Tom Swift in the Caves of Ice
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Victor Appleton >> Tom Swift in the Caves of Ice
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"Too far. I can't reach the ladder now!"
"Yes, you can. Stretch a bit!"
"Whack!" Once more the stick descended on the fence, this time still
closer to Ned's clinging hands.
"Hit him good, Andy!" cried Sam Snedecker, "Give me a shot at him!"
"I will not. I want to attend to him myself. You go tell my father,
and he'll have Tom Swift arrested for trying to sneak in and get
some of my airship ideas!"
By this time Ned's wiggling feet had found the topmost rung of the
ladder. The next moment he was rapidly descending it, and, when on
the ground, he and Tom carried it away, to prevent its use by the
enemy.
"Whew!" exclaimed the young inventor. "I had no idea they would kick
up such a row!"
"Me either. Did you hurt yourself when you jumped, as the ladder
fell?"
"No. Did they hit your hands?"
"Came mighty near it. Well, I s'pose it serves us right, yet if I
can't look over my own back fence it's a pity!"
"Of course we can, only I'd just as soon they hadn't seen us.
However--hello! there's Andy looking over here, now."
The mean face of the bully now topped the fence. It was evident that
he had crawled from the window of his shop.
"What are you trying to get into my place for, Tom Swift?" he
demanded.
"I wasn't trying to get in, Andy Foger."
"Well, you were looking in."
"Only doing as you've done over at my shop, several times, Andy. I
wanted to see what sort of an airship you were building."
"Trying to get some ideas for your own, I guess," sneered Andy.
Tom did not think it worth while to answer this taunt.
"I could have you arrested for this," went on Andy, who felt bolder
now that he was reinforced by Sam and Pete on either side of him as
he looked over the fence into Ned's yard.
"Arrested for what?" demanded the bank clerk.
"For trespassing on my father's premises," went on Andy.
"We weren't on your premises," declared Ned. "We were on our side of
the fence all the while."
"Well, you were looking over in my yard."
"A cat may look at a king, you know, Andy," Tom reminded the bully.
"Yah! Think you're smart, don't you! Well, you can't steal any of my
ideas for an airship. They're all patented, and I'll soon be making
longer and higher flights than you ever dreamed of! I'll show you
what a real airship is, Tom Swift! Monoplanes and biplanes are out
of date. The only thing that's any good is a triplane. If mine works
well--and I'm sure it will--I may build a quadruplane!"
"I wish you luck," spoke Tom, with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Well, you won't have any luck if you come around here any more,"
went on Pete Bailey. "We'll be on the watch for you fellows, now,
and we'll cover this window, so you can't see in."
"That's what we will," agreed Andy, and Sam Snedecker shook his head
vigorously to indicate that he, too, approved of this.
"Come on," spoke Tom in a low tone to Ned, "I've seen enough."
The two chums moved toward Ned's house, followed by the jeers and
mocking laughter of Andy and his cronies.
"Can't you get back at them in some way?" asked Ned, for he did not
like to see himself or his friend apparently vanquished by the
bully.
"He laughs best who laughs last, Ned."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that when Andy tries to fly in his triplane it will be our
turn to laugh."
"Won't it fly?"
"Never, the way he has it rigged up. It didn't take but one look to
tell me that. He's working on altogether the wrong principle. Wait
until he tries to go up, and then we'll have some fun with him."
"Then you got a good view of it through the window?"
"I saw all I wanted to. But say, I was about to take a little trip
in my monoplane, to see my friend Mr. Damon, when Abe's letter
arrived, and you came along with your news. I started to take
Eradicate, but he backed out. Don't you want to come?"
"Sure, I'll go along."
Ned had often ridden in the trim Butterfly, though the trips had not
been so frequent that he was tired of them. A little later, Tom,
having adjusted the motor that had stalled before, compelling him to
vol-plane back to earth, the two chums were sailing through the air
toward Waterford.
