“Yes, but it didn’t happen,” insisted Tom, with another smile. “ ‘A miss is as good as a mile,’ you know. We’re safe and sound. We are well guarded now and I want to see if my machine will do what I hope it will.”
“Very well,” assented Ned, with a shake of his head. “On with the dance, let Mr. Damon and myself be unconfined. I’m game if you are, Tom.”
“Bless my dominoes, so am I!” added the odd man.
“There really is no danger now,” Tom insisted. “I’m not saying but what the scoundrels may try it again. But, for the time being, we are safe. It’s just as it is after a hard thunder storm,” he went on. “There’ll be no danger from the lightning for some time.”
“You may be right there,” agreed Ned. “Well, come on, Mr. Damon. We’ll do our part to make the entertainment a success.”
Shortly after this Mary Nestor and her parents arrived in answer to the invitation Tom had sent them, and they were followed soon by Helen Morton, whom Ned greeted with a warm smile.
“But what’s going on?” Mary wanted to know of Tom. “We were stopped two or three times on our way through your grounds and made to show the passes you sent us. What’s the cause? Is it war?”
“Something like that,” admitted Tom. “We’re having a little trouble with some men who don’t like what I’m doing. But I think the worst is over.”
Then, not telling what danger he and Ned had been in, Tom Swift gave his friends a brief description of the new talking-picture machine and prepared them for what they were going to see.
Mary, Helen and their parents took their seats in the laboratory with Mr. Swift and Tom, while Ned and Mr. Damon went to the broadcasting studio, there to don their red and violet robes. Tom had not yet succeeded in making it possible to render sharp and clear performers attired in garments of other colors or combination of colors, though he hoped, by the use of filter screens, to bring this about later.