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Page 34
In an instant Tom pulled a blank sheet over his mass of figures
and looked up, a sudden fear coming over him that another spy was
at hand. But a hearty voice reassured him.
"Bless my rice pudding!" cried Mr. Damon, "you shut yourself up
here, Tom, like a hermit in the mountains. Why don't you come out
and enjoy life?"
"Hello! Glad to see you!" cried Tom, joyfully. "You're just in
time!"
"Time for what--dinner?" asked the eccentric man, with a
chuckle. "If so, my reference to rice pudding was very proper."
"Why, yes, I imagine there must be a dinner in prospect
somewhere, Mr. Damon," said Tom with a smile. "We'll have to see
Mrs. Baggert about that. But what I meant was that you're just in
time to have a ride with me, if you want to go."
"Go where?"
"Oh, up in cloudland. I have just finished my first sample of a
silent motor, and I'm going to try it this evening. Would you
like to come along?"
"I would!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "Bless my onion soup, Tom, but
I would! But why fly at night? Isn't it safer by daylight?"
"Oh, that doesn't make much difference. It's safe enough at any
time. The reason I'm going to make my first flight after dark is
that I don't want any spies about."
"Oh, I see! Are they camping on your trail?"
"Not exactly. But I can't tell where they may be. If I should
start out in daylight and be forced to make a landing-- Well, you
know what a crowd always collects to see a stranded airship."
"That's right, Tom."
"That decided me to start off after dark. Then if we have to
come down because of some sort of engine trouble or because my
new attachment doesn't work right, we sha'n't have any prying
eyes."
"I see! Well, Tom, I'll go with you. Fortunately I didn't tell
my wife where I was going when I started out this afternoon, so
she won't worry until after it's over, and then it won't hurt
her. I'm ready any time you are."
"Good! Stay to dinner and I'll show you what I've made. Then
we'll take a flight after dark."
This suited the eccentric man, and a little later, after he had
eaten one of Mrs. Baggert's best meals, including rice pudding,
of which he was very fond, Mr. Damon accompanied Tom to one of
the big hangars where the new aeroplane had been set up.
"So that's the Air Scout, is it, Tom?" asked Mr. Damon, as he
viewed the machine.
"Yes, that's the girl. 'Air Scout' is as good a name as any,
until I see what she'll do."
"It doesn't look different from one of your regular craft of
the skies, Tom."
"No, she isn't. The main difference is here," and Tom showed
his friend where a peculiar apparatus had been attached to the
motor. This was the silencer--the whole secret of the invention,
so to speak.
To Mr. Damon it seemed to consist of an amazing collection of
pipes, valves, baffle-plates, chambers, cylinders and reducers,
which took the hot exhaust gases as they came from the motor and
"ate them up," as he expressed it.
"The cylinders, too, and the spark plugs are differently
arranged in the motor itself, if you could see them," said Tom to
his friend. "But the main work of cutting down the noise is done
right here," and he put his hand on the steel case attached to
the motor, the case containing the apparatus already briefly
described.
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