Tom Swift And His Photo Telephone

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After dinner, when Mr. Halling said he felt much better, Tom
agreed to go out with him and look at the airship. As he feared,
he found several things the matter with it, in addition to the
motor trouble which had been the cause for Mr. Halling's call on
the young inventor.

"Can she be fixed?" asked the birdman, who explained that, as yet,
he was only an amateur in the practice of flying.

"Oh, yes, we can fix her up for you," said Tom. "But it will take
several days. You'll have to leave it here."

"Well, I'll be glad to do that, for I know she will be all the
better when you get through with her. But I think I am able to go
on home now, and I really ought to. There is some business I must
attend to."

"Speaking of business," remarked Tom, "can you tell me anything
more of Mr. Damon's financial troubles?"

"No, not much. All I know is that when I called on him the other
day I found him with his check book out, and he was doing a lot of
figuring. He looked pretty blue and downcast, I can tell you."

"I'm sorry about that," spoke Tom, musingly. "Mr. Damon is a very
good friend of mine, and I'd do anything to help him. I certainly
wouldn't like to see him lose his fortune. Bad investments, you
say it was?"

"Partly so, and yet I'm inclined to think if he does lose his
money it will be due to some trickery. Mr. Damon is not the man to
make bad investments by himself."

"Indeed he is not," agreed Tom. "You say he spoke of some man?"

"Yes, but not definitely. He did not mention any name. But Mr.
Damon was certainly quite blue."

"That's unlike him," remarked Tom. "He is usually very jolly. He
must be feeling quite badly. I'll go over and have a talk with
him, as soon as I can."

"Do. I think he would appreciate it. And now I must see about
getting home."

"I'll take you in one of my cars," said Tom, who had several
automobiles. "I don't want to see you strain that injured leg of
yours."

"You're very good--especially after I tangled up your wireless
aerials; but I didn't see them until I was right into them,"
apologized Mr. Halling.

"They're a new kind of wire," said Tom, "and are not very plain to
see. I must put up some warning signs. But don't worry about
damaging them. They were only up temporarily anyhow, and I was
going to take them down to arrange for my photo telephone."

"Photo telephone, eh? Is that something new?"

"It will be--if I can get it working," said Tom, with a smile.

A little later Tom had taken Mr. Halling home, and then he set
about making arrangements for repairing the damaged airship. This
took him the better part of a week, but he did not regret the
time, for while he was working he was busy making plans for his
newest invention--the photo telephone.

One afternoon, when Tom had completed the repairs to the airship,
and had spent some time setting up an experimental telephone line,
the young inventor received a call from his chum, Ned Newton.

"Well, well, what are you up to now?" asked Ned, as he saw his
chum seated in a booth, with a telephone receiver to his ear,
meanwhile looking steadily at a polished metal plate in front of
him. "Trying to hypnotize yourself, Tom?"

"Not exactly. Quiet, Ned, please. I'm trying to listen."

Ned was too familiar with his chum's work to take offense at this.
The young banker took a seat on a box, and silently watched Tom.
The inventor shifted several switches, pressed one button after
another, and tilted the polished metal plate at different angles.
Then he closed the door of the little telephone booth, and Ned,
through the ground glass door, saw a light shining.

"I wonder what new game Tom is up to?" Ned mused.

Presently the door opened, and Tom stuck out his head.

"Ned, come here," he invited. "Look at that metal plate and see if
you can notice anything on it. I've been staring at it so steadily
that my eyes are full of sticks. See what you can make out."

"What is this?" asked Ned. "No trick; is it? I won't be blown up,
or get my eyes full of pepper; will I?"

"Nonsense! Of course not. I'm trying to make a photo telephone. I
have the telephone part down pat, but I can't see anything of the
photo image. See if you can."

Ned stared at the polished plate, while Tom did things to it,
making electrical connections, and tilting it at various angles.

"See anything, Ned?" asked Tom.