"Why, bless my shoe laces!" cried Mr. Damon, as they alighted in the
yard of his house, about an hour later. "I didn't expect you, Tom.
But I'm glad to see you!"
"And I to meet you again. I guess you know Ned Newton."
"Ah, yes. How d'ye do, Ned? Bless my appetite! but it's quite
chilly. We'll soon have winter. Won't you come in and have some hot
chocolate?"
The boys were glad to accept the invitation, and as they were
drinking the beverage, which Mrs. Damon made for them, Tom told of
the receipt of the letter from the old miner, and also his
experience in seeing Andy's airship.
"Why, bless my pocketbook!" cried Mr. Damon. "I had no idea we'd
ever hear from Abe Abercrombie again. And so he is really coming on,
to tell us about the valley of gold?"
"So he says," replied Tom. "I was wondering if you'd like to go, Mr.
Damon."
"Go? Why, bless my very topknot! Of course I would. I'll go with
you--only--only," and he leaned forward and whispered cautiously,
"don't speak so loudly. My wife might hear you!"
"Doesn't she want you to go off in the airship any more?" asked Tom.
"Well, she'd rather I wouldn't. But she's going on a visit to her
mother, soon, and then I think will come my opportunity to take
another trip with you. A valley of gold in Alaska, eh? Up where the
icebergs and caves of ice are. Say, Tom, I know some one else who
would be glad to go."
"Who?" inquired the young inventor, though he had an idea to whom
his friend referred.
"Mr. Parker! You know he's taken up his residence in Waterford, now,
and only the other day he spoke to me about wishing he could go to
the far north. He has some new theory--"
"About the destruction of something or other; hasn't he, Mr. Damon?"
interrupted Tom, with a smile.
"That's it, exactly, my boy. Bless my coffeepot! But Mr. Parker has
an idea that the whole northern part of this continent will soon be
buried thousands of feet deep under an icy avalanche, and he wants
to be there to see it. I know he'd like to go with us, Tom."
The young inventor made a little gesture of dissent, but as he knew
Mr. Damon, who was very eccentric himself, had taken a great liking
to the gloomy scientist, Tom did not feel like refusing. So he said:
"All right, Mr. Damon. If we go, and I think we shall, we'll expect
you and Mr. Parker. I'll let you know the result of Mr.
Abercrombie's visit, and I needn't request you to keep quiet about
it. If there is a valley of gold in Alaska, we don't want everyone
to know about it."
"No, of course not, Tom Swift. I'll keep silent about it. Bless my
liverpin! But I'll be glad to on the move again, even if it is
toward the Arctic regions."
After some further talk, Tom and Ned took their departure, making
good time back to Shopton in the speedy monoplane.
For several days after that Tom busied himself about his big airship
the RED CLOUD, for it needed quite a few repairs after the long trip
to the mountains where the diamond makers had been discovered in
their cave.
"And if we're going up amid the ice and snow," reasoned Tom, "I've
got to make some different arrangements about the craft, and provide
for keeping warmer than we found necessary when we went west."
So it was that Tom had no time to learn anything further about Andy
Foger's airship, even had our hero been so inclined, which he was
not. He looked for Abe Abercrombie any day now, for though the old
miner had given no date as to when he would arrive, he had said, in
his letter, that it would be soon.
It was one day, nearly a week after Tom's attempt to make Eradicate
like aeroplaning, that there might have been seen, coming along the
Shopton road, which led toward Tom's house, the figure of a grizzled
old man. His clothes were rather rough, and he carried a valise that
had, evidently, seen much service. There was that about him which
proclaimed him for a westerner--a cattleman or a miner.
He walked slowly along, murmuring to himself.
"Wa'al, I might better have taken one of them wagons at th' depot,"
he said, "than t' try t' walk. It's quite a stretch out t' Tom
Swift's house. I hope I find him home."
