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Page 58
"That's right," agreed Jackson. "Well, what do you want to do?
Have me stay here and guard the machine while you go for help? Or
shall I go?"
"I don't know why we both can't go," said Tom. "There is no use
trying to patch up this machine here. I'll have to send a truck
after it, and dismantle it before I can get it home.
"As for either of us staying here on guard, I don't quite see
the need of that. This looks like the jumping-off place to me. I
don't believe there's a native within miles. I didn't see any
houses as we came down, and I think Silent Sam will be perfectly
safe here. No one can run off with him, anyhow. He'd be as hard
to start as an automobile with all four wheels gone. Let's leave
it here and both walk back."
"All right," agreed Jackson. "That suits me. Might as well
leave our togs here, too. It will be easier walking without
them," and he began taking off the fur-lined suit, his cap, and
his goggles, such as he and Tom wore against the piercing cold of
the upper regions.
"We can stuff them in the cockpit and leave them," went on the
mechanician, as he divested himself of his garments. As he stowed
them away in his seat he gave one more look at the broken
muffler. As Tom Swift said, his new silencer had literally blown
up, a large piece having been torn from the gas chamber.
Something that Jackson saw caused him to utter an exclamation
that brought Tom Swift to his side.
"What is it?" asked the young inventor.
"Look!" was the answer. "See! Just at the edge of that break!
It's been filed to make the metal thinner there than anywhere
else. You didn't do that, did you?"
"I should say not!" cried Tom. "Why, to file there would mean
to weaken the whole structure."
"And that's exactly what's happened!" declared Jackson, as he
gave another look. "Some one has filed this nearly
through�leaving only a thin metal skin, and when the gas pressure
became too much it blew out. That's what happened!"
Tom Swift made a quick but thorough examination.
"You're right, Jackson!" he exclaimed. "That was filed
deliberately to cause the accident. And it must have been done
lately, for I carefully inspected the silencer when I put it on,
and it was in perfect order. There's been spy work here. Some one
got into the hangar and filed that casing. Then the accumulated
pressure of the gases did the rest."
"As sure as you're alive!" agreed Jackson. "Maybe that's what
Gale did when he called."
"No," returned Tom, shaking his head, "he didn't get a chance to
do anything like that. I watched him all the while. But perhaps
this is what he referred to when he said he and his company would
repudiate any act of that spy with the gold tooth--Lydane, so
Gale said his name was. Maybe that's what Lydane did."
"He was capable of it," agreed the mechanic, "but he couldn't
have done it that time you tripped him into the mud puddle. This
silencer wasn't built then."
"No, you're right," assented Tom. "Then he must have been
around since, doing some of his tricky work!"
"I don't see how that could have been," said Jackson slowly.
"We've kept a very careful watch, and your shop has been
specially guarded."
"I know it has," said Tom. "There couldn't much get past Koku;
but some one seems to have done it, or else how could that filing
have been done?"
Jackson shook his head. The problem was too much for him. He
looked carefully at the exploded and broken silencer, and Tom,
too, gave it a critical eye. There was no doubt but that it had
been filed in several places to weaken the structure of the
metal.
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