The other shook his head.

"Whom am I supposed to see?" he asked.

"Why, Koku is at the other end of the wire. I'm having him help
me."

Ned gazed from the polished plate out of a side window of the
shop, into the yard.

"Well, that Koku is certainly a wonderful giant," said Ned, with a
laugh.

"How so?" asked Tom.

"Why he can not be in two places at once. You say he ought to be
at the other end of this wire, and there he is out there, spading
up the garden."

Tom stared for a second and then exclaimed:

"Well, if that isn't the limit! I put him in the telephone booth
in the machine shop, and told him to stay there until I was
through. What in the world is he doing out there?"

"Koku!" he called to the giant, "why didn't you stay at the
telephone where I put you? Why did you run away?"

"Ha!" exclaimed the giant, who, for all his great size was a
simple chap, "little thing go 'tick-tick' and then 'clap-clap!'
Koku no like--Koku t'ink bad spirit in telumfoam--Koku come out!"

"Well, no wonder I couldn't see any image on the plate!" exclaimed
Tom. "There was nobody there. Now, Ned, you try it; will you,
please?"

"Sure. Anything to oblige!"

"Then go in the other telephone booth. You can talk to me on the
wire. Say anything you like--the telephone part is all right. Then
you just stand so that the light in the booth shines on your face.
The machine will do the rest--if it works."

Ned hurried off and was soon talking to his chum over the wire
from the branch telephone in the machine shop. Ned stood in the
glare of an electric light, and looked at a polished plate similar
to the one in the other booth.

"Are you there, Ned?" asked Tom.

"Yes, I'm here."

"Is the light on?"

"Yes."

"And you're looking at the plate?"

"Sure. Can you see any reflection in your plate?"

"No, not a thing," answered Tom, and there was great
discouragement in his voice. "The thing is a failure, Ned. Come on
back," and the young banker could hear his chum hang up the
telephone receiver at the other end.

"That's too bad," murmured Ned, knowing how Tom must feel. "I'll
have to cheer him up a bit."

CHAPTER IV

RUN DOWN

When Ned Newton got back to where Tom sat in the small telephone
booth, the young banker found his chum staring rather moodily at
the polished metal plate on the shelf that held the talking
instrument.

"So it was no go; eh, Tom?"

"No go at all, Ned, and I thought sure I had it right this time."

"Then this isn't your first experiment?"

"Land no! I've been at it, off and on, for over a month, and I
can't seem to get any farther. I'm up against a snag now, good and
hard."

"Then there wasn't any image on your plate?"

"Not a thing, Ned. I don't suppose you caught any glimpse of me in
your plate?" asked Tom, half hopefully.

"No. I couldn't see a thing. So you are going to try and make this
thing work both ways, are you?"

"That's my intention, But I can fix it so that a person can
control the apparatus at his end, and only see the person he is
talking to, not being seen himself, unless he wishes it. That is,
I hope to do that. Just now nobody can see anybody," and Tom
sighed.

"Give it up," advised Ned. "It's too hard a nut to crack, Tom!"

"Indeed, I'll not give it up, Ned! I'm going to work along a new
line. I must try a different solution of selenium on the metal
plate. Perhaps I may have to try using a sensitized plate, and
develop it later, though I do want to get the machine down so you
can see a perfect image without the need of developing. And I
will, too!" cried Tom. "I'll get some new selenium."

Eradicate, who came into the shop just then, heard the end of
Tom's remarks. A strange look came over his honest black face, and
he exclaimed:

"What all am dat, Massa Tom? Yo'ah gwine t' bring de new millenium
heah? Dat's de end of de world, ain't it-dat millenium? Golly!
Dish yeah coon neber 'spected t' lib t' see dat. De millenium! Oh
mah landy!"

"No, Rad!" laughed Tom. "I was speaking about selenium, a sort of
metallic combination that is a peculiar conductor of electricity.
The more light that shines on it the better conductor it is, and
the less light, the poorer."

