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The Floating Press - Victor Appleton

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133 pages

English

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Tom Swift and His Aerial Warship is the 18th book in the original Tom Swift series. "Every boy possesses some form of inventive genius. Tom Swift is a bright, ingenious boy and his inventions and adventures make the most interesting kind of reading." "These spirited tales convey in a realistic way, the wonderful advances in land and sea locomotion and other successful inventions. Stories like these are impressed upon the memory and their reading is productive only of good." This series of adventure novels starring the genius boy inventor Tom Swift falls into the genre of "invention fiction" or "Edisonade".

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Children's

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Publié par	The Floating Press
Date de parution	01 janvier 2009
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781775413042
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0164€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP
OR, THE NAVAL TERROR OF THE SEAS
* * *
VICTOR APPLETON

*

Tom Swift and His Aerial Warship Or, The Naval Terror of the Seas First published in 1915.
ISBN 978-1-775413-04-2
© 2008 THE FLOATING PRESS.
While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike.
Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
*
Chapter I - Tom is Puzzled Chapter II - A Fire Alarm Chapter III - A Desperate Battle Chapter IV - Suspicions Chapter V - A Queer Stranger Chapter VI - The Aerial Warship Chapter VII - Warnings Chapter VIII - A Suspected Plot Chapter IX - The Recoil Check Chapter X - The New Men Chapter XI - A Day Off Chapter XII - A Night Alarm Chapter XIII - The Capture Chapter XIV - The First Flight Chapter XV - In Danger Chapter XVI - Tom is Worried Chapter XVII - An Ocean Flight Chapter XVIII - In a Storm Chapter XIX - Queer Happenings Chapter XX - The Stowaways Chapter XXI - Prisoners Chapter XXII - Apprehensions Chapter XXIII - Across the Sea Chapter XXIV - The Lightning Bolt Chapter XXV - Freedom
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 othercolor of the rainbow, if I thought it would help matters any."
"Whew!"
Ned Newton, the chum and companion of Tom Swift, gave vent to awhistle of surprise, as he gazed at the young fellow sittingopposite him, near a bench covered with strange-looking tools andmachinery, while blueprints and drawings were scattered about.
Ranged on the sides of the room were models of many queercraft, most of them flying machines of one sort or another, whilethrough the open door that led into a large shed could be seenthe outlines of a speedy monoplane.
"As bad as that, eh, Tom?" went on Ned. "I thought somethingwas up when I first came in, but, if you'll excuse a secondmention of the color scheme, I should say it was blue—decidedlyblue. You look as though you had lost your last friend, and Iwant 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, inimitation of the gentleman Ned Newton had mentioned, "I knowthat! I'm not worrying over the loss of any friends."
"And there are Eradicate, and Koku, the giant, just to mentiona 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 offfrom the bank, and just at the busiest time, too, to come and seeyou, 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 allI know."
"Quite a combination of colors," admitted Tom. "But it isn'twhat you think. It's just that I'm puzzled, Ned."
"Puzzled?" and Ned raised his eyebrows to indicate howsurprised he was that anything should puzzle his friend.
"Yes, genuinely puzzled."
"Has anything gone wrong?" Ned asked. "No one is trying to takeany of your pet inventions away from you, is there?"
"No, not exactly that, though it is about one of my inventionsI 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 ofyou and your inventions, but that was in your early days, whenyou started with a motorcycle and were glad enough to have amotorboat. But, since you've taken to aerial navigation andsubmarine 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, forTom Swift had designed and patented many new machines of the air,earth and water. "I'm just trying to work out some new problemsin 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. Thescience is far from being understood, or even made safe, not tosay perfected, as water and land travel have been. There's lotsof chance yet."
"And you're working on something new?" asked Ned, as he lookedaround the shop where he and Tom were sitting. As the young bankemployee had said, he had come away from the institution thatafternoon to have a little holiday with his chum, but Tom, seatedin the midst of his inventions, seemed little inclined to jollity.
Through the open windows came the hum of distant machinery, forTom Swift and his father were the heads of a company founded tomanufacture and market their many inventions, and about theirhome were grouped several buildings. From a small plant thebusiness had grown to be a great tree, under the direction of Tomand his father.
"Yes, I'm working on something new," admitted Tom, after amoment of silence.
"And, Ned," he went on, "there's no reason why you shouldn'tsee it. I've been keeping it a bit secret, until I had it alittle further advanced, but I've got to a point now where I'mstuck, and perhaps it will do me good to talk to someone aboutit."
"Not to talk to me, though, I'm afraid. What I don't know aboutmachinery, Tom, would fill a great many books. I don't see how Ican help you," and Ned laughed.
"Well, perhaps you can, just the same, though you may not knowa lot of technical things about machines. It sometimes helps mejust to tell my troubles to a disinterested person, and hear himask questions. I've got dad half distracted trying to solve theproblem, so I've had to let up on him for a while. Come on outand see what you make of it."
"Sure, Tom, anything to oblige. If you want me to sit in frontof your photo-telephone, and have my picture taken, I'magreeable, even if you shoot off a flashlight at my ear. Or, ifyou want me to see how long I can stay under water withoutbreathing I'll try that, too, provided you don't leave me undertoo long, lead the way—I'm agreeable as far as I'm able, oldman."
"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'mdriving at. Then I'll take you out and show it to you."
"What is it—air, earth or water?" asked Ned Newton, for heknew 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'swhat it's intended for."
"But a warship of the air!" cried Ned. "You can't mean it. Awarship carries guns, mortars, bombs, and—"
"Yes, I know," interrupted Tom, "and I appreciate all that whenI called my newest craft an aerial warship."
"But," objected Ned, "an aircraft that will carry big guns willbe so large that—"
"Oh, mine is large enough," Tom broke in.
"Then it's finished!" cried Ned eagerly, for he was muchinterested in his chum's inventions.
"Well, not exactly," Tom said. "But what I was going to tellyou was that all guns are not necessarily large. You can get bigresults with small guns and projectiles now, for high-poweredexplosives come in small packages. So it isn't altogether aquestion of carrying a certain amount of weight. Of course, anaerial warship will have to be big, for it will have to carryextra machinery to give it extra speed, and it will have to carrya 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 Iknow about recoils is connected with an old shotgun my fatherused to own.
"I took that once, when he didn't know it," Ned proceeded. "Itwas pretty heavily loaded, for the crows had been having fun inour cornfield, and dad had been shooting at them. This time Ithought I'd take a chance.
"Well, I fired the gun. But it must have had a double charge init and been rusted at that. All I know is that after I pulled thetrigger I thought the end of the world had come. I heard a clap ofthunder, 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 reflectivesort 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. "Yousee, when powder explodes, in a gun, or otherwise, its force isexerted in all 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 wentout in front, to force out the shot. Part of it, of course, wasexerted on the barrel of the gun—that was sideways—but thestrength of the steel held it in. And part of the force wentbackward against your shoulder. That part was the recoil, and itis the recoil of the guns I figure on putting aboard my aerialwarship 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 therecoil, and the force of it, from all the guns I w