And the other man's fuddled. We can +handle Cunningham!"</p> + +<p>At that moment another guard, attracted by the loud talking, entered +the stone room, and as he was armed with a rifle the odds were too +great to risk a fight.</p> + +<p>"Better not try anything!" snarled Cunningham, putting in his pocket +the black handkerchief Tom had pulled from his face. "Yes, Swift, you +made a wrong move! We might have let you go, but, now that you made me +show myself, it is impossible!"</p> + +<p>"So you're going to keep us here?" inquired Tom.</p> + +<p>"Yes!"</p> + +<p>"It can't be for very long," said the young inventor. "We'll be missed. +My House on Wheels will be traced. It was known we were coming to +Dismal Mountain and searching parties will soon be on our trail."</p> + +<p>"They won't find you!" snapped Cunningham. "You've made your own bed +and now you can sleep in it. Take 'em out!" he ordered another guard +who had joined the one with the rifle. "As for you—drunken fool that +you are—clear out!" and his eyes blazed as he kicked the man who had +blurted out the news of the approaching marriage of Floyd Barton and +Mary Nestor. "Take 'em out!"</p> + +<p>"Where, Boss?" asked one of the sober guards.</p> + +<p>"To the dungeon, of course! Where else?"</p> + +<p>Tom and Ned did not think it wise to put up a fight for, so they +feared, Cunningham, in his rage, might order them shot. So they +accompanied their captors along the corridor and down a flight of steps +to what was evidently the cellar of the castle. A little later they +were shut in another stone room, but smaller and much less desirable +than their former prison. They were, indeed, in a dungeon.</p> + +<p>"Now maybe you'll wish you hadn't been so fresh!" sneered one of the +guards as he departed, locking the door.</p> + +<p>Left to themselves, Ned and Tom looked at each other with somewhat +woebegone and puzzled faces. Their dungeon was dimly lighted and was +damp and depressing. It was almost like a prison cell.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm not going to stay here long!" declared Tom determinedly.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"Get out the first chance I see. This is sure rotten!"</p> + +<p>"It will be if they don't feed us," agreed his chum. But they did not +have to worry long on that score, for presently a man they had not seen +before appeared with a tray of as good food as had before been served +to them. They were hungry and ate heartily. Then they were left alone +and talked matters over.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of that fellow's talk about Mary?" asked Tom. "Think +there was any basis for it?"</p> + +<p>"That drunk seemed to know what he was talking about. But you know Mary +better than I do," answered Ned. "However, I don't believe Mary would +ever consent to marry this Barton."</p> + +<p>"Don't you?" cried Tom, and Ned saw that he caught at this straw.</p> + +<p>"No, I don't. I believe, for reasons of his own, Barton has been +telling that story and he's circulated it among these men, hoping it +would reach you and break down your nerve!"</p> + +<p>"It shan't!" cried Tom.</p> + +<p>"No! Don't let it!" urged Ned. "It's a dirty, rotten game, Tom. They're +trying to get your nerve!"</p> + +<p>"That's it—a game!" cried Tom Swift, with new energy. "Well, they'll +find that two can play at it! I'm out for revenge now, and when I meet +Barton——"</p> + +<p>"I hope I'll be there to see the fight!" chuckled Ned.</p> + +<p>However, if Tom and Ned hoped for any immediate change in their +captivity, they were disappointed. For three days they remained in +close confinement, and when meals were brought there were always two +guards, one with a gun and the other with a tray, so there was no +chance for a surprise attack.</p> + +<p>Not giving up easily, though, Tom and Ned tried to escape from the +small stone room at night. They took a fork and spoon from one of their +trays, and with these simple implements tried to loosen some of the +window bars.</p> + +<p>At first they thought they were going to succeed, for they dug out some +mortar. But it was only to find under the mortar that the bars were set +in lead upon which their tools made no impression. So they had to give +that up.</p> + +<p>They were below the level of the ground, there being a little dug-out +area upon which the only window in their cell opened. So they could see +nothing of what went on in the courtyard on which they judged their +prison room faced, for they could hear trucks coming and going and the +murmur of many voices.</p> + +<p>"Well, if we can't leave by the window we must try the door," said Tom, +when they had been locked up a week. They still had the spoon and fork +and hoped to be able to pick the lock. But a few trials convinced them +that it was too strong.</p> + +<p>Then, unexpectedly, their chance came. The same guard, again drunk, +who had blurted out the gossip concerning Mary and Barton came in with +a tray of food for their supper, and in a flash Tom and Ned saw that he +was alone.</p> + +<p>For once the cunning of their captors had slipped!</p> + +<p>"We'll get him this time, Ned!" whispered Tom, and his chum understood.