“Stop her, Tom! Stop her!” shouted Ned, scrambling up from the floor, where he had fallen when the craft rolled.
But Tom knew that to shut off power and “stop” the flying boat would court greater disaster.
For some unknown reason the craft had lost her balance, and when she rolled over the other way it seemed to the young inventor as though she must go completely over, her wings be wrenched away, and the great craft fall to the earth in a tremendous crash!
CHAPTER XIII
A SECOND TEST
After his second shout of alarm Ned Newton remained quiet. After all, he did not lack either physical or moral courage. He had not entered into this test of the flying boat without knowing very well that something might go wrong and that a fatal disaster for all was possible.
How the mechanicians were affected, the inventor and Ned did not know just then. The members of the crew in the tail of the boat made no comment through the speaking tube. As for comments by anybody on the earth that might be watching the careening plane, Tom Swift had made no provision for receiving such a communication. There was radio on board the Winged Arrow, but it was not in use during this test.
Nor could any advice, even from Mr. Barton Swift, have aided the young inventor in this serious emergency. Something was wrong with the balance of the seaplane. Just what it was, Tom had not yet the first idea. He was as much puzzled as anybody else could have been.
The rolling of the huge structure continued. Had it not been put together with such care, the plane would never have withstood the second roll.
Ned, who had gained his feet and who clung to one of the hand-rails with which the compartment in the nose of the boat was furnished, now was silent. He watched his chum’s movements with great anxiety, but he did not interfere by either speech or act with Tom’s attempts to govern the craft.
The inventor watched the needles of the several indicators connected with the mechanism of the plane. Some of these gyrated crazily when the boat rolled. But there was an arrow on one dial that stood still.