He trudged on, and, a little later, his gaze was attracted by a
large shed, in the rear of a white house the pretentious appearance
of which indicated that persons of wealth owned it.
"I guess that must be the place," he remarked. "That shed is big
enough to hold the airship. Now to present myself."
As he walked up the front path of the house, he was met by one of
the gardeners, who was raking up the leaves.
"Is this the airship place?" asked the miner.
"Yes, that's where the young master is making his triplane,"
answered the man.
"Is he in?"
"Yes, I guess so. You can walk right back to the shed."
The miner did so. Through the open door of the building he had a
glimpse of big stretches of wings, propellers, rudders, and some
machinery.
"That's it," he murmured, "though it looks some different than I
remembered it. However, maybe Tom's changed it about. I wonder where
he is?"
As he spoke a lad came from the shed to meet him--a lad on whose
face there was a look of suspicion.
"What do you want?" he demanded.
"I'm lookin' for Tom Swift," was the simple reply. "But I take it
you're one of his partners in this airship business. I guess he must
have told you about me. I'm Abe Abercrombie, the miner, and I've
come to show him the way to that valley of gold in Alaska."
At the mention of Tom Swift's name, Andy Foger, for it was he, had
started to utter a denial. But, at the next words of the miner, and
as Mr. Abercrombie mentioned "gold" and "Alaska," there came a
cunning look over Andy's face.
"Tom Swift isn't here just now," he said, wondering how he could
turn to advantage the unexpected visit, and the impending
information that the guileless old man was about to give under the
mistaken idea that Andy was Tom's friend.
"That's all right, I reckon he'll be along presently. You'll do just
as well, I reckon. You're in partnership with him, I take it. So
this is the place where he makes his airships, eh? It's a big one,"
and Mr. Abercrombie looked in at the odd triplane of Andy's--for the
airship was almost finished.
"But it'll need to be big if we're to go to Alaska in it," went on
the miner. "It's quite a journey t' th' valley where th' gold is. No
way t' get t' it except by an airship. An' here I be an' ready to
start, I've brought th' map of th' place, jest as I promised. Here
it is, better take good care of it. Now, let's talk business," and
the miner, having guilelessly handed Andy Foger a folded parchment,
sat down on a box at the door of the airship shed, and placed his
heavy valise on the ground beside him.
"What's this?" asked the bully, wondering whether he had heard
aright.
"It's the map of th' valley of gold--directions how t' git there,
an' all that. I guess it's plain enough. Now, when can we start?"
Andy did not know what to say. Fate had, most unexpectedly, placed
in his hands a valuable paper. The miner had made a mistake. Andy's
house was on the same road as was Tom's and, seeing the airship
shed, had deceived the aged man. He had not expected to find two
airship manufactories in the same village.
"The map of the valley of gold, "murmured Andy, as he put it in his
pocket.
"Yes, jest as I told Tom about when I met him out West. I said I'd
bring it with me, an' I did. When will Tom be back? He never spoke
of you, though I reckoned he'd have to have some help in makin' his
airships. Where is he?"
"He--he--" stammered Andy. He did not know what to say.
At that instant Tom Swift himself passed by in the road. He had been
over to Shopton on an errand. One look into the yard of Andy's house
showed to our hero the old miner sitting at the door of the airship
shed.
"Mr. Abercrombie--Abe!" cried Tom, almost, before he thought.
"Hello, Tom! I got here!" cried the miner, heartily. "I was jest
talking to your partner."
"My partner!" spoke Tom in amazement
"Yes--partner in th' airship business. I should think you'd need
about three partners to build these machines!"
"My partner! Andy Foger isn't my partner!" cried Tom, wondering what
would happen next. "I have no partner! If he said he was he deceived
you!"
"No partner? Ain't he your partner?" cried Mr. Abercrombie. "Why, I
thought he was. I told him about th' valley of gold--I--I--give him
the map--"
"The map?"
