第17章
"Yes, India.I want a picture of an elephant drive, and if you can get pictures of the big beasts in a stampede, so much the better.Then, too, the Durbar is on now, and that will make a good film.How soon can you start for Calcutta?""Well, I've got to overhaul the airship," said Tom."That will take about three weeks.The camera is practically finished.I can leave in a month, Iguess."
"Good.We'll have fine weather by that time.Are you going all the way by your airship?""No, I think it will be best to take that apart, ship it by steamer, and go that way ourselves.I can put the airship together in India, and then use it to get to any other part of Europe, Asia or Africa you happen to want pictures from.""Good! Well, get to work now, and I'll see you again."In the days that followed, Tom and Ned were kept busy.There was considerable to do on the airship, in the way of overhauling it.This craft was Tom's largest, and was almost like the one in which he had gone to the caves of ice, where it was wrecked.It had been, however, much improved.
The craft was a sort of combined dirigible balloon, and aeroplane, and could be used as either.There was a machine on board for generating gas, to use in the balloon part of it, and the ship, which was named the Flyer, could carry several persons.
"Bless my shoe laces!" cried Mr.Damon one day as he looked at Koku."If we take him along in the airship, will we be able to float, Tom?""Oh, yes.The airship is plenty big enough.Besides, we are not going to take along a very large party, and the camera is not heavy.Oh, we'll be all right.I suppose you'll be on hand to- morrow, Mr.Damon?""To-morrow? What for?"
"We're going to take the picture machine up in the airship, and get some photos from the sky.I expect to make some films from high in the air, as well as some in the regular way, on the ground, and I want a little practice.Come around about two o'clock, and we'll have a trial flight.""All right.I will.But don't let my wife know I'm going up in an airship again.She's read of so many accidents lately, that she's nervous about having me take a trip.""Oh, I won't tell," promised Tom with a laugh, and he worked away harder than ever, for there were many little details to perfect.The weather was now getting warm, as there was an early spring, and it was pleasant out of doors.
The moving picture camera was gotten in readiness.Extra rolls offilms were on hand, and the big airship, in which they were to go up, for their first test of taking pictures from high in the air, had been wheeled out of the shed.
"Are you going up very far?" asked Mr.Nestor of Tom, and the young inventor thought that Mary's father was a trifle nervous.He had not made many flights, and then only a little way above the ground, with Tom.
"Not very high," replied our hero."You see I want to get pictures that will be large, and if I'm too far away I can't do it.""Glad to hear it, replied Mr.Nestor, with a note of relief in his voice."Though I suppose to fall a thousand feet isn't much different from falling a hundred when you consider the results.""Not much," admitted Tom frankly.
"Bless my feather bed!" cried Mr.Damon."Please don't talk of falling, when we're going up in an airship.It makes me nervous.""We'll not fall!" declared Tom confidently.
Mr.Period sent his regrets, that he could not be present at the trial, stating in his letter that he was the busiest man in the world, and that his time was worth about a dollar a minute just at present.He, however, wished Tom all success.Tom's first effort was to sail along, with the lens of the camera pointed straight toward the earth.He would thus get, if successful, a picture that, when thrown on the screen, would give the spectators the idea that they were looking down from a moving balloon.For that reason Tom was not going to fly very high, as he wanted to get all the details possible.
"All aboard!" cried the young inventor, when he had seen to it that his airship was in readiness for a flight.The camera had been put aboard, and the lens pointed toward earth through a hole in the main cabin floor.All who were expected to make the trip with Tom were on hand, Koku taking the place of Eradicate this time, as the colored man was too aged and feeble to go along.
"All ready?" asked Ned, who stood in the steering tower, with his hand on the starting lever, while Tom was at the camera to see that it worked properly.
"All ready," answered the young inventor, and, an instant later, theyshot upward, as the big propellers whizzed around.
Tom at once started the camera to taking pictures rapidly, as he wanted the future audience to get a perfect idea of how it looked to go up in a balloon, leaving the earth behind.Then as the Flyer moved swiftly over woods and fields, Tom moved the lens from side to side, to get different views.
"Say! This is great!" cried Mr.Nestor, to whom air-riding was much of a novelty."Are you getting good pictures, Tom?""I can't tell until we develop them.But the machine seems to be working all right.I'm going to sail back now, and get some views of our own house from up above."They had sailed around the town of Shopton, to the neighboring villages, over woods and fields.Now they were approaching Shopton again.
"Bless my heart!" suddenly exclaimed Mr.Damon, who was looking toward the earth, as they neared Tom's house.
"What is it?" asked our hero, glancing up from the picture machine, the registering dial of which he was examining.
"Look there! At your shop, Tom! There seems to be a lot of smoke coming from it!"They were almost over Tom's shop now, and, as Mr.Damon had said, there was considerable smoke rolling above it.
"I guess Eradicate is burning up papers and trash," was Ned's opinion.
Tom looked to where the camera pointed, he was right over his shop now, and could see a dense vapor issuing from the door.
That isn't Eradicate!" cried the young inventor."My shop is on fire! I've got to make a quick drop, and save it! There are a lot of valuable models, and machines in there! Send us down, Ned, as fast as she'll go!"