"It must be queer stuff," said Ned.

"It is," declared Tom. "I think it is the only thing to use in
this photo telephone experiment, though I might try the metal
plate method, as they did between Monte Carlo and Paris. But I am
not trying to make newspaper pictures."

"What is selenium, anyhow?" asked Ned. "Remember, Tom, I'm not up
on this scientific stuff as you are."

"Selenium," went on Tom, "was discovered in 1817, by J. J.
Berzelius, and he gave it that name from the Greek word for moon,
on account of selenium being so similar, in some ways, to
tellurium. That last is named after the Latin word tellus, the
earth."

"Do they dig it?" Ned wanted to know.

"Well, sometimes selenium is found in combination with metals, in
the form of selenides, the more important minerals of that kind
being eucharite, crooksite, clausthalite, naumannite and zorgite--"

"Good night!" interrupted Ned, with a laugh, holding up his hands.
"Stop it, Tom!" he pleaded. "You'll give me a headache with all
those big words."

"Oh, they're easy, once you get used to them," said the young
inventor, with a smile. "Perhaps it will be easier if I say that
sometimes selenium is found in native sulphur. Selenium is usually
obtained from the flue-dust or chamber deposits of some factory
where sulphuric acid is made. They take this dust and treat it
with acids until they get the pure selenium. Sometimes selenium
comes in crystal forms, and again it is combined with various
metals for different uses."

"There's one good thing about it. There are several varieties, and
I'll try them all before I give up."

"That's the way to talk!" cried Ned. "Never say die! Don't give up
the ship, and all that. But, Tom, what you need now is a little
fun. You've been poking away at this too long. Come on out on the
lake, and have a ride in the motor boat. It will do you good. It
will do me good. I'm a bit rusty myself--been working hard lately.
Come on--let's go out on the lake."

"I believe I will!" exclaimed Tom, after thinking it over for a
moment. "I need a little fresh air. Sitting in that telephone
booth, trying to get an image on a plate, and not succeeding, has
gotten on my nerves. I want to write out an order for Koku to take
to town, though. I want to get some fresh selenium, and then I'm
going to make new plates."

Tom made some memoranda, and then, giving Koku the order for the
chemist, the young inventor closed up his shop, and went with Ned
down to Lake Carlopa, where the motor boat was moored.

This was not the same boat Tom had first purchased, some years
ago, but a comparatively new and powerful craft.

"It sure is one grand little day for a ride," remarked Ned, as he
got in the craft, while Tom looked over the engine.

"Yes, I'm glad you came over, and routed me out," said the young
inventor. "When I get going on a thing I don't know enough to
stop. Oh, I forgot something!"

"What?" asked Ned.

"I forgot to leave word about Mr. Railing's airship. It's all
fixed and ready for him, but I put on a new control, and I wanted
to explain to him about it. He might not know how to work it. I
left word with father, though, that if he came for it he must not
try it until he had seen me. I guess it will be all right. I don't
want to go back to the house now."

"No, it's too far," agreed Ned.

"I have it!" exclaimed Tom. "I'll telephone to dad from here, not
to let Halling go up until I come back. He may not come for his
machine; but, if he does, it's best to be on the safe side Ned."

"Oh, sure."

Accordingly, Tom 'phoned from his boat-house, and Mr. Swift
promised to see the bird-man if he called. Then Ned and Tom gave
themselves up to the delights of a trip on the water.

The Kilo, which name Tom had selected for his new craft, was a
powerful boat, and comfortable. It swept on down the lake, and
many other persons, in their pleasure craft, turned to look at
Tom's fine one.

"Lots of folks out to-day," observed Ned, as they went around a
point of the shore.

"Yes, quite a number," agreed Tom, leaning forward to adjust the
motor. "I wonder what's got into her?" he said, in some annoyance,
as he made various adjustments. "One of the cylinders is missing."