</p> + +<p>Smiling with drunken vacuity, the guard had unlocked the door. The tray +was heavy and he had had to set it down on a stool outside to do this +and use both hands in carrying it into the cell.</p> + +<p>"Now!" cried Tom suddenly, and he and Ned threw themselves on the +unsuspecting fellow. Before he could utter a cry Tom clapped his hand +over the guard's mouth and while he got a knee into the small of his +back, Ned bound the struggling hands.</p> + +<p>In a trice they had wound strips torn from their bed clothes around the +man's ankles and improvised a gag which effectually silenced him. Then +they trussed him up so he could not move and, having taken from his +pockets a bunch of keys and a pistol, they were ready for their long +deferred escape.</p> + +<p>"Talk about luck!" panted Ned, for the capture had not been easy in +spite of the fellow's drunken condition.</p> + +<p>"We're not out of the woods just yet," cautioned Tom.</p> + +<p>"Well, let's get out of this dungeon for a start," proposed Ned.</p> + +<p>Then, having shoved the trussed guard under one of the cots, they +arranged the clothes on both of them to make it appear that the +prisoners were sleeping after their meal, and, having gone out by the +door, they locked their gagged guard within and stole swiftly down the +corridor.</p> + +<p>They had to proceed cautiously, for they were unfamiliar with the +interior of the castle and did not know at what moment they might run +into Cunningham or some of his men. So they paused at every turn to +look about them before advancing.</p> + +<p>Twice, as they did this, they saw forms or heard through the gloom +approaching voices and footsteps, and had to hurry back and secrete +themselves. But at length they made their way up a flight of stairs, +the same ones down which they had been taken after the exposure of +Cunningham's masked face. They were now on the ground floor of the +castle, where they had first been imprisoned.</p> + +<p>It was night, and only a few dim lights here and there in the long, +deserted corridors showed them which way to go. They did not know what +turns to take. Any moment might send them stumbling upon a band of +their enemies.</p> + +<p>They conversed in whispers, went a little way down one passage, only to +find that it ended against a blank wall, returned to try another with +like poor results. They wanted to get out into the open, to find the +House on Wheels if possible, and escape in that. But luck seemed to be +against them.</p> + +<p>They wandered about, several times having to take refuge behind piles +of débris to escape groups of men. Presently they saw a light at one +end of a long corridor. Stealing toward it, they found that the light +came from an open room, whence proceeded the murmur of many voices. +Adjoining the large room, in which several men were gathered, was a +smaller apartment, a storage place, evidently.</p> + +<p>"Come in here!" whispered Tom to his chum, and they slipped in not a +second too soon, for Cunningham strode down the hall and entered the +main, lighted room where a conference seemed to be going on.</p> + +<p>Then, hidden in the small room and listening at a ventilator +communicating with the other apartment, Tom and Ned heard enough talk +to make clear to them the nature of the business carried on in the old +castle.</p> + +<p>As Tom had suspected, Cunningham was a rascally but talented +manufacturer of fine optical and scientific machines and instruments. +He had failed in doing a legitimate business and had turned to crooked +ways.</p> + +<p>As the talk went on, Tom saw why he had been approached to make +machinery and tools for turning out illegal goods. It was because +Cunningham wanted to sell them at an enormous profit, not having to +pay any patent royalties. Owing to Tom's refusal, and because of his +inability to get other firms to make any machines, Cunningham had taken +to stealing shipments of goods from large manufacturing concerns. He +had allied himself with a band of train robbers who, departing from the +usual holding up of pay and express cars, were looting fast freights. +Sometimes the trains were held up by means of false signals and again +cars on sidings were broken into and the cases stolen and brought to +the castle for distribution among fences, as dealers in thieves' loot +are called.</p> + +<p>Cunningham was doing some manufacturing in the castle, it became known +to Tom and Ned as they listened, and this branch would have been +gone into on a larger scale had Tom consented to make the necessary +machinery.</p> + +<p>Then, unexpectedly, the two heard some startling news. Floyd Barton was +Cunningham's nephew and the young man who had danced so often with +Mary Nestor was using part of his wealth in the illegal manufacture of +patented goods. Whether Barton was present at the conference, Tom and +Ned could not discover, for though they could hear the talk they could +not see the speakers.</p> + +<p>"Well, we've found out all we want to know, Ned," remarked Tom, as they +got down off the box on which they had been standing to bring their +ears nearer the ventilator.</p> + +<p>"I should say so! Why, this Cunningham is nothing but what you said he +was—a crook!"</p> + +<p>"And those with him are just plain thieves!" said Tom. "Well, we've got +enough evidence to jail the lot of them."