Tom Swift & His Aerial Warship(汤姆·史威夫特和他的空战)
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2024-12-26
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TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP
1
TOM SWIFT AND HIS
AERIAL WARSHIP
(or The Naval Terror of the Seas)
VICTOR APPLETON
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP
2
CHAPTER I
TOM IS PUZZLED
"What's the matter, Tom? You look rather blue!"
"Blue! Say, Ned, I'd turn red, green, yellow, or any other color of the
rainbow, if I thought it would help matters any."
"Whew!"
Ned Newton, the chum and companion of Tom Swift, gave vent to a
whistle of surprise, as he gazed at the young fellow sitting opposite him,
near a bench covered with strange-looking tools and machinery, while
blueprints and drawings were scattered about.
Ranged on the sides of the room were models of many queer craft,
most of them flying machines of one sort or another, while through the
open door that led into a large shed could be seen the outlines of a speedy
monoplane. "As bad as that, eh, Tom?" went on Ned. "I thought
something was up when I first came in, but, if you'll excuse a second
mention of the color scheme, I should say it was blue--decidedly blue. You
look as though you had lost your last friend, and I want to assure you that
if you do feel that way, it's dead wrong. There's myself, for one, and I'm
sure Mr. Damon--"
"Bless my gasoline tank!" exclaimed Tom, with a laugh, in imitation of
the gentleman Ned Newton had mentioned, "I know that! I'm not worrying
over the loss of any friends."
"And there are Eradicate, and Koku, the giant, just to mention a couple
of others," went on Ned, with a smile.
"That's enough!" exclaimed Tom. "It isn't that, I tell you."
"Well, what is it then? Here I go and get a half-holiday off from the
bank, and just at the busiest time, too, to come and see you, and I find you
in a brown study, looking as blue as indigo, and maybe you're all yellow
inside from a bilious attack, for all I know."
"Quite a combination of colors," admitted Tom. "But it isn't what you
think. It's just that I'm puzzled, Ned."
"Puzzled?" and Ned raised his eyebrows to indicate how surprised he
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP
3
was that anything should puzzle his friend.
"Yes, genuinely puzzled."
"Has anything gone wrong?" Ned asked. "No one is trying to take any
of your pet inventions away from you, is there?"
"No, not exactly that, though it is about one of my inventions I am
puzzled. I guess I haven't shown you my very latest; have I, Ned?"
"Well, I don't know, Tom. Time was when I could keep track of you
and your inventions, but that was in your early days, when you started
with a motorcycle and were glad enough to have a motorboat. But, since
you've taken to aerial navigation and submarine work, not to mention one
or two other lines of activity, I give up. I don't know where to look next,
Tom, for something new."
"Well, this isn't so very new," went on the young inventor, for Tom
Swift had designed and patented many new machines of the air, earth and
water. "I'm just trying to work out some new problems in aerial navigation,
Ned," he went on.
"I thought there weren't any more," spoke Ned, soberly enough.
"Come, now, none of that!" exclaimed Tom, with a laugh. "Why, the
surface of aerial navigation has only been scratched. The science is far
from being understood, or even made safe, not to say perfected, as water
and land travel have been. There's lots of chance yet."
"And you're working on something new?" asked Ned, as he looked
around the shop where he and Tom were sitting. As the young bank
employee had said, he had come away from the institution that afternoon
to have a little holiday with his chum, but Tom, seated in the midst of his
inventions, seemed little inclined to jollity.
Through the open windows came the hum of distant machinery, for
Tom Swift and his father were the heads of a company founded to
manufacture and market their many inventions, and about their home were
grouped several buildings. From a small plant the business had grown to
be a great tree, under the direction of Tom and his father.
"Yes, I'm working on something new," admitted Tom, after a moment
of silence.
"And, Ned," he went on, "there's no reason why you shouldn't see it.
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP
4
I've been keeping it a bit secret, until I had it a little further advanced, but
I've got to a point now where I'm stuck, and perhaps it will do me good to
talk to someone about it."
"Not to talk to me, though, I'm afraid. What I don't know about
machinery, Tom, would fill a great many books. I don't see how I can help
you," and Ned laughed.
"Well, perhaps you can, just the same, though you may not know a lot
of technical things about machines. It sometimes helps me just to tell my
troubles to a disinterested person, and hear him ask questions. I've got dad
half distracted trying to solve the problem, so I've had to let up on him for
a while. Come on out and see what you make of it."
