CHAPTER XVIII

THE ESCAPE

FOLLOWING Tom Swift out into the corridor, Ned Newton paused long enough to throw an emergency switch that flooded the different yards of the plant with brilliant electric light. At the same time alarm bells were set ringing in the various places where the different watchmen had their stations for the night.

“Stop! Hold on! Who are you?” shouted Tom, as he raced after the midnight visitors who had approached so stealthily but who had left in such a hurry when discovered.

There was no answer, naturally, and when Tom and Ned reached the turn in the hall, around which the two had disappeared, the fugitives were not in sight.

“We’ve got to get them!” cried Tom. “I’ve got to know what this means!”

“Looks as if some of the gangs that bothered us in the past were up to their old tricks,” commented Ned. “But wasn’t one of those fellows the dwarf, Tom?”

“I thought so; but I couldn’t be sure, coming out of the lighted office as I did.”

“The other fellow walked like Jardine,” went on Ned. “But what would he be doing here, coming in like a thief?”

“I can’t imagine,” Tom said, “unless he hoped to appeal to me to let him have a share in the dirigible in spite of what his brother has said.”

“He’s just about crazy enough for that,” agreed Ned. “But how did he and the dwarf get in without some of the watchmen seeing them?”

“That’s what we’ve got to find out,” decided Tom.

The mystery was solved a little later when at a gate on the north side of the plant, one seldom used, the watchman was found unconscious. Though when revived he was not found to be in the least injured. He told a strange tale.

Shortly before midnight, he said, when he was returning from punching one of his clocks, two men, one a dwarf, approached the gate and asked to be directed to a certain small town about ten miles away. They were in a car the engine of which was left running at the side of the road.

Suspecting nothing, the watchman, who had received the first inquiry from behind his wicket gate, opened it and came out. In an instant he was caught by the dwarf, a handkerchief saturated with some powerful chemical was pressed over his face, and he knew nothing more until revived by Tom and Ned.

“Jardine and the dwarf sneaked in here for some trick,” decided Tom. “Maybe they didn’t expect to find you and me in the office so late, Ned.”

“But what was their game, Tom?”

“Hanged if I know.”

“Maybe they wanted to steal the dirigible!”

“Jardine would be crazier than I think he is to try anything like that. But he may have hoped to damage the ship in revenge for what has happened. It’s a mystery.”

A careful search of the plant revealed nothing wrong, and the watchman at the dirigible hangar said he had seen nothing of the midnight callers. They had made their escape, probably through the gate where the watchman lay unconscious.

“I wish the _Silver Cloud_ was off my hands,” complained Tom, as he and Ned left the plant after additional watchmen had been summoned from their homes near by and stationed about the place. “It’s a big success mechanically, but I can’t make any real use of it.”

“It’s certainly eaten into your money and I’m afraid is shaking our credit a bit. We’ll have to retrench as much as possible for a while if you can’t sell it,” declared Ned.

The next day a careful check-up all over the plant revealed nothing wrong, and a further test of the dirigible showed it to be almost perfect.

“I want to get a little speed out of her, and then I’ll be satisfied,” Tom said when the airship had been returned to the hangar after a short voyage around Shopton.

“Can you do it?” asked Ned.

“I think so,” was the answer. “And, Ned, I wish you’d write another letter to Lawrence Jardine, offering him a little better terms if he will buy the _Silver Cloud_. I’m willing to take a small loss on her if I can get it out of the way. I need the hangar for another type of craft I have in mind.”

“All right, I’ll try to get in touch with Jardine,” promised Ned. “But he’s a queer bird—not as queer as his brother, but as hard as nails.”

It was the day after this, when Tom was giving orders to have the _Silver Cloud_ groomed for a final and most severe test of all, which was to take place with a full load of passengers and crew, that Ned Newton, reading the paper, gave a whistle of surprise.

“What’s the matter?” asked Tom. “Has Jardine sent word that he will buy the ship?”

“No. But read that!”

He indicated a small item which Tom took in at a glance. It stated that a man named Cosso Tobini had escaped from the jail in a small town near the Mt. Camon hotel.

“Tobini!” cried Tom. “Why, that’s the crazy gardener who wanted to knock down Mr. Damon.”

“Sure!” assented Ned. “And the one you told me chased the hotel manager with a knife.”

“That’s the fellow,” went on Tom. “A bad bird!”

“Well,” Ned remarked, “I suppose he’ll be after that manager’s scalp now.”

“Shouldn’t wonder,” Tom assented, and then a worried look came over his face.

“What’s the matter?” Ned asked.

“I was just thinking,” said Tom slowly. “I suppose this crazy Tobini may want to take another crack at Mr. Thorndyke or at Mr. Damon. And if he’s insane, as I really believe, he may fly into a rage against anybody—Mary or her parents or dad. I wish he was back in jail!” and Tom Swift began to pace nervously up and down.