"Maybe it needs a new spark plug," suggested Ned.

"Maybe. Guess I'll stop and put one in."

Tom slowed down the motor, and headed his boat over toward shore,
intending to tie up there for a while.

As he shifted the wheel he heard a cry behind him, and at the same
time a hoarse, domineering voice called out:

"Here, what do you mean, changing your course that way? Look out,
or I'll run you down! Get out of my way, you land-lubber, you!"

Startled, Ned and Tom turned. They saw, rushing up on them from
astern, a powerful red motor boat, at the wheel of which sat a
stout man, with a very florid face and a commanding air.

"Get out of my way!" he cried. "I can't stop so short! Look out,
or I'll run you down!"

Tom, with a fierce feeling of resentment at the fellow, was about
to shift the course of the Kilo, but he was too late.

A moment later there came a smashing blow on the stern port
quarter and the Kilo heeled over at a dangerous angle, while, with
a rending, splintering sound of wood, the big red motorboat swept
on past Tom and Ned, her rubstreak grinding along the side of the
Kilo.

CHAPTER V

SHARP WORDS

"Great Scott, Tom! What happened?"

"I know as much as you, Ned. That fellow ran us down, that's all."

"Are we leaking?" and with this question Ned sprang from his place
near the bow, and looked toward the stern, where the heaviest blow
had been struck.

The Kilo had swung back to an even keel again, but was still
bobbing about on the water.

"Any hole there?" cried Tom, as he swung the wheel over to point
his craft toward shore, in case she showed a tendency to sink.

"I can't see any hole," answered Ned. "But water is coming in
here."

"Then there's a leak all right! Probably some of the seams are
opened, or it may be coming in around the shaft stuffing-box.
Here, Ned, take the wheel, and I'll start up the engine again,"
for with the blow the motor had stopped.

"What are you going to do?" asked Ned, as he again made his way
forward.

"Take her to shore, of course. It's deep out here and I don't want
her to go down at this point."

"Say, what do you think of that fellow, anyhow, Tom?"

"I wouldn't like to tell you. Look, he's coming back."

This was so, for, as the boys watched, the big red motor boat had
swung about in a circle and was headed for them.

"I'll tell him what I think of him, at any rate," murmured Tom, as
he bent over his motor. "And, later on, I'll let the lawyers talk
to him."

"You mean you'll sue him, Tom?"

"Well, I'm certainly not going to let him run into me and spring a
leak, for nothing. That won't go with me!"

By this time Tom had the motor started, but he throttled it down
so that it just turned the propeller. With it running at full
speed there was considerable vibration, and this would further
open the leaking seams. So much water might thus be let in that
the craft could not be gotten ashore.

"Head her over, Ned," cried Tom, when he found he had sufficient
headway. "Steer for Ramsey's dock. There's a marine railway next
to him, and I can haul her out for repairs."

"That's the talk, Tom!" cried his chum.

By this time the big, red motor boat was close beside Tom's craft.

The man at the wheel, a stout-bodied and stout-faced man, with a
complexion nearly the color of his boat, glared at the two young
men.

"What do you fellows mean?" called out the man, in deep booming
tones--tones that he tried to make imposing, but which, to the
trained ears of Tom and Ned, sounded only like the enraged bellow
of some bully. "What do you mean, I say? Getting on my course like
that!"

Ned could see Tom biting his lips, and clenching his hands to keep
down his temper. But it was too much. To be run into, and then
insulted, was more than Tom could stand.

"Look here!" he cried, standing up and facing the red-faced man,
"I don't know who you are, and I don't care. But I'll tell you one
thing--you'll pay for the damage you did to my boat!"

"I'll pay for it? Come, that's pretty good! Ha! Ha!" laughed the
self-important man. "Why, I was thinking of making a complaint
against you for crossing my course that way. If I find my boat is
damaged I shall certainly do so anyhow. Have we suffered any
damage, Snuffin?" and he looked back at a grimy-faced mechinician
who was oiling the big, throbbing motor, which was now running
with the clutch out.