</p> + +<p>"Including Barton!" said Ned.</p> + +<p>"Yes, including Barton!"</p> + +<p>"But first we've got to get out of here," went on Ned. "Come on, before +that meeting breaks up," and he nodded toward the other room.</p> + +<p>He and Tom came out of their hiding place and, as they did so, Ned +saw, lying on a ledge, an automatic pistol. With an exclamation of +satisfaction, he picked it up, ascertained that the magazine was +filled, and put it in his pocket. Tom had the one taken from the guard.</p> + +<p>"We've got to work fast!" Tom whispered to his chum, as they went back +along the corridor. "Try the first window you come to and we'll light +out!"</p> + +<p>"This looks like a good one," said Ned, indicating a casement which, +they could see by looking out, was not far from the ground. "Come on!"</p> + +<p>As Ned threw one leg over the sill and Tom was in readiness to follow, +they heard a noise behind them and saw Cunningham running toward them.</p> + +<p>"Guards! Guards!" yelled the Englishman. "The prisoners are escaping! +Help me!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">SETTING THE TRAP</p> + + +<p>Just for an instant Ned Newton hesitated. It was a critical moment.</p> + +<p>"Go on! Go on!" Tom Swift frantically yelled to his chum. "Don't stop +now!"</p> + +<p>"He may shoot!" objected Ned, who was in no position to assume the +offensive, though both he and Tom were now armed.</p> + +<p>"No, he won't!" Tom exclaimed. "He's only bluffing! A coward! Go on! +I'm right with you!"</p> + +<p>"Here goes then!" and Ned, ignoring the frantic shouts of Basil +Cunningham, leaped from the window. It was a little higher up from +the ground than he had thought and his fall rather jarred him. But he +rolled over to be out of the way when Tom jumped.</p> + +<p>The young inventor, after a glance back over his shoulder, which showed +that Cunningham was without a visible weapon, leaped over the window +sill and joined his chum below. Tom managed to keep his feet in his +leap. In the old castle, and as he leaned out of the window, Cunningham +continued to shout:</p> + +<p>"The prisoners! They're escaping! Where are those confounded guards?"</p> + +<p>The whole place was aroused now and other voices could be heard +mingling with those of the Englishman in excited shouts. Evidently, +those who had been present at the conference of which Tom and Ned had +overheard so much, were now joining, or getting ready to join, the +pursuit.</p> + +<p>Lights flashed in many windows that had hitherto been in darkness. +There was the sound of running feet and the clank of metal as though +the guards were arming themselves with swords instead of rifles and +automatic pistols.</p> + +<p>Ned got to his feet, to find Tom at his side. The young inventor +grasped his chum's arm, holding his automatic in his other hand, and +gasped:</p> + +<p>"Come on! Run for it! It's now or never!"</p> + +<p>"But which way shall we run?" asked Ned. "I'm all turned around!"</p> + +<p>It was no wonder. The night was dark and the weird ruin of a castle +stood out in uncanny relief with lights in many windows. Tom and Ned +had leaped from a window at the rear of the place, a view of the castle +which they had never had before. So they were a bit confused.</p> + +<p>"The main gate is around the other side!" panted Ned, as he ran on +beside Tom.</p> + +<p>"Never mind that. There must be a back way out, and I think it will be +healthier for us to take that than the front way. They'll be sure to be +laying for us there."</p> + +<p>"Guess that's true!" muttered Ned.</p> + +<p>The eyes of the escaped prisoners were now becoming accustomed to the +darkness all about them, for they had come from comparatively well +illuminated corridors into the pitch black night, and this is always +confusing. They had a dim vision of a wall or a fence at the rear of +the castle. It was probably a continuation of the fence in front, with +its ornate and massive pillars, though the front gate was gone.</p> + +<p>"If only the back gate is in the same condition we may be in luck," Tom +remarked as they ran on.</p> + +<p>They looked back for just a moment and saw several figures leap from +the same window out of which they had jumped. Framed in the light, +these pursuers were easily visible.</p> + +<p>Suddenly there was a sliver of flame in the darkness at the rear of +the castle. A sharp report followed and then the whine of a bullet over +the heads of the two fugitives.</p> + +<p>"Hot stuff, Tom!" muttered Ned.</p> + +<p>"They mean business!" assented the young inventor. "But we've got an +answer ready!"</p> + +<p>He turned quickly and fired at random, purposely aiming over the top of +a dark patch that seemed to be composed of smaller patches. That it was +a group of bandits summoned by Cunningham, Tom did not doubt.</p> + +<p>There was a momentary halt on the part of the pursuers at this evidence +of preparedness on the part of the late prisoners. But another bullet +came whining its vicious song over the heads of the two young men. When +Ned would have turned and fired, Tom called:</p> + +<p>"Save your cartridges! We may need 'em later! Isn't that a gate just +ahead?"</p> + +<p>He pointed to where the fence seemed to have a break in it.