They made a good landing, and Mr.Swift hastened up to congratulate his son.
"I knew you could do it, Tom!" he cried.
"I couldn't, though, if it hadn't been for that wonderful engine of yours, dad! How do you feel?""Pretty good.Oh! but that's a fine machine, Tom!" "It certainly is," agreed Mr.Jackson.
"It will be when I have it in better trim," admitted the young inventor modestly.
"By golly!" cried Eradicate, who was grinning almost from ear to ear, "I's proud oh yo', Massa Tom, an' so will mah mule Boomerang be, when I tells him.Yes, sah, dat's what he will be--proud ob yo', Massa Tom!""Thanks, Rad."
"Well, some folks is satisfied with mighty little under 'em, when they go up in the air, that's my opinion," said Mrs.Baggert.
"Why, wouldn't you ride in this?" asked Tom of the buxom housekeeper.
"Not if you was to give me ten thousand dollars!" she cried firmly."Oh, dear! I think the potatoes are burning!" And she rushed back into the house.
The next day Tom started to work overhauling the Humming- Bird, and making some changes.He altered the wing tips slightly, and adjusted the motor, until in a thrust test it developed nearly half again as much power as formerly.
"And I'll need it all," declared Tom as he thought of the number of contestants that had entered the great race.
For the Eagle Park meet was to be a large and important one, and the principal "bird-men" of the world were to have a part in it.Tom knew that he must do his very best, and he spared no efforts to make his monoplane come up to his ideal, which was a very exacting one.
"We'll have a real speed test to-morrow," Tom announced to Mr.Damon one night."I'll see what the Humming-Bird can really do.You'll come, won't you?""Oh, I suppose so.Bless my insurance policy! I might as well take the same chance you do.But if you're going to have such a nerve-racking thing as that on the program, you'd better get to bed early and have plenty of sleep.""Oh, I'm not tired.I think I'll go out this evening." "Where?""Oh, just around town, to see some of the fellows." But if Tom was only going around town merely to see his male friends, why did he dress so carefully, put on a new necktie, and take several looks in the glass before he went out? We think you can guess, and also the girl's name.
The young inventor got in rather late, and after a visit to the aeroplane shed, to see that all was right there, he went to bed, first connecting up the burglar-alarm wires that guarded the doors and windows of the aerodrome.
How long he had been asleep Tom did not know, but he was suddenly awakened by hearing the buzzing of the alarm at the head of his bed.At first he took it for the droning and humming of the aeroplane motor, as he had a hazy notion, and a sort of dream, that he was in his craft.
Then, with a start, he realized what it was--the burglar alarm."Some one's in the shed!" he gasped.
Out of bed he leaped, drawing on his trousers and coat, and putting on a pair of slippers, with speed worthy of a fireman.He grabbed up a revolver and rushed from his room, pounding on the door of Mr.Jackson's apartment in passing.
"Some one in the shed, after the Humming-Bird!" shouted Tom."Get a gun, and come down!"
