Then came the second round trip, the time being cut down a little, but not enough to satisfy Tom.
On the third one he was so long delayed by a storm that his time was a half hour more than on his first trip west. However, he was still within the daylight stipulation, and Mr. Jacks announced himself satisfied thus far.
“Three more round trips, and I’ll come in on a big scale,” said the old millionaire. “It begins to look feasible, Tom Swift.”
“It is feasible, Mr. Jacks,” was the answer. “You’ll see!”
However, the millionaire came very near not “seeing,” for the night before the sixth round trip was to start something ominous happened out at the Long Island hangar.
Tom and his friends had gone to a hotel there, to be in readiness for an early morning start. The young inventor had inspected the machinery and found everything in perfect order. Koku and Eradicate had been left on guard, their differences for a time being patched up. Each one was proud of his part in the night’s work.
It was shortly after midnight when Eradicate, carefully marching around his end of the plane, thought he detected a movement in the bushes. The old man’s eyesight was none of the best, much as he disliked to admit this, but he decided he would do better to summon Koku, which he did.
“Maybe dere’s somebody ober dere, big man,” whispered Eradicate, pointing.
The giant was like a cat—he could see in the dark. For a moment he bent his gaze on the bush indicated by the colored man. Then with a roar of anger the big fellow rushed forward, jumped into the shrubbery and came out, dragging after him a struggling man.
“Let me go! Let me go!” cried this individual. He tried to get something out of his pocket, but Koku held his hand until other watchmen came with lights, and then it was seen that the prisoner was Schlump. An ugly sight he was, too, his face inflamed with rage. Koku pulled his hand from the pocket and found that Schlump was clutching a deadly bomb with a time fuse which shortly would have set it off. But some of the mechanics soon rendered the infernal machine harmless, and Schlump was taken before Tom.