Tom Swift and His Sky Racer or The Quickest Flight on ... - Fourmilab

must do his very best, <strong>and</strong> he spared no eff<strong>or</strong>ts to make his monoplane come upto his ideal, which was a very exacting one.“We’ll have a real speed test to-m<strong>or</strong>row,” <strong>Tom</strong> announced to Mr. Damonone night. “I’ll see what the Humming-Bird can really do. You’ll come, won’tyou?”“Oh, I suppose so. Bless my insurance policy! I might as well take the samechance you do. But if you’re going to have such a nerve-racking thing as thaton the program, you’d better get to bed early <strong>and</strong> have plenty of sleep.”“Oh, I’m not tired. I think I’ll go out this evening.”“Where?”“Oh, just around town, to see some of the fellows.” But if <strong>Tom</strong> was onlygoing around town merely to see his male friends, why did he dress so carefully,put on a new necktie, <strong>and</strong> take several looks in the glass bef<strong>or</strong>e he went out?We think you can guess, <strong>and</strong> also the girl’s name.<strong>The</strong> young invent<strong>or</strong> got in rather late, <strong>and</strong> after a visit to the aeroplaneshed, to see that all was right there, he went to bed, first connecting up theburglar-alarm wires that guarded the do<strong>or</strong>s <strong>and</strong> windows of the aerodrome.How long he had been asleep <strong>Tom</strong> did not know, but he was suddenly awakenedby hearing the buzzing of the alarm at the head of his bed. At first hetook it f<strong>or</strong> the droning <strong>and</strong> humming of the aeroplane mot<strong>or</strong>, as he had a hazynotion, <strong>and</strong> a s<strong>or</strong>t of dream, that he was in his craft.<strong>The</strong>n, with a start, he realized what it was—the burglar alarm.“Some one’s in the shed!” he gasped.Out of bed he leaped, drawing on his trousers <strong>and</strong> coat, <strong>and</strong> putting on apair of slippers, with speed w<strong>or</strong>thy of a fireman. He grabbed up a revolver <strong>and</strong>rushed from his room, pounding on the do<strong>or</strong> of Mr. Jackson’s apartment inpassing.“Some one in the shed, after the Humming-Bird!” shouted <strong>Tom</strong>. “Get agun, <strong>and</strong> come down!”49