"Sure, Tom, anything to oblige. If you want me to sit in front of your
photo-telephone, and have my picture taken, I'm agreeable, even if you
shoot off a flashlight at my ear. Or, if you want me to see how long I can
stay under water without breathing I'll try that, too, provided you don't
leave me under too long, lead the way--I'm agreeable as far as I'm able,
old man."
"Oh, it isn't anything like that," Tom answered with a laugh. "I might
as well give you a few hints, so you'll know what I'm driving at. Then I'll
take you out and show it to you."
"What is it--air, earth or water?" asked Ned Newton, for he knew his
chum's activities led along all three lines.
"This happens to be air."
"A new balloon?"
"Something like that. I call it my aerial warship, though."
"Aerial warship, Tom! That sounds rather dangerous!"
"It will be dangerous, too, if I can get it to work. That's what it's
intended for."
"But a warship of the air!" cried Ned. "You can't mean it. A warship
carries guns, mortars, bombs, and--"
"Yes, I know," interrupted Tom, "and I appreciate all that when I called
my newest craft an aerial warship."
"But," objected Ned, "an aircraft that will carry big guns will be so
large that--"
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP
5
"Oh, mine is large enough," Tom broke in.
"Then it's finished!" cried Ned eagerly, for he was much interested in
his chum's inventions.
"Well, not exactly," Tom said. "But what I was going to tell you was
that all guns are not necessarily large. You can get big results with small
guns and projectiles now, for high-powered explosives come in small
packages. So it isn't altogether a question of carrying a certain amount of
weight. Of course, an aerial warship will have to be big, for it will have to
carry extra machinery to give it extra speed, and it will have to carry a
certain armament, and a large crew will be needed. So, as I said, it will
need to be large. But that problem isn't worrying me."
"Well, what is it, then?" asked Ned.
"It's the recoil," said Tom, with a gesture of despair.
"The recoil?" questioned Ned, wonderingly.
"Yes, from the guns, you know. I haven't been able to overcome that,
and, until I do, I'm afraid my latest invention will be a failure."
Ned shook his head.
"I'm afraid I can't help you any," he said. "The only thing I know about
recoils is connected with an old shotgun my father used to own.
"I took that once, when he didn't know it," Ned proceeded. "It was
pretty heavily loaded, for the crows had been having fun in our cornfield,
and dad had been shooting at them. This time I thought I'd take a chance.
"Well, I fired the gun. But it must have had a double charge in it and
been rusted at that. All I know is that after I pulled the trigger I thought the
end of the world had come. I heard a clap of thunder, and then I went
flying over backward into a blackberry patch."
"That was the recoil," said Tom.
"The what?" asked Ned.
"The recoil. The recoil of the gun knocked you over.
"Oh, yes," observed Ned, rubbing his shoulder in a reflective sort of
way. "I always thought it was something like that. But, at the time I put it
down to an explosion, and let it go at that."
"No, it wasn't an explosion, properly speaking," said Tom. "You see,
when powder explodes, in a gun, or otherwise, its force is exerted in all
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP
6
directions, up, down and every way.
"This went mostly backward--in my direction," said Ned ruefully.
"You only thought so," returned Tom. "Most of the power went out in
front, to force out the shot. Part of it, of course, was exerted on the barrel
of the gun--that was sideways--but the strength of the steel held it in. And
part of the force went backward against your shoulder. That part was the
recoil, and it is the recoil of the guns I figure on putting aboard my aerial
warship that is giving me such trouble."
"Is that what makes you look so blue?" asked Ned.
"That's it. I can't seem to find a way by which to take up the recoil, and
the force of it, from all the guns I want to carry, will just about tear my
ship to pieces, I figure."
"Then you haven't actually tried it out yet?" asked Ned.
"Not the guns, no. I have the warship of the air nearly done, but I've
worked out on paper the problem of the guns far enough so that I know
I'm up against it. It can't be done, and an aerial warship without guns
wouldn't be worth much, I'm afraid."
"I suppose not," agreed Ned. "And is it only the recoil that is bothering
you?"
"Mostly. But come, take a look at my latest pet," and Tom arose to lead
the way to another shed, a large one in the distance, toward which he
waved his hand to indicate to his chum that there was housed the
wonderful invention.