</p> + +<p>"It's a gate, all right," Ned answered. "But closed."</p> + +<p>"And with a man on guard!" added Tom, as they drew closer and saw a +figure emerge from some bushes to confront them. That it was a guard +was evident a moment later, for he stepped across the path to bar the +progress of Tom and Ned and was bringing a rifle to the ready as he +growled:</p> + +<p>"Get back there! Nobody allowed out of this gate without the boss says +so! Get back!"</p> + +<p>"Get back yourself!" snarled Tom, and as he spoke he fired, but aiming +over the guard's hat. So close was the bullet, though, that the fellow +dropped his gun in mortal terror and yelled:</p> + +<p>"I'm through!"</p> + +<p>Away he sped in the darkness.</p> + +<p>"The fates grant that he didn't take the keys with him!" murmured Tom, +as he and Ned ran on toward the gates which they could make out more +plainly now.</p> + +<p>"It isn't likely they're locked if a man was on guard," suggested Ned, +and so it proved. The rusty iron gates swung under the vigorous pushes +of the two, and a moment later they found themselves out in the road, +while behind them could be heard the confused shouts of their pursuers.</p> + +<p>"Oh, for a car now!" cried Tom.</p> + +<p>He and Ned were running down the road, not knowing and little caring in +what direction, so long as they were leaving the castle and its bandits +behind them. As they swung around a corner, where the road widened, Ned +saw a deeper patch of blackness and, pointing to it, gave a cry of joy.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" demanded Tom Swift.</p> + +<p>"The House on Wheels!" yelled Ned.</p> + +<p>A moment later the fugitives came to where their vehicle was parked +beside the road. It was in darkness and there seemed to be no life +about it. Hesitating only a moment, to make sure of this, Ned and Tom +approached. In their hearts they were hoping that the machine would not +be in the possession of the enemy.</p> + +<p>It did not seem to be. They were not challenged as they leaped to the +driver's seat, and in a moment Tom had switched on the lights.</p> + +<p>"We're in luck, Ned!" he yelled, as a glance at the various gages +showed that there was plenty of oil and gas. "Now if they haven't put +it on the blink, well let them have a look at our tail light in about +two seconds!"</p> + +<p>The self-starter hummed. There was a responding roar from the powerful +motor, and in another instant Tom Swift was heading his machine down +the mountain at ever increasing speed.</p> + +<p>There had been several days of dry weather following the storm, and the +dust of the highway reflected the headlights well so that driving was +comparatively easy. The speed increased so that Ned called out:</p> + +<p>"Aren't you hitting it up pretty fast, Tom?"</p> + +<p>"Got to!" was the grim answer. "They're coming after us! Listen!"</p> + +<p>He slowed for a second, silencing his engine a bit, and from behind +came the roaring exhaust of another car.</p> + +<p>"They've got to go some to get me now!" exulted Tom. "We're on a down +grade, and as soon as the motor warms up I'll show them what my House +on Wheels can do!"</p> + +<p>Faster and faster they sped down the winding road in the darkness. The +hand on the speedometer went to 25 to 30, and then on past 35. When it +got to 45 Ned looked at Tom and took a tighter grip of the seat rail.</p> + +<p>"Will she stand it, Tom?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"We'll soon find out!" was the laconic reply.</p> + +<p>On toward 50 the hand was moving, and soon it had passed that figure. +Then it was 55! Still Tom Swift did not take his foot off the +accelerator.</p> + +<p>"Whew!" whistled Ned. "She's doing better than sixty miles an hour, +Tom!"</p> + +<p>"That's nothing—downhill!" was the response. But 60 seemed enough, +and at that speed—terrific when the size of the machine was +considered—Tom held the road wonderfully well. There was no longer the +sound of pursuit.</p> + +<p>"I guess they saw our tail light and gave up!" chuckled Tom. "We're +well out of that!"</p> + +<p>"What's the next move?" Ned asked.</p> + +<p>"Stop at the nearest place where there are police and give the alarm!" +snapped Tom. "I'm not going to let Cunningham get away with the stuff +he's trying to pull."</p> + +<p>They went on for several miles at this high speed, and then, when faint +dawn was rosily tinting the east, they came down off Dismal Mountain to +a level road and, inquiring of a passing truckman, learned the location +of the headquarters of the nearest State Police.</p> + +<p>"So that's the secret of Dismal Mountain, is it?" asked a rather sleepy +sergeant who had been on duty all night. Tom and Ned had gasped out +their story, touching only the high spots of their capture and escape. +"Road agents, train robbers, and bandits hanging out in the castle, +eh?" went on the officer.</p> + +<p>"Will you look after 'em?" asked Tom, leaving the station to get into +his House on Wheels again.</p> + +<p>"I sure will, Mr. Swift. And thanks a lot for the tip. I'll spread a +net for these scoundrels. Dismal Mountain is going to lose its secret +and its mystery. Luckily, there aren't many roads leading down from it. +I'll have every one covered. Those fellows will walk right into my +trap, and those that don't come down—well, we'll go up and get 'em!" +he finished, with a grim laugh.