"Yes, the map t' tell how to get there. He's got it!"
There was a mocking smile on Andy's face.
"Give that map back at once!" cried Tom, sternly, now understanding
something of the situation. "Hand it over at once, Andy Foger!"
"I will--when I get ready! He gave it to me!" cried the bully, and
then, before either Tom or Abe could stop him, Andy darted into the
big shed, and slammed shut the door.
CHAPTER IV
TOM GETS THE MAP
For a few seconds Tom was so surprised at the sudden action of the
bully that he could neither move nor speak. Then, crying out a
command to halt, the young inventor took after his enemy.
"The scamp!" he cried. "The nerve he has! To deceive Abe Abercrombie
in that fashion! Wait until I get hold of him!"
"What's it all about?" asked the old miner, who, being a slow
thinker had not understood all that had happened. "What's up, Tom
Swift?"
"Haven't time to tell you now," flung back the running lad over his
shoulder. "I've got to catch Andy! Then I'll explain. He's trying to
get ahead of us. I guess, but we'll stop him!" Thereupon Tom flung
himself against the door of the airship shed. The young inventor
found the portal bolted, though it vibrated with the impact of his
body.
"Come out of there, Andy Foger!" cried Tom, pounding on the door.
"Come out, or I'll get an officer, and have you arrested!"
There was no answer.
"Come out, I say!" repeated Tom.
"Around th' back! Try th' back door!" suggested the miner, who had
hastened to Tom's side. "Maybe he's run out that way!"
Tom listened. There was no movement in the shop. Then the young
inventor sprinted around the side. He was just in time to see the
bully running away over the lots and fields in the rear of his
father's premises. Andy had climbed out of the back window of the
shed, into which Tom and Ned had peered that day, had climbed the
high fence, dropped down on the other side, and was now running away
with all the speed he could muster.
"Come back--!" began Tom, and then he realized that his enemy could
not hear him. The bully was too far away. At the same time our hero
realized that it would be useless to give chase, for Andy had too
much of a start. There was nothing to do but to turn back, and Tom
knew that his delay in trying to gain an entrance at the front door
had given Andy the very opportunity he needed to escape at the rear.
"Well, this is a bad turn of affairs," remarked the lad, as he faced
the puzzled miner.
"What is, Tom?"
"Him having that map. It shows the location of the valley of gold,
doesn't it, and tells how to get there?"
"That's what it does!"
"How did Andy happen to get it?"
"Jest as I told you. I was on my way t' your house, havin' inquired
at th' post-office, an' the man said that at your place there was a
big shed, where you kept your airships. I come along, an', of
course, when I see this house, an' the shed, an' had a glimpse of
th' airship, I, of course, thought it was your place. An', though
you'd never told me about it, I thought maybe this lad was in
business with you. So, like a blamed young tenderfoot, I blurted out
my business afore I thought, an' handed him the map for safe
keepin'. He took it, too, that's the worst of it."
"Yes, that's the worst of it," agreed Tom, "But I'll get it back, if
I have to cause his arrest, and search his whole house."
"But he runned away, Tom."
"Oh, he'll come back. Was there only one copy of the map of the
valley, Abe?" asked Tom, anxiously.
"Yep; only one"
"Could you make another?"
"No, not if you was to pay me a million dollars! You see I ain't no
drawer, an' this map, while I made part of it, was mostly made by my
old partner, who was with me when we discovered th' valley of gold,
an' was druv back by th' savage Eskimos an' Indians, an' by th'
terrible cold. My partner made th' best part of th' map, an' he's
dead, poor fellow."
"I see. That's too bad! Then you can't make a duplicate map?"
"Nary a one. But can't you do somethin'? It were amazin' stupid of
me, old Abe Abercrombie, t' be took in by a boy like him! Can't you
do somethin'?"
"I'm going to try," announced Tom determinedly, as he swung on
toward the Foger house. "I'll cause his arrest if he doesn't give it
up."
