Tom Swift and His Airship | Page 6

low voice. "Don't take any of
his guff!"
"I don't intend to," spluttered Andy. "Maybe you did beat me in the

races, because my motor wasn't working right," he conceded, "but you
can't do it again. Anyhow, that's got nothing to do with an airship. I'll
bet you can't make one!"
"I don't bet," replied Tom calmly, "but if you wait a few weeks you'll
see me in an airship, and then, if you want to race the Red Streak
against that, I'll accommodate you. Or, if you want to enter into a
competition to build a dirigible balloon or an aeroplane I'm willing."
"Huh! Think you're smart, don't you? Just because you helped save that
balloonist from being killed when his balloon caught fire," went on
Andy, for want of something better to say. "But you'll never build an
airship!"
"Of course he won't!" added Sam and Pete, bound to side with their
crony, to whom they were indebted for many automobile and
motor-boat rides.
"Just wait," advised Tom, with a tantalizing smile. "Meanwhile, if you
want to try the Red Streak against the Arrow, I'm willing. I have an
hour or so to spare."
"Aw, keep still!" muttered Andy, much discomfited, for the defeat of
his speedy boat, by a much smaller and less powerful one, was a sore
point with him. "You just wait, that's all. I'll get even with you!"
"Look here!" cried Tom, suddenly. "You always say that whenever I
get the best of you. I'm sick of hearing it. I consider that a threat, and I
don't like it. If you don't look out, Andy Foger, you'll have trouble with
me, and at no very distant date!"
Tom, with flashing eyes, and clenched fists, took a step forward. Andy
shrank back.
"Don't be afraid of him," advised Sam. "We'll stand by you, Andy."
"I ain't afraid," muttered the red-haired lad, but it was noticed that he
shuffled off. " You just wait, I'll fix you," he added to Tom. The bully

was plainly in a rage.
The young inventor was about to reply, and, possibly would have made
a more substantial rejoinder to Andy than mere words, when the gate
opened, and Mr. Sharp stepped out.
"The fumes have all cleared away, Tom," he said. "We can go in the
shop, now."
Without further notice of Andy Foger, Tom Swift turned aside, and
followed the aeronaut into the enclosed yard.
Chapter 2
- Ned Sees Mysterious Men

"Who were those fellows?" asked the balloonist, of his companion.
"Oh, some chaps who think we'll never build our airship, Mr. Sharp.
Andy Foger, and his crowd."
"Well, we'll show them whether we will or not," rejoined the man. "I've
just thought of one point where we made a mistake. Your father
suggested it to me. We need a needle valve in the gas tank. Then we
can control the flow of vapor better."
"Of course!" cried Tom. "Why didn't I think of that? Let's try it." And
the pair hurried into the machine shop, eager to make another test,
which they hoped would be more successful.
The young inventor, for Tom Swift was entitled to that title, having
patented several machines, lived with his father, Barton Swift, on the
outskirts of the small town of Shopton, in New York State. Mr. Swift
was quite wealthy, having amassed a considerable fortune from several
of his patents, as he was also an inventor. Tom's mother had been dead
since he was a small child, and Mrs. Baggert kept house for the
widower and his son. There was also, in their household, an aged

engineer, named Garret Jackson, who attended to the engine and boilers
that operated machinery and apparatus in several small shops that
surrounded the Swift homestead; for Mr. Swift did most of his work at
home.
As related in the first volume of this series, entitled "Tom Swift and His
Motor-Cycle," the lad had passed through some strenuous adventures.
A syndicate of rich men, disappointed in a turbine motor they had
acquired from a certain inventor, hired a gang of scoundrels to get
possession of a turbine Mr. Swift had invented. Just before they made
the attempt, however, Tom became possessed of a motor-cycle. It had
belonged to a wealthy man, Mr. Wakefield Damon, of Waterford, near
Lake Carlopa, which body of water adjoined the town of Shopton; but
Mr. Damon had two accidents with the machine, and sold it to Tom
cheap. Tom was riding his motorcycle to Albany, to deliver his father's
model of the turbine motor to a lawyer, in order to get a patent on it,
when he was attacked by the gang of bad men. These included
Ferguson Appleson, Anson Morse, Wilson Featherton, alias Simpson,
Jake Burke, alias Happy Harry, who sometimes masqueraded