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Page 16
"What's wrong?" asked the young inventor.
"'Scuse me, Massa Tom," began Eradicate, "but didn't yo' tell
me to spade de garden?"
"I guess I did," admitted Tom Swift.
"An' you tell me help--yes?" questioned Koku.
"Well, I thought it would be a little too much for you, Rad,"
said Tom, gently. "I thought perhaps you'd like help."
"Hu! Not him, anyhow!" declared the colored man in great
disgust. "When I git so old dat I cain't spade a garden, den me
an' Boomerang, we-all gwine to die, dat's all I got to say. I was
a-spadin' my part ob de garden, Massa Tom, same laik Mr. Damon
done tole me to, an' dish yeah big mess ob bones steps on my side
ob de middle an--"
"Him too slow. Koku scatter dirt twice times so fast!" declared
the giant, whose English was not much better than Eradicate's.
"Yes, I see," said Tom. "You are so strong, Koku, that you
finished your part before Eradicate did. Well, it was good of you
to want to help him."
At this the giant grinned at his rival.
"At the same time," went on Tom, winking an eye at Mr. Damon,
"Eradicate knows a little more about garden work, on account of
having done it so many years."
"Ha! Whut I tell yo', Giant!" boasted the colored man. It was
his turn to smile.
"And so," went on Tom, judicially, "I guess I'll let Rad finish
spading the garden, and you, Koku, can come and help me lift some
heavy engine parts. Mr. Damon wants to explain something to me."
"Ha! Nothing what so heavy Koku not lift!" boasted the giant.
"Go on! Lift yo'se'f 'way from heah!" muttered Eradicate as he
picked up his dropped spade. And then, with a smile of
satisfaction, he fell to work in the mellow soil while Tom led
Koku to one of the shops where he set him to lifting heavy motor
parts about in order to get at a certain machine that was stored
away in the back of one of the rooms.
"That will keep him busy," said the young inventor. "And now,
Mr. Damon, I can listen to you. Do you really think you have a
new idea in airships?"
"I really think so, Tom. My Whizzer is bound to revolutionize
travel in the air. Let me tell you what I mean. Now cast your
mind back. How many ways are now used to propel an airship or a
dirigible balloon through the air? How many ways?"
"Two, as far as I know," said Tom. "At least there are only two
that have proved to be practical."
"Exactly," said Mr. Damon. "One with the propeller, or
propellers, in front, and that is the tractor type. The other has
the propeller in the rear, and that is the pusher type. Both good
as far as they go, but I have something better."
"What?" asked Tom with a smile.
"It's a Whizzer," said the eccentric man. "Bless my gold tooth!
but that is the best name I can think of for it. And, really, the
propeller I'm thinking of inventing does whiz around."
"But are you going to use a tractor or pusher type?" Tom wanted
to know.
"It's a combination of both," answered Mr. Damon. "As it is
now, Tom, you have to get an aeroplane in pretty speedy motion
before it will rise from the ground, don't you?"
"Yes, of course. That's the principle on which an aeroplane
rises and keeps aloft, by its speed in the air. As soon as that
speed stops it begins to fall, or volplane, as we call it."
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