“So, we’ve caught you, have we?” asked the young inventor.
“So it seems!” Schlump snarled. “But you’d better try to save yourself! The others are still after you! I’m not the only one! And you haven’t got me yet—not quite!”
With an unexpected and quick motion he broke away from Koku and ran off in the darkness.
CHAPTER XXIV
TROUBLES AND WORRIES
Instantly the scene just outside the hangar where the plane and the car were kept was in confusion. So quickly had Schlump given his captor the slip that, for a moment, every one was stunned. Even Tom Swift, accustomed as he was to emergencies, did not know what to do. But this hesitation was only momentary.
“Get him!” shouted the young inventor. “We’ve got to get him! Scatter and round him up!”
“Turn on the searchlight!” yelled Ned.
“By golly!” chuckled Eradicate, who had seen the man get away from the giant, “dat big man ain’t so smart whut he t’ink he am.”
“Never mind that now, Rad!” ordered Tom, a bit sternly. “Forget your fights with Koku and see if you can find this fellow! We want to question him and see if we can’t get on the trail of the masked men and others who are trying to queer my plans!”
“Yes, sah,” humbly answered the colored man. “I’ll cotch him!”