A few minutes later Tom Swift and Abe confronted Mr. Foger. The rich
man, father of the bully, was rather surprised at the visit from the
young inventor, for the two were not friends.
"Well, what can I do for you, Tom Swift?" asked the banker, for he
felt a certain coldness toward our hero, since the latter had
defeated him in an effort to wreck a financial institution in which
Tom and his father were interested.
"Mr. Foger," spoke Tom, sternly, "your son has just stolen a map
belonging to this gentleman," and he indicated Abe.
"My son stolen a map!" exclaimed Mr. Foger. "How dare you make such
an accusation, Tom Swift?"
"I dare, because it's true! And, unless that map is returned to me
at my house to-night I shall swear out a warrant for Andy's arrest."
"You'd never dare do that!"
"Wait and see!" spoke Tom, firmly. "I will give your son, or you,
exactly five hours to return that map--if it isn't back in my hands
by then, I'll get a warrant!"
"Preposterous! Stuff and nonsense!" blustered Mr. Foger. "My son
never stole anything!"
"He stole this map, and there is plenty of evidence," went on Tom,
as he detailed the circumstances.
Mr. Foger hemmed and hawed, and affected not to believe that
anything of the kind could have happened. But Tom was firm, and Abe
Abercrombie backed up his statements, until even the banker began to
waver.
"Very well," he announced at length, "I will look into this matter,
and if I find that my son has anything of yours, you shall have it
back. But I cannot believe it. Perhaps he took it as a joke."
"In which case," spoke Tom grimly, "he will find that he has carried
the joke too far," and with that he and the miner left the Foger
home.
"It's all my fault," bewailed Abe, as he and our hero trudged on
toward the Swift household.
"No, it wasn't, Abe," declared Tom. "Any one would have been
deceived by such tactics as Andy used--that is any stranger. And you
didn't expect to find two airship sheds so close together."
"No. That's right, I didn't. That's what threw me off th' track."
"Andy only recently began work on his triplane. I don't know what
his object is, and I don't care. Just now I'm more concerned about
getting back this map."
"I hope we do get it."
"Oh, we will. I'm going to start off on my own hook, to find Andy.
But first I'll take you to my house."
The old miner was soon telling his story to Mr. Swift, the
housekeeper and Garret Jackson. They expressed their surprise at
Andy's daring act. But Tom didn't do much more talking.
"I'm going out to find Andy," he declared, "and when I do--" He
didn't finish his sentence, but they all knew what he meant.
But the bully was in none of his usual haunts, though Tom visited
them all. Nor was Andy at the homes of either of his cronies.
"Well, if I don't find him, I shall certainly swear out the
warrant," decided Tom. "I'll give him until night, and then I'll
call on the police."
Still he did not give up, but went to several other places where
Andy might be found. He had about given up, as it was getting toward
late afternoon, when, as he came out of a billiardroom, where the
bully was in the habit of spending much of his time, Tom saw the lad
of whom he was in search.
"Hold on there, Andy Foger!" cried the young inventor. "I want to
see you!"
"What about?"
"You know very well. Where's that map you stole?"
"I haven't got it."
"Take care!" and Tom, with a quick step was beside the bully, and
had grasped him firmly by the arm.
"You let me alone, Tom Swift!" cried Andy.
"Where's that map?" and Tom gave Andy's arm a wrench.
"It's at your house; that's where it is! I just took it back. It was
only a joke."
"A joke, eh? And you took it back?"
"Yes, I did. Now you let me go!"
"I will when I find out if you're telling me the truth or not, Andy
Foger. You come with me!"
"Where?"
"To my house. I want to see if that map's there."
"Well, you'll find that it is, and you'd better let me go! My father
told me to take the map back, and I did. You let me go!"
