"When are you going to try it?" asked Ned.
"Right away. All I have to do is to put the chemicals in the metal tank."
"Then I'd better get my leather suit on," remarked Ned, starting to take off his street coat. Tom kept for his chum a full outfit of flying garments, one suit being electrically heated.
"Oh, we aren't going up in any airship," Tom said.
"Why, I thought you were going to test your aerial fire fighting dingus!" exclaimed Ned.
"So I am. But I want to stay on the ground and watch the effect on the blaze as the tank bursts and scatters the chemical fluid."
"Then you want me, and perhaps Mr. Damon to take the stuff up in the machine? Excuse me. I don't believe I care to run an airship myself."
"No," went on Tom, "there isn't any question of an airship this time. No one is going up. Come on out into the yard and I'll show you."
Ned Newton followed his chum out into the big yard near one of the shops. Erected in it, and evidently a new structure, was a large wooden scaffold in square tower shape with a long overhanging arm and a platform on the extremity. Beneath it was a pit dug in the earth, and in this pit, which was directly under the outstanding arm of the tower, was a pile of wood and shavings, oil-soaked.
"Oh, I see the game," remarked Ned. "You're going to drop the stuff from this height instead of doing it from an airship."