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Page 36
However, as Tom expected to have other trials when his motor
was in even better shape, he was not exactly sorry for the
absence of his friends.
"Contact!" called the young inventor, when Jackson had stepped
back, indicating it was time to throw over the switch.
"Let her go!" cried Tom, and the next moment the motor was in
operation, but so silently that his voice and that of Mr. Damon's
could easily be heard above the machinery.
"Good, Tom! That's good!" cried Mr. Swift, and Tom easily heard
his father's voice, though under other, and ordinary,
circumstances this would have been impossible.
True, the hearing of Tom and Mr. Damon was muffled to a certain
extent by the heavy leather and fur-lined caps they wore. But Tom
had several small eyelet holes set into the flaps just over the
opening of the ears, and these holes were sufficient to admit
sounds, while keeping out most of the cold that obtains in the
upper regions.
The aeroplane moved swiftly along the level starting ground,
and away from the lighted hangars. Faster and faster it swung
along as Tom headed it into the wind, and then, as the speed of
the motor increased, the Air Scout suddenly left the earth and
went soaring aloft as she had done before.
But there was this difference. She moved almost as silently as
a great owl which swoops down out of the darkness--a bit of the
velvety blackness itself. Up and up, and onward and onward, went
the Air Scout. Tom Swift's improved, silent motor urged it
onward, and as the young inventor listened to catch the noise of
the machinery, his heart gave a bound of hope. For he could
detect only very slight sounds.
"She's a success!" exulted Tom to himself. "She's a success,
but she isn't perfect yet," he added. "I've got to make the
muffler bigger and put in more baffle-plates. Then I think I can
turn the trick."
He swung the machine out over the open country, and then, when
they were up at a height and sailing along easily, he called back
to Mr. Damon in the seat behind him:
"How do you like it?"
"Great!" exclaimed the eccentric man. "Bless my postage stamp,
but it's great! Why, there's hardly a sound, Tom, and I can hear
you quite easily."
"And I can hear you," added Tom. "I don't believe, down below
there," and he nodded toward the earth, though Mr. Damon could
not see this, as the airship, save for a tiny light over the
instrument board, was in darkness, "they know that we're flying
over their heads."
"I agree with you," was the answer. "Tom, my boy, I believe
you've solved the trick! You have produced a silent aeroplane,
and now it's up to the government to make use of it."
"I'm not quite ready for that yet," replied the young inventor.
"I have several improvements to make. But, when they are
finished, I'll let Uncle Sam know what I have. Then it's up to
him."
"And you must be careful, Tom, that some of your rivals don't
hear of your success and get it away from you," warned Mr. Damon,
as Tom guided the Air Scout along the aerial way--an unlighted
and limitless path in the silent darkness.
"Oh, they'll have to get up pretty early in the morning to do
that!" boasted Tom, and afterward he was to recall those words
with a bit of chagrin.
On and on they sailed, and as Tom increased the speed of the
motor, and noted how silently it ran, he began to have high hopes
that he had builded better than he knew. For even with the motor
running at almost full speed there was not noise enough to hinder
talk between himself and Mr. Damon.
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