Tom Swift and His Giant Cannon | Page 7

family, and was often at Tom's home, coming from the neighboring town of Waterford, where he lived.
Tom had been back some time now from working for the government in detecting the smugglers, but, as you may well suppose, he had not been idle. Inventing a number of small things, including useful articles for the house, was a sort of recreation for him, but his mind was busy on one great scheme, which I will tell you about in due time.
Among other things he had just perfected a new style of magneto for one of his airships. The magneto, as you know, is a sort of small dynamo, that supplies the necessary spark to the cylinder, to explode the mixture of air and gasoline vapor. He was trying out this magneto in the Humming Bird when the accident I have related in the first chapter occurred.
"There! He's coming to!" exclaimed Mrs. Baggert, as she leaned over Tom, who was stretched out on the sofa in the library. "Give him another smell of this ammonia," she went on, handing the bottle to Mr. Swift.
"No--no," faintly murmured Tom, opening his eyes. "I--I've had enough of that, if you please! I'm all right."
"Are you sure, Tom?" asked his father. "Aren't you hurt anywhere?"
"Not a bit, Dad! It was foolish of me to go off that way; but I couldn't seem to help it. It all got black in front of me, and-- well, I just keeled over."
"I should say you did," spoke Mr. Peterson.
"An' ef he hadn't a-been there to cotch yo' all," put in Eradicate, "yo' all suah would hab hit de ground mighty hard."
"That's two services he did for me today," said Tom, as he managed to sit up. "Cutting that wire--well, it saved my life, that's certain."
"I believe you, Tom," said Mr. Swift, solemnly, and he held out his hand to his old mining partner.
"Do you need the doctor?" asked Mr. Damon, who was at the telephone. "He says he'll come right over--I can get him in Tom's electric runabout, if you say so. He's on the wire now."
"No, I don't need him," replied the young inventor. "Thank him just the same. It was only an ordinary faint, caused by the slight electrical shocks, and by getting a bit nervous, I guess. I'm all right--see," and he proved it by standing up.
"He's ail right--don't come, doctor," said Mr. Damon into the telephone. "Bless my keyring!" he exclaimed, "but that was a strenuous time!"
"I've been in some tight places before," went on Tom, as he sat down in an easy chair, "and I've had any number of shocks when I've been experimenting, but this was a sort of double combination, and it sure had me guessing. But I'm feeling better every minute."
"A cup of hot tea will do you good," said motherly Mrs. Baggert, as she bustled out of the room. "I'll make it for you."
"You cut that wire as neatly as any lineman could," went on Tom, glancing from Mr. Peterson out of the window to where one of his workmen was repairing the break. "When I flew over it in my airship I never gave a thought to the trailer from my wireless outfit. The first I knew I was caught back, and then pulled down to the balloon shed roof, for I tilted the deflecting rudder by mistake.
"But, Mr. Peterson," Tom went on, "I haven't seen you in some time. Anything new on, that brings you here?" for the fortune- hunter had called at the Swift house after Tom had gone out to the shop to get his airship ready for the flight to try the magneto.
"Well, Tom, I have something rather new on," replied Mr. Peterson. "I hoped to interest your father in it, but he doesn't seem to care to take a chance. It's a lost opal mine on a little- known island in the Caribbean Sea not far from the city of Colon. I say not far--by that I mean about twenty miles. But your father doesn't want to invest, say, ten thousand dollars in it, though I can almost guarantee that he'll get five times that sum back. So, as long as he doesn't feel that he can help me out, I guess I'd better be traveling on."
"Hold on! Wait a minute. Don't be in a hurry," said Mr. Swift.
Mr. Peterson was an old friend, and when he and Mr. Swift were young men they had prospected and grub-staked together. But Mr. Swift soon gave that up to devote his time to his inventions, while Mr. Peterson became a sort of rolling stone.
He was a good man, but somewhat visionary, and a bit inclined to "take chances"--such as looking for lost treasure--rather than to devote himself to some steady employment. The result was that he