CHAPTER II
TOM ACCEPTS
Pausing only long enough to lay aside the pens they had been using to sign the strange agreement, Mr. Swift and his friends rushed from the private office of the aged inventor where the talk had been going on.
Silence had settled over the great Swift plant following that booming explosion. But the silence was quickly broken by voices calling:
“Fire! Fire! Fire!”
“Bless my insurance policy, something has happened!” gasped Mr. Damon.
This was so obvious that no one took the trouble to agree with him.
“I hope nothing has happened to Tom!” exclaimed Mr. Swift.
As the four rushed out they were met by Eradicate, an old colored man, a sort of family retainer, who was limping along, trying to forget his rheumatism long enough to keep pace with a veritable giant of a man who, with Eradicate, was rushing to tell Mr. Swift the news.
“Master’s shop—him go boom!” roared Koku, the giant whom Tom had captured during one of his strange trips.
“I seen it same as he did!” cried Eradicate in his quavering cracked voice. “Massa Tom’s office done cotch fire!” he added.