“Bless my toothpick!” exclaimed the odd gentleman, as he saw the grizzled elephant hunter sitting between Tom and Mr. Swift. “I have seen you somewhere before, my dear sir.”
“Yes,” admitted Mr. Durban, “if you’re from Waterford you have probably seen me traveling about the streets there. I’m stopping with my sister, Mrs. Douglass, but I can’t stand it to be in the house much, so I’m out of doors, wandering about a good bit of the time. I miss my jungle. But we’ll soon be in Africa, Tom Swift and me.”
“Is it possible, Tom?” asked Mr. Damon. “Bless my diamond mines! but what are you going to do next?”
“It’s hard to say,” was the answer. “But you came just in time. Mr. Damon. I’m going to rush work on the Black Hawk, my newest airship, and we’ll leave for elephant land inside of a month, taking my new electric rifle along. Will you come?”
“Bless my penknife! I never thought of such a thing. I—I—guess— no, I don’t know about it—yes, I’ll go!” he suddenly exclaimed. “I’ll go! Hurrah for the elephants!” and he jumped up and shook hands in turn with Mr. Durban, to whom he had been formally introduced, and with Tom and Mr. Swift.
“Then it’s all settled but the details,” declared the youth, “and now I’ll call in Mr. Jackson, and we’ll talk about how soon we can have the airship ready.”
“My, but you folks are almost as speedy as a herd of the big elephants themselves!” exclaimed Mr. Durban, and with the advent of the engineer the talk turned to things mechanical among Tom and Mr. Jackson and Mr. Damon, while Mr. Durban told Mr. Swift hunting stories which the old inventor greatly enjoyed.
The next day Tom engaged two machinists who had worked for him building airships before, and in the next week rush work began on the new Black Hawk. Meanwhile Mr. Durban was a frequent visitor at Tom’s home, where he learned to use the new rifle, declaring it was even more wonderful than he had at first supposed.
“That will get the elephants!” he exclaimed. It did, as you shall soon learn, and it also was the means of saving several lives in the wilds of the African jungle.