CHAPTER XXV
WEDDING BELLS
Such excitement as this had never before been known among the circles in which Grace Winthrop and her friends moved.
"Mother will be furious at me for ever having had Mr. Barton in the house," said Mary to her friends.
"It wasn't your fault," they told her. "How could you know he was such a rascal?"
"I couldn't! Oh, isn't it perfectly terrible!"
"Terrible!" echoed the girls.
"Rather jolly fun, I call it!" chuckled the young man in the violently colored sweater. "It makes a bit of excitement."
If the truth be known, the girls may have felt the same way about it, only they were not honest enough to acknowledge it.
While Ned left with the special officer to see that Floyd Barton was locked up, pending formal charges that would be filed against him, Tom and Mary went to the House on Wheels to be by themselves.
"Tell your mother I'll be along soon, Grace," was Mary's message to her relative.
"Take your time!" and Grace's voice had a mischievous ring in it.
With much buzzing talk the party left the houseboat, having enough news, with what was to follow, to keep gossip busy for months. Tom and Mary entered the little living room of the House on Wheels.
"Oh, Tom," said Mary again, "I'm so glad you came when you did! It was providential!"
"If I had been a little longer, would I have been too late?" asked Tom, with a smile, as he sat down beside the girl.
"Too late for what?"
"Too late to ask you to marry me at once and have done with all this worry?"
"Why Tom! Marry you at once? Oh—Tom—I—I——"
"Well, I heard, while I was held a prisoner in the castle, that you were soon going to marry Barton. And so——"
"Going to marry him! Oh, never, Tom! Never! Of course he was very nice to me at first—but——"
"But what?" asked Tom, as she hesitated.
"Well—I—er—I——"
When Tom and Mary came out of the House on Wheels a little later he had made certain of what he had suspected a long time, that Mary Nestor was worth to him more than all else in the world.
When Tom and Mary arrived at the Winthrop house some time afterward, they found a message from the State Police, announcing that Cunningham and his gang had fairly run into the net spread about Dismal Mountain for them, and with the exception of a few unimportant men, all were captured.
When Floyd Barton, who had been lodged in jail, heard this news, brought to him by Ned who went back to the castle to look things over, the young man caved in and made a complete confession. He was more a tool of his rascally uncle than anything else, but his money had furnished working capital for the bandits.
Floyd had been particularly struck by Mary's charm and had conducted a rushing campaign to make her capitulate to him. For a time, she afterward confessed to Tom, she had been fascinated by him. But his true character was soon apparent.
Thus the mystery of Dismal Mountain was cleared up. A search of the castle revealed not only much loot, besides the valuable instruments, but also machinery for turning out more. It had been Cunningham's intention to set up the machinery he had hoped to have Tom Swift make for him in this same castle and go into the illegal instrument manufacturing business on a large scale. But with the rounding-up of the gang, all these plans came to an end.
It was also discovered that many of the weird and ghostlike manifestations seen on Dismal Mountain were caused by the Cunningham gang with the object of keeping people away. Only Tom Swift's whimsical decision to investigate the place brought the tricks to light.
"Well, I guess it's all settled," Tom announced to Ned one day, when they had been guests at the Winthrop home for some days after all the rascals were sent to prison.
"What's all settled?" Ned wanted to know.
"My wedding plans. Mary and I are going on our honeymoon in the House on Wheels."
"What did I tell you?" chuckled Ned. "I knew, as soon as you began to build it, that you'd use it for that."
"Only at one time," commented Tom, with a laugh, "it began to look as if nobody but Cunningham would use it."
"That's right," assented Ned.
It developed that after Tom's refusal to have anything to do with him, Cunningham had his men shadow Tom and, when the House on Wheels was headed for Dismal Mountain plans were made to capture it and the occupants. How well these plans succeeded, Tom Swift was in a position to know.
Three weeks after the round-up of the gang there was a beautiful ceremony in the Union Church of Shopton. As the wedding bells pealed forth their joyous music, Ned Newton and Helen Morton, who had been Mary's and Tom's attendants, marched down the aisle behind the happy couple.
"Don't they sound nice?" said Ned to Helen.
"What?"
"Those wedding bells! I hope they'll soon be ringing for us, Helen!"
"Oh, behave yourself, Ned Newton," was all she said. "This is no time to talk about such things!"
As Tom marched out of the church amid a shower of rice and old shoes he saw in the crowd waiting to greet him many old and new friends. His father was there, with Mrs. Baggert, the faithful housekeeper.
"Long life and happiness to you and your sweet bride, Tom!" called the old lady.
"Thanks!" murmured the young groom.
"Dat's whut I say!" echoed Eradicate. "An' I's gwine to lib wif Massa Tom an' Miss Mary when dey sot up housekeepin'!" declared the old Negro.
"Bless my pocketbook!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, who, of course, was among the guests. "Tom Swift getting married! My! My!"
"Well, what's wrong with that?" asked Mr. Jackson.
"Why, it means the end of his wonderful inventions!"
"Nonsense! Nothing of the sort!" declared the shop manager. "Tom Swift will never stop inventing. I shouldn't wonder, now that he's married, but what he'll do the best work of his life."
"Well," said Mr. Damon dryly, "that remains to be seen."
Then, amid the continued ringing of the wedding bells, Tom Swift and his bride went on their honeymoon trip in the House on Wheels.
THE END
BOOKS FOR BOYS
By VICTOR APPLETON
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
THE TOM SWIFT SERIES
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTORCYCLE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR BOAT
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRSHIP
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RUNABOUT
TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIRELESS MESSAGE
TOM SWIFT AMONG THE DIAMOND MAKERS
TOM SWIFT IN THE CAVES OF ICE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SKY RACER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RIFLE
TOM SWIFT IN THE CITY OF GOLD
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR GLIDER
TOM SWIFT IN CAPTIVITY
TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIZARD CAMERA
TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT SEARCHLIGHT
TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT CANNON
TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHOTO TELEPHONE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP
TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIG TUNNEL
TOM SWIFT IN THE LAND OF WONDERS
TOM SWIFT AND HIS WAR TANK
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT
TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH
TOM SWIFT AMONG THE FIRE FIGHTERS
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLYING BOAT
TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT OIL GUSHER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS CHEST OF SECRETS
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRLINE EXPRESS
TOM SWIFT CIRCLING THE GLOBE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS TALKING PICTURES
TOM SWIFT AND HIS HOUSE ON WHEELS
THE DON STURDY SERIES
DON STURDY ON THE DESERT OF MYSTERY
DON STURDY WITH THE BIG SNAKE HUNTERS
DON STURDY IN THE TOMBS OF GOLD
DON STURDY ACROSS THE NORTH POLE
DON STURDY IN THE LAND OF VOLCANOES
DON STURDY IN THE PORT OF LOST SHIPS
DON STURDY AMONG THE GORILLAS
DON STURDY CAPTURED BY HEAD HUNTERS
DON STURDY IN LION LAND
GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York