</p> + +<p>He hurried inside to send out a general alarm and Tom kept on toward +the House on Wheels.</p> + +<p>"Where to now?" asked Ned.</p> + +<p>"To Chesterport," Tom answered. But there was no enthusiasm in his +voice. Ned could guess why. The gossip Tom had heard about Mary Nestor +and Floyd Barton was eating at his heart like a canker.</p> + +<p>The sun was scarcely above the horizon when Tom and Ned, leaving to +the State Police the work of rounding up the bandits in Cunningham's +gang, rolled in the House on Wheels up in front of the Winthrop home. +There was no stopping now blocks away for fear of wounding the social +sensibilities of Mrs. Winthrop.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">JUST IN TIME</p> + + +<p>Though it was very early, one of the men about the Winthrop place was +already astir, preparing to wash down the front porch with a hose. Tom, +followed by Ned, strode up the front walk, and the man, staring at the +big House on Wheels which had stopped at the front curb, looked in +surprise at the two rather unkempt and disheveled early morning callers.</p> + +<p>"I'm Mr. Swift," Tom explained, smiling at the man.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! Excuse me, sir! I didn't recognize you. I remember now! You +were here at the house party given for Miss Nestor. Of course! I didn't +know you—in—er——"</p> + +<p>"These clothes!" finished Tom, with a laugh. "I don't blame you." He +and Ned still wore the old garments that had been given in exchange +for their own more fashionable attire. Doubtless some of the bandits +retained the new suits.</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course, Mr. Swift," murmured the man. "Will you come in? It's +a little bit early, but——"</p> + +<p>"Is Miss Nestor up yet?" asked Tom, and a moment later he realized what +a foolish question it was. It was barely six o'clock, and of course +none of the household would be up.</p> + +<p>"No, sir," the man replied. "Miss Nestor isn't here now."</p> + +<p>"She isn't? Where is she?" demanded Tom, a strange feeling around his +heart.</p> + +<p>"She and Miss Winthrop and several other guests went on a houseboat +trip with Mr. Barton down the river two days ago."</p> + +<p>"With Mr. Barton?" Tom fairly shouted.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. He has a large houseboat. It was quite a party. But they are +expected back to-day."</p> + +<p>"What time?"</p> + +<p>"About noon, I think, sir."</p> + +<p>"Where will the houseboat dock?"</p> + +<p>"Down the river," and the man mentioned a certain dock.</p> + +<p>"Thanks," said Tom, as he turned away.</p> + +<p>"Depend upon it, Tom," asseverated Ned stoutly, "Mary doesn't know +Barton's character or she wouldn't even dance with him, let alone going +off on houseboat parties."</p> + +<p>"That remains to be seen," and Tom's voice had a bitter tone in it. +"That remains to be seen."</p> + +<p>"Where are you going?" asked Ned as he climbed up to the seat beside +his chum.</p> + +<p>"Down to the dock to wait for the arrival of that houseboat. We'll park +there, get something to eat, and freshen up a bit. I want to have a +little conversation with Mr. Floyd Barton."</p> + +<p>Ned could guess the interview would not be exactly pleasant for Mr. +Floyd Barton, and he smiled grimly.</p> + +<p>It was so early that the passage of the big auto through the streets of +Chesterport attracted little attention this time. The dock was found +without difficulty, and in a vacant space near the river Tom parked his +House on Wheels. Then he and Ned got breakfast, of which they stood in +considerable need.</p> + +<p>A hasty inspection of the auto showed that though the bandits had used +it roughly, no material damage was done. A thorough cleaning would put +it in shape again. There was considerable mud about, showing that it +had been run in the rain after Tom and Ned had fled from it.</p> + +<p>A bath, a change to fresh clothes, bought as soon as the stores +were opened, and a rest soon repaired some of the ravages of the +imprisonment that showed on the two young men. Then they took their +ease in the House on Wheels while waiting for the boat to come back +with the merry party of young folks. It seemed a long while, but it was +scarcely noon when a whistle was heard and Ned, looking out, announced:</p> + +<p>"Here she comes!"</p> + +<p>Tom roused himself, squared his shoulders, and began to walk toward the +dock where some hands were making ready to moor the pleasure craft.</p> + +<p>Ned followed. He wanted to see all that should take place.</p> + +<p>"Wonder if the State Police will get Cunningham and his gang," mused +Ned, as they stood on the dock waiting for the boat to be made fast.</p> + +<p>"They will, sooner or later," said Tom. "Just now I'm more interested +in the nephew than I am in that beefy Englishman."</p> + +<p>The houseboat came to a squeaking stop at the end of the dock, and when +the gangplank was in place several laughing, and evidently happy, young +men and women began to disembark. Tom watched closely but did not see +Mary and Barton. A frown came over his face as he moved quickly down +the dock, followed by Ned.