"Thank Heaven for that!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, fervently, forgetting to bless anything on this occasion. "If only he can get here in time!"
"He"s driving her to the limit!" cried Ned, still watching his chum through the gla.s.s. "He"s coming!"
"He"ll need to," murmured the foreman, grimly. "That dam can"t last ten minutes more. Look at the people fleeing from the valley!"
He pointed to the north, and a confused ma.s.s of small black objects--men, women and children, doubtless, who had lingered in spite of the other warning--could be seen clambering up the sides of the valley.
"Is everything ready at the gun?" asked Mr. Damon.
"Everything," answered Ned, whom Tom had instructed in all the essentials. "As soon as he lands we"ll jam in the powder, and fire the shot."
"I hope he doesn"t land too hard, with all that explosive on board,"
murmured the foreman.
"Bless my checkerboard!" cried Mr. Damon. "Don"t suggest such a thing."
"I guess we can trust Tom," spoke Ned.
They looked up. The distant throb of the monoplane"s motor could now be heard above the roar of the swollen waters. Tom could be seen in his seat, and beside him, in the other, was a large package.
Nearer and nearer came the monoplane. It began to descend, very gently, for well Tom Swift knew the danger of hitting the ground too hard with the cargo he carried.
He described a circle in the air to check his speed. Then, gently as a bird, he made a landing not far from the gun, the craft running easily over one of the few level places on the side of the hill. Tom yanked on the brake, and the iron-shod pieces of wood dug into the ground, checking the progress of the monoplane on its bicycle wheels.
"Have you got it, Tom?" yelled Ned.
"I have," was the answer of the young inventor as he leaped from his seat.
"Is it good powder?" asked the foreman, anxiously.
"I don"t know," spoke Tom. "I didn"t have time to look. I just rushed up to where I had stored it, got some out and came back with the motor at full speed. Ran into an airpocket, too, and I thought it was all up with me when I began to fall. But I managed to get out of it. Say, we"re going to have it nip and tuck here to save the village."
"That"s what!" agreed the foreman, as he helped Koku take the cans of explosive.
"Wait until I look at it," suggested Tom, as he opened one. His trained eye and touch soon told him that this explosive had not been tampered with.
"It"s all right!" he shouted. "Into the gun with it, and we"ll see what happens."
It was the work of only a few moments to put in the charge. Then, once more, the breech-block was slotted home, and the trailing electric wires unreeled to lead to the bomb-proof.
Tom Swift took one last look through the telescope sights of his giant cannon. He changed the range slightly by means of the hand and worm-screw gear, and then, with the others, ran to the shelter of the cave. For, though the gun had stood the previous tests well, Tom had used a heavier charge this time, both in the firing chamber and in the projectile, and he wanted to take no chances.
"All ready?" asked the young inventor, as he looked around at his friends gathered in the cave.
"I--I guess so," answered Ned, somewhat doubtfully.
Tom hesitated a moment, then, as his fingers stiffened to press the electric b.u.t.ton there sounded to the ears of all a dull, booming sound.
"The dam! It has given way!" cried Ned.
"That"s it!" shouted the foreman. "Fire!"
Tom pressed the b.u.t.ton. Once again was that awful tremor of the earth--the racking shake--the terrific explosion and a shock that knocked a couple of the men down.
"All right!" shouted Tom. "The gun held together. It"s safe to go out.
We"ll see what happened!"
They all rushed from the shelter of the cave. Before them was an awe-inspiring sight. A great wall of water was coming down the valley, from a large opening in the centre of the dam. It seemed to leap forward like a race horse.
Tom declared afterward that he saw his projectile strike the barrier that separated one valley from the other, but none of the others had eyesight as keen as this--and perhaps Tom was in error.
But there was no doubt that they all saw what followed. They heard a distant report as the great projectile burst. Then a wall of earth seemed to rise up in front of the advancing wall of water. High into the air great stones and ma.s.ses of dirt were thrown.
"A good shot!" cried the foreman. "Just in the right place, Tom Swift!"
For a moment it was as though that wall of water hesitated, not deciding whether to continue on down the populated valley, or to swing over into the other gash where it could do comparatively little harm.
It was a moment of suspense.
Then, as Tom"s great shot had, by means of the exploding projectile, torn down the barrier, the water chose the more direct and shorter path. With a mighty roar, like a distant Niagara, it swept into the new channel the young inventor had made. Into the transverse valley it tumbled and tossed in muddy billows of foam, and only a small portion of the flood added itself to the already swollen creek.
The village of Preston had been saved by the shot from Tom"s giant cannon.
CHAPTER XX
THE GOVERNMENT ACCEPTS
"Whew! Let me sit down somewhere and get my breath!" gasped Tom, when it was all over.
"I should think you would want a bit of quiet," replied Ned. "You"ve been on the jump since early morning."
"Bless my dining-room table!" cried Mr. Damon. "I should say so! I"ll go tell the cook to get us all a good meal--we need it," for a competent cook had been installed in the old farmhouse where Tom and his party had their headquarters.
"But you did the trick, Tom, old man!" exclaimed Ned, fervently, as he looked down the valley and saw the receding water. For, with the opening of the channel into the other valley the flood, at no time particularly dangerous near Preston, was subsiding rapidly.
"He sure did," declared the foreman. "No one else could have done it, either."
"Oh, I don"t know," spoke Tom, modestly. "It just happened so. There was one minute, though, after I got to the place in Preston where I had stored the powder, that I didn"t know whether I would succeed or not."
"How was that?" asked Mr. Damon.
"Why, in my hurry and excitement I forgot the key to the underground storeroom where I had put the explosive. I knew there was no time to get another, so I took a chance and burst in the door with an axe I found in the freight depot."
"I should say you did take a chance!" declared Ned, who knew how "freaky" the high explosive was, and how likely it was, at times, to be set off by the least concussion.