The two chums crossed the yard, threading their way through the
various buildings, until they stood in front of the structure to which Tom
had called attention.
"It's in here," he said. "I don't mind admitting that I'm quite proud of it,
Ned; that is, proud as far as I've gone. But the gun business sure has me
worried. I'm going to talk it off on you. Hello!" cried Tom suddenly, as he
put a key in the complicated lock on the door, "someone has been in here.
I wonder who it is?"
Ned was a little startled at the look on Tom s face and the sound of
alarm in his chum's voice.
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP
7
CHAPTER II
A FIRE ALARM
Tom Swift quickly opened the door of the big shed. It was built to
house a dirigible balloon, or airship of some sort. Ned could easily tell that
from his knowledge of Tom's previous inventions.
"Something wrong?" asked the young bank clerk.
"I don't know," returned Tom, and then as he looked inside the place,
he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh, it's you, is it, Koku?" he asked, as a veritable giant of a man came
forward.
"Yes, master, it is only Koku and your father," spoke the big chap, with
rather a strange accent.
"Oh, is my father here?" asked Tom. "I was wondering who had
opened the door of this shed."
"Yes, Tom," responded the elder Swift, coming up to them, "I had a
new idea in regard to some of those side guy wires, and I wanted to try it
out. I brought Koku with me to use his strength on some of them."
"That's all right, Dad. Ned and I came out to wrestle with that recoil
problem again. I want to try some guns on the craft soon, but--"
"You'd better not, Tom," warned his father. "It will never work, I tell
you. You can't expect to take up quick-firing guns and bombs in an airship,
and have them work properly. Better give it up."
"I never will. I'll make it work, Dad!"
"I don't believe you will, Tom. This time you have bitten off more than
you can chew, to use a homely but expressive statement."
"Well, Dad, we'll see," began Tom easily. "There she is, Ned," he went
on. "Now, if you'll come around here
But Tom never finished that sentence, for at that moment there came
running into the airship shed an elderly, short, stout, fussy gentleman,
followed by an aged colored man. Both of them seemed very much
excited.
"Bless my socks, Tom!" cried the short, stout man. "There sure is
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP
8
trouble!"
"I should say So, Massa Tom!" added the colored man. "I done did
prognosticate dat some day de combustible material of which dat shed am
composed would conflaggrate--"
"What's the matter?" interrupted Tom, jumping forward. "Speak out!
Eradicate! Mr. Damon, what is it?"
"The red shed!" cried the short little man. "The red shed, Tom
"It's on fire!" yelled the colored man.
"Great thunderclaps!" cried Tom. "Come on --everybody on the job!"
he yelled. "Koku, pull the alarm! If that red shed goes--"
Instantly the place was in confusion. Tom and Ned, looking from a
window of the hangar, saw a billow of black smoke roll across the yard.
But already the private fire bell was clanging out its warning. And, while
the work of fighting the flames is under way, I will halt the progress of this
story long enough to give my new readers a little idea of who Tom Swift is,
so they may read this book more intelligently. Those of you who have
perused the previous volumes may skip this part.
Tom Swift, though rather young in years, was an inventor of note. His
tastes and talents were developed along the line of machinery and
locomotion. Motorcycles, automobiles, motorboats, submarine craft, and,
latest of all, craft of the air, had occupied the attention of Tom Swift and
his father for some years.
Mr. Swift was a widower, and lived with Tom, his only son, in the
village of Shopton, New York State. Mrs. Baggert kept house for them,
and an aged colored man, Eradicate Sampson, with his mule, Boomerang,
did "odd jobs" about the Shopton home and factories.
Among Tom's friends was a Mr. Wakefield Damon, from a nearby
village. Mr. Damon was always blessing something, from his hat to his
shoes, a harmless sort of habit that seemed to afford him much comfort.
Then there was Ned Newton, a boyhood chum of Tom's, who worked in
the Shopton bank. I will just mention Mary Nestor, a young lady of
Shopton, in whom Tom was more than ordinarily interested. I have spoken
of Koku, the giant. He really was a giant of a man, of enormous strength,
and was one of two whom Tom had brought with him from a strange land
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP
9
where Tom was held captive for a time. You may read about it in a book
devoted to those adventures.