</p> + +<p>Then Grace Winthrop, surrounded by a group of admirers, came off.</p> + +<p>"It was a wonderful party!" said one girl.</p> + +<p>"Just wonderful!" agreed Grace. "I hope you liked it, Aunt Mary," she +said to an elderly relative who had gone along as a chaperone.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, it was nice," was the reply. "But it was a bit damp."</p> + +<p>"Always is on the water! Ha! Ha!" chuckled a youth clad in a very gay +sweater. Then Grace caught sight of Tom and Ned.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Swift! So glad to see you!" she cried. "Mr. Barton tried to +get word to you and Mr. Newton to come on our excursion, but Mary said +he couldn't reach you. She said you'd gone to Dismal Mountain. Did you +go there?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Tom, shaking hands, "I did. Where is Mary now?" he +asked, scarcely able to restrain his impatience.</p> + +<p>"Oh, she and Mr. Barton must be down in the cabin yet," was the answer. +"I thought she came off, but she evidently remained to——"</p> + +<p>Tom Swift did not stop to hear the remainder of the sentence. He strode +aboard the boat, made his way toward the cabin, but halted outside the +door at the sight of two figures in the room. Ned could look over his +chum's shoulder and see Mary with Floyd Barton standing close to her. +The approach of the recent prisoners was so silent that the two in the +cabin had not heard them.</p> + +<p>"Now, Mary, why can't you be nice to me?" Floyd was saying, as his arm +went toward the girl who seemed to shrink away from him. "I gave you a +nice time, didn't I?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Barton, it was a lovely party."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you call me Floyd?"</p> + +<p>"I—I scarcely know you well enough." Mary's voice was low and she +seemed in distress. Her back was toward Tom and Ned.</p> + +<p>"You'll soon get to know me better," went on Barton boldly. "I'm very +fond of you, Mary. Why are you so cold and distant? Now you and I—" He +almost had his arm around her now.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Barton, stop! Stand away from me!" exclaimed Mary.</p> + +<p>Tom Swift made a jump into the cabin and, with a hand on Barton's +shoulder, swung that surprised youth about.</p> + +<p>"You dirty dog!" cried Tom, almost beside himself with rage. "I've +found you out just in time!"</p> + +<p>He gave Barton a shove which would have floored that young man had not +Ned caught and held him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Tom!" cried Mary, and, holding out her hands she was soon clasped +in Tom Swift's willing arms. "Oh, Tom! I'm so glad you came! He—he——"</p> + +<p>A look of disgust came over her face as she looked at Barton.</p> + +<p>"He won't annoy you again," said Tom grimly.</p> + +<p>But now Barton had recovered his poise and, pulling away from Ned, +demanded:</p> + +<p>"What does this mean? How dare you come aboard my boat without an +invitation? Who are you, anyhow—Oh, it's Swift and partner!" he added +with a sneer, as he recognized the twain.</p> + +<p>"Swift and partner!" chuckled Ned. "And the partner's name isn't Slow, +either," he added, as, putting out a hand, he caught Barton as the +latter was about to leave. Perhaps the rascal suspected something of +what was in the wind.</p> + +<p>"What does this mean? Let me go! You have no right here!" stormed +Barton.</p> + +<p>Mary soon recovered from the upset caused by Barton's advances and +stood beside Tom Swift. By this time the high voices from the cabin had +attracted the attention of several of the houseboat party, and they +turned back to see what the trouble was.</p> + +<p>"Let me go!" snarled Barton to Ned. "If you don't——"</p> + +<p>He made as if to strike Ned, but the latter, drawing his automatic said +calmly:</p> + +<p>"Now take it easy! You can't get away any more than that rascally uncle +of yours can."</p> + +<p>"My uncle! Is he——"</p> + +<p>"By this time Mr. Cunningham and his gang of bandits in the castle are +under arrest," said Ned, though as a matter of fact he did not know +this. "The game is up, Barton!" he added grimly. "Ask Tom Swift if it +isn't."</p> + +<p>Tom, a happy smile on his lips as he stood beside Mary, nodded in +affirmation. A desperate look came over Floyd Barton's face. He glanced +about wildly as if for a way of escape. Then he suddenly pulled loose +from Ned, but as he was about to run from the cabin he found himself in +the arms of a burly dock officer who demanded:</p> + +<p>"What's the row about? And why have you that gun?" he asked of Ned a +bit sternly.</p> + +<p>"Because I don't want that criminal to escape!" was Ned's answer.</p> + +<p>"Criminal! Mr. Barton a criminal?" came in a startled chorus from many +of the late houseboat party.</p> + +<p>"A criminal!" said Tom Swift calmly but firmly. "A partner with his +rascally uncle, Basil Cunningham, in the illegal operations on Dismal +Mountain. I am Tom Swift, and Ned Newton and I have just escaped from +that mountain of mystery. The criminals up there captured us and my +House on Wheels. They held Ned and me prisoners and we overheard enough +of their plots to send them all to jail. They're under arrest now," +he added, giving more details and particulars of what had happened on +Dismal Mountain. "And you'll be under arrest too, very shortly, Floyd +Barton," concluded Tom.