"No, sir, I don't think we're damaged, sir," answered the man,
deferentially.

"Well, it's a lucky thing for these land-lubbers that we aren't. I
should certainly sue them. The idea of crossing my course the way
they did. Weren't they in the wrong, Snuffin?"

The man hesitated for a moment, and glanced at Tom and Ned, as
though asking their indulgence.

"Well, I asked you a question, Snuffin!" exclaimed the red-faced
man sharply.

"Yes--yes, sir, they shouldn't have turned the way they did,"
answered the man, in a low voice.

"Well, of all the nerve!" murmured Tom, and stopped his motor.
Then, stepping to the side of his disabled and leaking boat, he
exclaimed:

"Look here! Either you folks don't know anything about navigation
rules, or you aren't heeding them. I had a perfect right to turn
and go ashore when I did, for I found my engine was out of order,
and I wanted to fix it. I blew the usual signal on the whistle,
showing my intention to turn off my course, and if you had been
listening you would have heard it."

"If you had even been watching you would have seen me shift, and
then, coming on at the speed you did, it was your place to warn me
by a whistle, so that I could keep straight on until you had
passed me."

"But you did not. You kept right on and ran into me, and the only
wonder is that you didn't sink me. Talk about me getting in your
way! Why, you deliberately ran me down after I had given the right
signal. I'll make a complaint against you, that's what I will."

If possible the red-faced man got even more rosy than usual. He
fairly puffed up, he was so angry.

"Listen to that, will you, Snuffin!" he cried. "Listen to that! He
says he blew his whistle to tell us he was going to turn in."

"That's what I did!" said Tom, calmly.

"Preposterous! Did you hear it, Snuffin?" puffed the important
man.

"Yes--yes, I think I did, sir," answered the machinist, in a
hesitating voice.

"You did? What! You mean to tell me you heard their whistle?"

"Yes--yes, sir!"

"Why--why--er--I--" the big man puffed and blew, but seemed to
find no words in which to express himself. "Snuffin, I'll have a
talk with you when we get home," he finally said. most
significantly. "The idea of saying you heard a whistle blown!
There was nothing of the kind! I shall make a complaint against
these land-lubbers myself. Do you know who they are, Snuffin?"

"Yes--yes, sir," was the answer, as the man glanced at Tom. "At
least I know one of them, sir."

"Very good. Give me his name. I'll attend to the rest."

Tom looked at the big man sharply. He had never seen him before,
as far as he could recall. As for the machinist, the young
inventor had a dim recollection that once the man might have
worked in his shop.

"Go ahead, Snuffin!" said the big man, mopping his face with a
large silk handkerchief, which, even at that distance, gave out a
powerful perfume. "Go ahead, Snuffin, and we will settle this
matter later," and, adjusting a large rose in his buttonhole, the
self-important individual took his place on the cushioned seat at
the wheel, while the big red motor boat drew off down the river.

"Well, of all the nerve!" gasped Ned. "Isn't he the limit?"

"Never mind," spoke Tom, with a little laugh. "I'm sorry I lost my
temper, and even bothered to answer him. We'll let the lawyers do
the rest of the talking. Take the wheel, Ned."

"But are you going to let him get away like this, Tom? Without
asking him to pay for the damage to your boat, when he was clearly
in the wrong?"

"Oh, I'll ask him to pay all right; but I'll do it the proper way.
Now come on. If we stay here chinning much longer the Kilo will go
down. I must find out who he is. I think I know Snuffin--he used
to work for me, I now recall."

"Don't you know who that big man is?" asked Ned, as he took the
wheel, while Tom again started the motor. The water was now almost
up to the lower rim of the fly wheel.

"No; who is he?" asked Tom.

"Shallock Peters."