Tom took Koku into his service, somewhat to the dismay of Eradicate,
who was desperately jealous. But poor Eradicate was getting old, and
could not do as much as he thought he could. So, in a great measure, Koku
replaced him, and Tom found much use for the giant's strength.
Tom had begun his inventive work when, some years before this story
opens, he had bargained for Mr. Damon's motorcycle, after that machine
had shot its owner into a tree. Mr. Damon was, naturally, perhaps, much
disgusted, and sold the affair cheap. Tom repaired it, made some
improvements, and, in the first volume of this series, entitled "Tom Swift
and His Motorcycles," you may read of his rather thrilling adventures on
his speedy road-steed.
From then on Tom had passed a busy life, making many machines and
having some thrilling times with them. Just previous to the opening of this
story Tom had made a peculiar instrument, described in the volume
entitled "Tom Swift and His Photo- Telephone." With that a person talking
could not only see the features of the person with whom he was
conversing, but, by means of a selenium plate and a sort of camera, a
permanent picture could be taken of the person at either end of the wire.
By means of this invention Tom had been able to make a picture that
had saved a fortune. But Tom did not stop there. With him to invent was as
natural and necessary as breathing. He simply could not stop it. And so we
find him now about to show to his chum, Ned Newton, his latest patent, an
aerial warship, which, however, was not the success Tom had hoped for.
But just at present other matters than the warship were in Tom's mind.
The red shed was on fire.
That mere statement might not mean anything special to the ordinary
person, but to Tom, his father, and those who knew about his shops, it
meant much.
"The red shed!" Tom cried. "We mustn't let that get the best of us!
Everybody at work! Father, not you, though. You mustn't excite yourself!"
Even in the midst of the alarm Tom thought of his father, for the aged
man had a weak heart, and had on one occasion nearly expired, being
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP
10
saved just in time by the arrival of a doctor, whom Tom brought to the
scene after a wonderful race through the air.
"But, Tom, I can help," objected the aged inventor.
"Now, you just take care of yourself, Father!" Tom cried. "There are
enough of us to look after this fire, I think."
"But, Tom, it--it's the red shed!" gasped Mr. Swift.
"I realize that, Dad. But it can't have much of a start yet. Is the alarm
ringing, Koku?"
"Yes, Master," replied the giant, in correct but stilted English. "I have
set the indicator to signal the alarm in every shop on the premises."
"That's right." Tom sprang toward the door. "Eradicate!" he called.
"Yais, sah! Heah I is!" answered the colored man. "I'll go git mah mule,
Boomerang, right away, an' he--"
"Don't you bring Boomerang on the scene!" Tom yelled. "When I want
that shed kicked apart I can do it better than by using a mule's heels. And
you know you can't do a thing with Boomerang when he sees fire."
"Now dat's so, Massa Tom. But I could put blinkers on him, an'--"
"No, you let Boomerang stay where he is. Come on, Ned. We'll see
what we can do. Mr. Damon--"
"Yes, Tom, I'm right here," answered the peculiar man, for he had
come over from his home in Waterford to pay a visit to his friends, Tom
and Mr. Swift. "I'll do anything I can to help you, Tom, bless my necktie!"
he went on. "Only say the word!"
"We've got to get some of the stuff out of the place!" Tom cried. "We
may be able to save it, but I can't take a chance on putting out the fire and
letting some of the things in there go up in smoke. Come on!"
Those in the shed where was housed what Tom hoped would prove to
be a successful aerial warship rushed to the open. From the other shops
and buildings nearby were pouring men and boys, for the Swift plant
employed a number of hands now.
Above the shouts and yells, above the crackle of flames, could be
heard the clanging of the alarm bell, set ringing by Koku, who had pulled
the signal in the airship shed. From there it had gone to every building in
the plant, being relayed by the telephone operator, whose duty it was to
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TOMSWIFTANDHISAERIALWARSHIP1TOMSWIFTANDHISAERIALWARSHIP(orTheNavalTerroroftheSeas)VICTORAPPLETONTOMSWIFTANDHISAERIALWARSHIP2CHAPTERITOMISPUZZLED"What'sthematter,Tom?Youlookratherblue!""Blue!Say,Ned,I'dturnred,green,yellow,oranyothercoloroftherainbow,ifIthoughtitwouldhelpmattersany.""Whew!"NedNewton,...
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