</p> + +<p>"He may consider himself under arrest now," announced the dock man. +"I'm a special officer and I'll take him into custody."</p> + +<p>"You can't! You haven't a warrant!" stormed Floyd.</p> + +<p>"I'll hold you until Mr. Swift can swear a warrant out," said the +special officer, who knew and disliked Floyd Barton. "Come on now! Will +you go peaceably or do you want the bracelets?" and from a pocket he +took out shining handcuffs.</p> + +<p>"All right!" said Barton, with a scowl at Tom Swift. "You win!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">WEDDING BELLS</p> + + +<p>Such excitement as this had never before been known among the circles +in which Grace Winthrop and her friends moved.</p> + +<p>"Mother will be furious at me for ever having had Mr. Barton in the +house," said Mary to her friends.</p> + +<p>"It wasn't your fault," they told her. "How could you know he was such +a rascal?"</p> + +<p>"I couldn't! Oh, isn't it perfectly terrible!"</p> + +<p>"Terrible!" echoed the girls.</p> + +<p>"Rather jolly fun, I call it!" chuckled the young man in the violently +colored sweater. "It makes a bit of excitement."</p> + +<p>If the truth be known, the girls may have felt the same way about it, +only they were not honest enough to acknowledge it.</p> + +<p>While Ned left with the special officer to see that Floyd Barton was +locked up, pending formal charges that would be filed against him, Tom +and Mary went to the House on Wheels to be by themselves.</p> + +<p>"Tell your mother I'll be along soon, Grace," was Mary's message to her +relative.</p> + +<p>"Take your time!" and Grace's voice had a mischievous ring in it.</p> + +<p>With much buzzing talk the party left the houseboat, having enough +news, with what was to follow, to keep gossip busy for months. Tom and +Mary entered the little living room of the House on Wheels.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Tom," said Mary again, "I'm so glad you came when you did! It was +providential!"</p> + +<p>"If I had been a little longer, would I have been too late?" asked Tom, +with a smile, as he sat down beside the girl.</p> + +<p>"Too late for what?"</p> + +<p>"Too late to ask you to marry me at once and have done with all this +worry?"</p> + +<p>"Why Tom! Marry you at once? Oh—Tom—I—I——"</p> + +<p>"Well, I heard, while I was held a prisoner in the castle, that you +were soon going to marry Barton. And so——"</p> + +<p>"Going to marry <i>him</i>! Oh, never, Tom! <i>Never!</i> Of course he was very +nice to me at first—but——"</p> + +<p>"But what?" asked Tom, as she hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Well—I—er—I——"</p> + +<p>When Tom and Mary came out of the House on Wheels a little later he had +made certain of what he had suspected a long time, that Mary Nestor was +worth to him more than all else in the world.</p> + +<p>When Tom and Mary arrived at the Winthrop house some time afterward, +they found a message from the State Police, announcing that Cunningham +and his gang had fairly run into the net spread about Dismal Mountain +for them, and with the exception of a few unimportant men, all were +captured.</p> + +<p>When Floyd Barton, who had been lodged in jail, heard this news, +brought to him by Ned who went back to the castle to look things over, +the young man caved in and made a complete confession. He was more +a tool of his rascally uncle than anything else, but his money had +furnished working capital for the bandits.</p> + +<p>Floyd had been particularly struck by Mary's charm and had conducted +a rushing campaign to make her capitulate to him. For a time, she +afterward confessed to Tom, she had been fascinated by him. But his +true character was soon apparent.</p> + +<p>Thus the mystery of Dismal Mountain was cleared up. A search of the +castle revealed not only much loot, besides the valuable instruments, +but also machinery for turning out more. It had been Cunningham's +intention to set up the machinery he had hoped to have Tom Swift +make for him in this same castle and go into the illegal instrument +manufacturing business on a large scale. But with the rounding-up of +the gang, all these plans came to an end.</p> + +<p>It was also discovered that many of the weird and ghostlike +manifestations seen on Dismal Mountain were caused by the Cunningham +gang with the object of keeping people away. Only Tom Swift's whimsical +decision to investigate the place brought the tricks to light.</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess it's all settled," Tom announced to Ned one day, when +they had been guests at the Winthrop home for some days after all the +rascals were sent to prison.</p> + +<p>"What's all settled?" Ned wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"My wedding plans. Mary and I are going on our honeymoon in the House +on Wheels."</p> + +<p>"What did I tell you?" chuckled Ned. "I knew, as soon as you began to +build it, that you'd use it for that."</p> + +<p>"Only at one time," commented Tom, with a laugh, "it began to look as +if nobody but Cunningham would use it."