“I’ll do anything, Tom, but eat onions. I hate ’em! Never could touch the things. So outside of that I’m at your service. I just stopped in casually on my way home and——”
“You’re just in time!” interrupted Tom. “This thing is giving me the dingbats, or it will if I don’t solve it soon. Come on, I’ll have to pass you in, for Eradicate is on guard.”
Ned, who was resting after his singing and dancing, attired in a violet-colored suit, as Tom had said, welcomed Mr. Damon. Tom quickly explained his new plan, and when Koku and Eradicate had made sure no interlopers were around, the new experiments were begun.
“But what’s it all about?” asked Mr. Damon as, in his red suit, he joined Ned in the song and dance. It may be said, in passing, that Mr. Damon was much funnier than he suspected. In spite of his anxiety over the outcome, Tom could not help chuckling as he watched the little rehearsal before going back to his laboratory.
“That’ll do excellently,” he said, as he observed his eccentric friend shuffle about the improvised stage. “Keep it up now, and I’ll see how it comes through.”
Under the glare of the powerful lights in the broadcasting studio, Mr. Damon and Ned danced and sang while with an anxious heart Tom Swift hurried back to the laboratory to see if the faint image on the metallic glass screen was any brighter.
CHAPTER XIV
KOKU IS DRUGGED
The young inventor, hastening along the corridor between his broadcasting studio and the laboratory where the new machine was set up, passed the giant Koku who sat on a stool not far from Tom’s door. Here the big man had taken his place each night while the testing was going on. With him on guard, Tom felt secure against intrusion by any of the plotters.