"Come on, Tom," the aeronaut called. "We"re almost ready to fly. Will you come too, Mr. Swift, and Garret?"
"Some other time," promised the aged inventor. "It looks as though you were going to succeed, though. I"ll wait, however, until after the test before I venture."
"How about you, Garret?" asked Tom of the engineer, as the young inventor climbed into the car.
"The ground is good enough for me," was the answer, with a smile.
"Broken bones don"t mend so easily when you"re past sixty-five."
"But we"re not going to fall!" declared Mr. Sharp. "All ready, Tom.
Cast off! Here we go!"
The restraining ropes were quickly cast aside. Slowly at first, and then with a rush, as though feeling more and more sure of herself, the Red Cloud arose in the air like a gigantic bird of scarlet plumage. Up and up it went, higher than the house, higher than the big shed where it had been built, higher, higher, higher!
"There she is!" cried the shrill voices of the boys in the meadow, and the hoa.r.s.er tones of the men mingled with them.
"Hurrah!" called Tom softly to the balloonist. "We"re off!" and he waved his hand to his father and Garret.
"I told you so," spoke Mr. Sharp confidently. "I"m going to start the propellers in a minute."
"Oh, dear me, goodness sakes alive!" cried Mrs. Baggert, the housekeeper, running from the house and wringing her hands. "I"m sure they"ll fall!"
She looked up apprehensively, but Tom only waved his hand to her, and threw her a kiss. Clearly he had no fears, though it was the first time he had ever been in an airship. Mr. Sharp was as calm and collected as an ocean captain making his hundredth trip across the Atlantic.
"Throw on the main switch," he called to our hero, and Tom, moving to amidships in the car, did as directed. Mr. Sharp pulled several levers, adjusted some valves, and then, with a rattle and bang, the huge, twenty-cylinder motor started.
Waiting a moment to see that it was running smoothly, Mr. Sharp grasped the steering wheel. Then, with a quick motion he threw the two propellers in gear. They began to whirl around rapidly.
"Here we go!" cried Tom, and, sure enough, the Red Cloud, now five hundred feet in the air, shot forward, like a boat on the water, only with such a smooth, gliding, easy motion, that it seemed like being borne along on a cloud.
"She works! She works!" cried the balloonist. "Now to try our elevation rudder," and, as the Red Cloud gathered speed, he tilted the small planes which sent the craft up or down, according to the manner in which they were tilted. The next instant the airship was pointed at an angle toward the clouds, and shooting along at swift speed, while, from below came the admiring cheers of the crowd of boys and men.
Chapter 5
Colliding With A Tower
"She seems to work," observed Tom, looking from where he was stationed near some electrical switches, toward Mr. Sharp.
"Of course she does," replied the aeronaut. "I knew it would, but I wasn"t so sure that it would scoot along in this fashion. We"re making pretty good speed, but we"ll do better when the motor gets to running smoother."
"How high up are we?" asked Tom.
The balloonist glanced at several gauges near the steering wheel.
"A little short of three thousand feet," he answered. "Do you want to go higher?"
"No--no--I--I guess not," was Tom"s answer. He halted over the works, and his breath came in gasps.
"Don"t get alarmed," called Mr. Sharp quickly, noting that his companion was in distress because of the high alt.i.tude. "That always happens to persons who go into a thin air for the first time; just as if you had climbed a high mountain. Breathe as slowly as you can, and swallow frequently. That will relieve the pressure on your ear drums.
I"ll send the ship lower."
Tom did as he was advised, and the aeronaut, deflecting the rudder, sent the Red Cloud on a downward slant. Tom at once felt relieved, both because the action of swallowing equalized the pressure on the ear drums, and because the airship was soon in a more dense atmosphere, more like that of the earth.
"How are you now?" asked the man of the lad, as the craft was again on an even keel.
"All right," replied Tom, briskly. "I didn"t know what ailed me at first."
"I was troubled the same way when I first went up in a balloon,"
commented Mr. Sharp. "We"ll run along for a few miles, at an elevation of about five hundred feet, and then we"ll go to within a hundred feet of the earth, and see how the Red Cloud behaves under different conditions. Take a look below and see what you think of it."
Tom looked low, through one of several plate gla.s.s windows in the floor of the car. He gave a gasp of astonishment.
"Why! We"re right over Lake Carlopa!" he gasped.
"Of course," admitted Mr. Sharp with a laugh. "And I"m glad to say that we"re better off than when I was last in the air over this same body of water," and he could scarcely repress a shudder as he thought of his perilous position in the blazing balloon, as related in detail in "Tom Swift and His Motor-Boat."
The lake was spread out below the navigators of the air like some mirror of silver in a setting of green fields. Tom could see a winding river, that flowed into the lake, and he noted towns, villages, and even distant cities, interspersed here and there with broad farms or patches of woodlands, like a bird"s-eye view of a stretch of country.
"This is great!" he exclaimed, with enthusiasm. "I wouldn"t miss this for the world!"
"Oh, you haven"t begun to see things yet," replied Mr. Sharp. "Wait until we take a long trip, which we"ll do soon, as this ship is behaving much better than I dared to hope. Well, we"re five hundred feet high now, and I"ll run along at that elevation for a while."
Objects on the earth became more distinct now, and Tom could observe excited throngs running along and pointing upward. They were several miles from Shopton, and the machinery was running smoothly; the motor, with its many cylinders purring like a big cat.
"We could have lunch, if we"d brought along anything to eat," observed Tom.
"Yes," a.s.sented his companion. "But I think we"ll go back now. Your father may be anxious. Just come here, Tom, and I"ll show you how to steer. I"m going down a short distance."
He depressed the rudder, and the Red Cloud shot earthward. Then, as the airship was turned about, the young inventor was allowed to try his hand at managing it. He said, afterward, that it was like guiding a fleecy cloud.
"Point her straight for Shopton," counseled Mr. Sharp, when he had explained the various wheels and levers to the lad.
"Straight she is," answered the lad, imitating a sailor"s reply. "Oh, but this is great! It beats even my motor-boat!"
"It goes considerably faster, at all events," remarked Mr. Sharp.
"Keep her steady now, while I take a look at the engine. I want to be sure it doesn"t run hot."
He went aft, where all the machinery in the car was located, and Tom was left alone in the small pilot house. He felt a thrill as he looked down at the earth beneath him, and saw the crowds of wonder-gazers pointing at the great, red airship flying high over their heads.
Rapidly the open fields slipped along, giving place to a large city.
"Rocksmond," murmured Tom, as he noted it. "We"re about fifty miles from home, but we"ll soon be back in the shed at this rate. We certainly are slipping along. A hundred and fifty feet elevation," he went on, as he looked at a gauge. "I wonder if I"ll ever get used to going several miles up in the air?"
He shifted the rudder a bit, to go to the left. The Red Cloud obeyed promptly, but, the next instant something snapped. Tom, with a startled air, looked around. He could see nothing wrong, but a moment later, the airship dipped suddenly toward the earth. Then it seemed to increase its forward speed, and, a few seconds later, was rushing straight at a tall, ornamental tower that rose from one corner of a large building.
"Mr. Sharp! Mr. Sharp!" cried the lad. "Something has happened! We"re heading for that tower!"