"Well, I know as much as I did before," laughed Tom. "That doesn't
tell me anything."

"Why, I thought everybody in the town knew Shallock Peters," went
on Ned. "He tried to do some business with our bank, but was
turned down. I hear he's gone to the other one, though. He's what
we call a get-rich-quick schemer, Tom--a promoter."

"I thought he acted like that sort of a character."

"Well, that's what he is. He's got half a dozen schemes under way,
and he hasn't been in town over a month. I wonder you haven't seen
or heard of him."

"I've been too busy over my photo telephone."

"I suppose so. Well, this fellow Peters struck Shopton about a
month ago. He bought the old Wardell homestead, and began to show
off at once. He's got two autos, and this big motor boat. He
always goes around with a silk hat and a flower in his buttonhole.
A big bluff--that's what he is."

"He acted so to me," was Tom's comment. "Well, he isn't going to
scare me. The idea! Why, he seemed to think we were in the wrong;
whereas he was, and his man knew it, too."

"Yes, but the poor fellow was afraid to say so. I felt sorry for
him."

"So did I," added Tom. "Well, Kilo is out of commission for the
present. Guess we'll have to finish our outing by walking, Ned."

"Oh, I don't mind. But it makes me mad to have a fellow act the
way he did."

"Well, there's no good in getting mad," was Tom's smiling
rejoinder. "We'll take it out of him legally. That's the best way
in the end. But I can't help saying I don't like Mr. Shallock
Peters."

"And I don't either," added Ned.

CHAPTER VI

A WARNING

"There, she's about right now, Ned. Hold her there!"

"Aye, aye, Captain Tom!"

"Jove, she's leaking like a sieve! We only got her here just in
time!"

"That's right," agreed Ned.

Tom and his chum had managed to get the Kilo to Ramsey's dock, and
over the ways of the inclined marine railway that led from the
shop on shore down into the river. Then, poling the craft along,
until she was in the "cradle," Ned held her there while Tom went
on shore to wind up the windlass that pulled the car, containing
the boat, up the incline.

"I'll give you a hand, as soon as I find she sets level," called
Ned, from his place in the boat.

"All right--don't worry. There are good gears on this windlass,
and she works easy," replied Tom.

In a short time the boat was out of the water, but, as Tom grimly
remarked, "the water was not out of her," for a stream poured from
the stuffing-box, through which the propeller shaft entered, and
water also ran out through the seams that had been opened by the
collision.

"Quite a smash, Tom," observed the boat repairer, when he had come
out to look over the Kilo. "How'd it happen?"

"Oh, Shallock Peters, with his big red boat, ran into us!" said
Ned, sharply.

"Ha, Peters; eh?" exclaimed the boatman. "That's the second craft
he's damaged inside a week with his speed mania. There's Bert
Johnson's little speeder over there," and he pointed to one over
which some men were working. "Had to put a whole new stern in her,
and what do you think that man Peters did?"

"What?" asked Tom, as he bent down to see how much damage his
craft had sustained.

"He wouldn't pay young Johnson a cent of money for the repairs,"
went on Mr. Houston, the boatman. "It was all Peters's fault,
too."

"Couldn't he make him pay?" asked Tom.

"Well, young Johnson asked for it--no more than right, too; but
Peters only sneered and laughed at him."

"Why didn't he sue?" asked Ned.

"Costs too much money to hire lawyers, I reckon. So he played you
the same trick; eh. Tom?"

"Pretty much, yes. But he won't get off so easily, I can tell you
that!" and there was a grim and determined look on the face of the
young inventor. "How long will it take to fix my boat, Mr.
Houston?"

"Nigh onto two weeks, Tom. I'm terrible rushed now."

Tom whistled ruefully.

"I could do it myself quicker, if I could get her back to my
shop," he said. "But she'd sink on the home trip. All right, do
the best you can, Mr. Houston."

"I will that, Tom."

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