</p> + +<p>"That's right," assented Ned.</p> + +<p>It developed that after Tom's refusal to have anything to do with +him, Cunningham had his men shadow Tom and, when the House on Wheels +was headed for Dismal Mountain plans were made to capture it and the +occupants. How well these plans succeeded, Tom Swift was in a position +to know.</p> + +<p>Three weeks after the round-up of the gang there was a beautiful +ceremony in the Union Church of Shopton. As the wedding bells pealed +forth their joyous music, Ned Newton and Helen Morton, who had been +Mary's and Tom's attendants, marched down the aisle behind the happy +couple.</p> + +<p>"Don't they sound nice?" said Ned to Helen.</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"Those wedding bells! I hope they'll soon be ringing for us, Helen!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, behave yourself, Ned Newton," was all she said. "This is no time +to talk about such things!"</p> + +<p>As Tom marched out of the church amid a shower of rice and old shoes +he saw in the crowd waiting to greet him many old and new friends. His +father was there, with Mrs. Baggert, the faithful housekeeper.</p> + +<p>"Long life and happiness to you and your sweet bride, Tom!" called the +old lady.</p> + +<p>"Thanks!" murmured the young groom.</p> + +<p>"Dat's whut I say!" echoed Eradicate. "An' I's gwine to lib wif Massa +Tom an' Miss Mary when dey sot up housekeepin'!" declared the old Negro.</p> + +<p>"Bless my pocketbook!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, who, of course, was among +the guests. "Tom Swift getting married! My! My!"</p> + +<p>"Well, what's wrong with that?" asked Mr. Jackson.</p> + +<p>"Why, it means the end of his wonderful inventions!"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! Nothing of the sort!" declared the shop manager. "Tom Swift +will never stop inventing. I shouldn't wonder, now that he's married, +but what he'll do the best work of his life."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Mr. Damon dryly, "that remains to be seen."</p> + +<p>Then, amid the continued ringing of the wedding bells, Tom Swift and +his bride went on their honeymoon trip in the House on Wheels.</p> + + +<p class="ph3">THE END</p> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<p class="ph2">BOOKS FOR BOYS</p> + +<p class="ph2">By VICTOR APPLETON</p> + +<p class="ph3">12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">THE TOM SWIFT SERIES</p> + + +<p class="ph3">TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTORCYCLE<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR BOAT<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRSHIP<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RUNABOUT<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIRELESS MESSAGE<br> +TOM SWIFT AMONG THE DIAMOND MAKERS<br> +TOM SWIFT IN THE CAVES OF ICE<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS SKY RACER<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RIFLE<br> +TOM SWIFT IN THE CITY OF GOLD<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR GLIDER<br> +TOM SWIFT IN CAPTIVITY<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIZARD CAMERA<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT SEARCHLIGHT<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT CANNON<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHOTO TELEPHONE<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIG TUNNEL<br> +TOM SWIFT IN THE LAND OF WONDERS<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS WAR TANK<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH<br> +TOM SWIFT AMONG THE FIRE FIGHTERS<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLYING BOAT<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT OIL GUSHER<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS CHEST OF SECRETS<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRLINE EXPRESS<br> +TOM SWIFT CIRCLING THE GLOBE<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS TALKING PICTURES<br> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS HOUSE ON WHEELS</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">THE DON STURDY SERIES</p> + + +<p class="ph3">DON STURDY ON THE DESERT OF MYSTERY<br> +DON STURDY WITH THE BIG SNAKE HUNTERS<br> +DON STURDY IN THE TOMBS OF GOLD<br> +DON STURDY ACROSS THE NORTH POLE<br> +DON STURDY IN THE LAND OF VOLCANOES<br> +DON STURDY IN THE PORT OF LOST SHIPS<br> +DON STURDY AMONG THE GORILLAS<br> +DON STURDY CAPTURED BY HEAD HUNTERS<br> +DON STURDY IN LION LAND</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York</p> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75322 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/75322-h/images/cover.jpg b/75322-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..83af746 --- /dev/null +++ b/75322-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/75322-h/images/illus.jpg b/75322-h/images/illus.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..233b37f --- /dev/null +++ b/75322-h/images/illus.jpg diff --git a/75322-h/images/illusc.jpg b/75322-h/images/illusc.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c67e717 --- /dev/null +++ b/75322-h/images/illusc.jpg |
