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Page 9
"No, son, I couldn't think of it. I want to stay here and get well.
Then I am going to resume work on my wireless motor. Perhaps I'll
have it finished when you come back from Africa with an airship load
of elephants' tusks."
"Perhaps," admitted the young inventor. "Well, Dad, I'll think of
it. But now I'm going after my rifle, and--"
Tom was interrupted by a ring of the front-door bell, and Mrs.
Baggert, the housekeeper, who was almost like a mother to the youth,
went to answer it.
"It's Ned Newton, I guess," murmured Tom, and, a little later, his
chum entered the room.
"Oh, I guess I'm early," said Ned. "Haven't you had supper yet,
Tom'"
"Yes, we're just finished. Come on out and we'll try the gun."
"And practice shooting elephants," added Mr. Swift with a laugh, as
he mentioned to Ned the latest idea of Tom.
"Say! That would he great!" cried the bank clerk. "I wish I could
go!"
"Come along!" invited Tom cordially. "We'll have more fun than we
did in the caves of ice," for Ned had gone on the voyage to Alaska.
The two youths went out to the shed where the rifle gallery had been
built. The new electric weapon was out there, and Eradicate Sampson,
the colored man, who was a sort of servant and man-of-all-work about
the Swift household, had set up the scarecrow figure at the end of
the gallery.
"Now we'll try some shots," said Tom, as he took the gun out of the
case. "Just turn on a few more lights, will you, Mr. Jackson," and
the engineer, who was employed by Tom and his father to aid them in
their inventive work, did as requested.
The gallery was now brilliantly illuminated, with the reflectors
throwing the beams on the big stuffed figure, which, save for a
face, looked very much like a human being, standing at the end of
the gallery.
"I don't suppose you want to go down there and hold it, while I
shoot at it; do you, Rad?" asked Tom jokingly, as he prepared the
electric rifle for use.
"No indeedy, I don't!" cried Eradicate. "Yo'-all will hab t' scuse
me, Massa Tom. I think I'll be goin' now."
"What's your hurry?" asked Ned, as he saw the colored man hastily
preparing to leave the improvised gallery.
"I spects I'd better fro' down some mo' straw fo' a bed fo' my mule
Boomerang!" exclaimed Eradicate, as he hastily slid out of the door,
and shut it after him.
"Rad is nervous," remarked Tom. "He doesn't like this gun. Well, it
certainly does great execution."
"How does it work'" asked Ned, as he looked at the curious gun. The
electric weapon was not unlike an ordinary heavy rifle in appearance
save that the barrel was a little longer, and the stock larger in
every way. There were also a number of wheels, levers, gears and
gages on the stock.
"It works by electricity," explained Tom.
"That is, the force comes from a powerful current of stored
electricity."
"Oh, then you have storage batteries in the stock?"
"Not exactly. There are no batteries, but the current is a sort of
wireless kind. It is stored in a cylinder, just as compressed air or
gases are stored, and can be released as I need it."
"And when it's all gone, what do you do?"
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