Andy struggled to get loose, but Tom had too tight a grip. There was
something, too, in the manner of our hero that warned Andy not to
trifle with him. So, concluding that discretion was the better part
of valor, Andy walked sullenly along toward Tom's home, the young
inventor never relaxing the grip on his enemy's arm.
They reached the Swift home. Still holding his captive, Tom rang the
bell. His father came to the door, followed by Abe Abercrombie.
"Is the map back?" asked the young inventor, anxiously.
"Yes, Andy brought it here a few minutes ago," announced Mr. Swift.
"Is it the right one, Abe?" inquired Tom.
"Yep, Tom. I made sure of that as soon as I laid my eyes on it. It's
th' right one."
"Then you can go, Andy Foger," announced our hero, "and if I ever
catch you in another trick like this, I'll take the law into my own
hands. Clear out, now!"
"You wait! I'll get even with you," muttered the bully, as he fled
down the front walk, as though afraid Tom would, even then, put his
threat into execution.
"Did he damage the map any?" asked the lad, as he followed his
father and Abe into the house.
"Nary a bit," answered the old miner. "It's jest th' same as it was.
There it is," and he spread a crinkled sheet of tough parchment in
front of Tom. It was covered with a rude drawing, and with names of
places scrawled on it.
"So that's the map, eh?" murmured Tom, eagerly scanning it.
"That's it, an' here's th' valley of gold," went on Abe, as he
placed one rough finger on a certain spot. "Right there--hello!" he
cried, as he peered more closely at the parchment. "That ink spot
wasn't there when I had th' map, a few hours ago."
"What ink spot?" asked Tom, anxiously.
"That one," and the miner indicated a small one near the edge of the
map. "That was never there!"
"It looks as if it was recently made," added Mr. Swift, who was
something of a chemist.
"An ink spot-freshly made," murmured Tom, "Dad--Abe, I can guess
what's happened!"
"What?" demanded the miner.
"Andy Foger made a copy of this map while it was in his possession,
and now he knows where the valley of gold is as well as we do! He
may get there ahead of us!"
CHAPTER V
GRAVE SUSPICION'S
Tom's announcement took them all by surprise. For a moment no one
knew what to say, while the young inventor looked more closely at
the parchment map.
"Do you really think he has dared to make a copy of it?" asked Mr.
Swift.
"I do," answered his son. "That ink spot wasn't there when Abe gave
him the map; was it?"
"No," replied the miner.
"And it couldn't get on in Andy's pocket," went on Tom. "So he must
have had it open near where there was ink."
"His fountain pen might have leaked," suggested Mr. Jackson.
"In that case the ink spot would be on the outside of the map, and
not on the inside," declared Tom, with the instinct of a detective.
"Unless he had the map folded in his pocket with the inside surface
on the outside, the ink couldn't have gotten on. Besides, Andy
always carries his fountain pen in his upper vest pocket, and that
pocket is too small to hold the map. No, I'm almost positive that
Andy or his father have sneakingly made a copy of this map!"
"I'm sorry to have to admit that Mr. Foger is capable of such an
act," spoke Mr. Swift, "but I believe it is true."
"And here is another thing," went on the young inventor, who was now
closely scanning the parchment through a powerful magnifying glass,
"do you see those tiny holes here and there, Mr. Jackson?"
"Yes," answered the engineer.
"Were they there before, Abe?" went on Tom, calling the old miner's
attention to them.
"Nary a one," was the answer. "It looks as if some one had been
sticking pins in th' map."
"Not pins," said Tom, "but the sharp points of a pair of dividers,
or compasses, for measuring distances. Andy, or whoever made a copy
of the map, used the dividers to take off distances with. This
clinches it, in my mind."
"But what can you do?" asked Tom's father.
"I don't know," answered the young inventor. "It would be of little
use to go to Andy. Naturally he would deny having made a copy of the
map, and his father would, also. Even though I am sure they have a
copy, I don't see how I am going to make them give it up. It's a
hard case. There's only one thing I see to do."
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