"That settles it. We keep on!" cried Tom.
After a hearty breakfast, they took their places on the front seat and started off. For a time they followed a good concrete road, but it soon branched off, and their way lay along a highway that had once been good but which was so no longer.
As the day advanced, taking the travelers farther on their way, the storm increased. By afternoon and after lunch, which they ate while moving along, they were in the midst of a terrific downpour with a wind which reached at times the velocity of a gale.
"She seems to weather it all right, though," remarked Ned, indicating their traveling House.
"Standing up fine!" agreed Tom, much pleased with the staunchness of his latest invention. "We'll be almost there by night in spite of the storm and the bad road."
Hardly had he spoken than there was a fiercer burst of wind, which dashed the rain like hail against the protecting glass in front. Just then Ned pointed ahead as a loud crash sounded and cried:
"Look out, Tom! Stop! Danger!"
CHAPTER XIII
THE DESERTED HOUSE
Tom Swift, ever on the alert when driving any of his machines, from the humble motorcycle to the more complicated apparatuses of the air or undersea, lived up to his name in bringing the House on Wheels to a quick but skillful stop as Ned Newton uttered the exclamation of warning.