Tom Swift and His Air Scout | Page 8

"It's all nonsense--having a motor making so
much noise one can't talk!" he went on, irritatedly.
A strange idea had come to the young inventor, but there was no time
to think of it now. Mentally he registered a vow to take up this idea and
work on it as soon as possible. But, just now, the aeroplane needed all
his attention.
As he had told Mary, there was really nothing approaching any great
danger. But it was rather an anxious moment. If Tom had been alone he
would have thought little of it, but with Mary along he felt a double
responsibility.
What had happened was that the craft had suddenly gone into an "air
pocket" or partial vacuum, and there had been a sudden fall and a slide
slip. In trying to stop this too quickly Tom had broken one of his
controls, and he was busily engaged in putting an auxiliary one in place

and trying to reassure Mary at the same time.
"But it's mighty hard trying to do that through a speaking tube with a
motor making a noise like a boiler factory," mused the young inventor.
Tom worked quickly and to good purpose. In a few moments, though to
Mary they seemed like hours, the machine was again gliding along on a
level keel, and Tom breathed more easily.
"And now for my great idea!" he told himself.
But it was some time before he could give his attention to that.
CHAPTER III
THE BIG OFFER
Working with all the skill he possessed, Tom had got the aeroplane in
proper working order again. As has been said, the accident was a trivial
one, and had he been alone, or with an experienced aviator, he would
have thought little of it. Then, very likely, he would have volplaned to
earth and made the repairs there. But he did not want to frighten Mary
Nestor, so he fixed the control while gliding along, and made light of it.
Thus his passenger was reassured.
"Are we all right?" asked Mary through the tube, as they sailed along.
"Right as a fiddle," answered Tom, shouting through the same means of
communication.
"What's that about a riddle?" asked Mary, in surprise at his seeming
flippancy at such a time.
"I didn't say anything about a riddle--I said we are as fit as a fiddle!"
cried Tom. "Never mind. No use trying to talk with the racket this
motor makes, and it isn't the noisiest of its kind, either. I'll tell you
when we get down. Do you like it?"
"Yes, I like it better than I did at first," answered Mary, for she had

managed to understand the last of Tom's questions. Then he sailed a
little higher, circled about, and, a little later, not to get Mary too tired
and anxious, he headed for his landing field.
"I'll take you home in the auto," he cried to his passenger. "We could
go up to your house this way--in style--if there was a field near by large
enough to land in. But there isn't. So it will have to be a plain,
every-day auto."
"That's good enough for me," said Mary. "Though this trip is
wonderful--glorious! I'll go again any time you ask me."
"Well, I'll ask you," said Tom. "And when I do maybe it won't be so
hard to hold a conversation. It will be more like this," and he shut off
the motor and began to glide gently down. The quiet succeeding the
terrific noise of the motor exhaust was almost startling, and Tom and
Mary could converse easily without using the tube.
Then followed the landing on the soft, springy turf, a little glide over
the ground, and the machine came to a halt, while mechanics ran out of
the hangar to take charge of it.
"I'll just go in and change these togs," said Mary, as she alighted and
looked at her leather costume.
"No, don't," advised Tom. "You look swell in em. Keep 'em on. They're
yours, and you'll need 'em when we go up again. Here comes the auto.
I'll take you right home in it. Keep the aviation suit on.
"I wonder what Mr. Damon could have wanted," remarked Tom, as he
drove Mary along the country road.
"He seemed very much excited," she replied.
"Oh, he almost always is that way--blessing everything he can think of.
You know that. But this time it was different, I'll admit. I hope nothing
is the matter. I might have stopped and spoken to him, but I was afraid
if I did you'd back out and wouldn't come for a sky ride."

"Well, I might have. But now that I've had one, even with an accident
thrown in, I'll go any time you ask me, Tom," and