Chapter XV
Across Country
Ned Newton sighted his machine gun. Tom had showed him how to work it,and indeed the young bank clerk had had some practice with a weaponlike this, erected on a stationary tripod. But this was the first timeNed had attempted to fire from the tank while it was moving, and hefound it an altogether different matter.
"Say, it sure is hard to aim where you want to!" he shouted across toTom, it being necessary, even in the conning tower, where this one gunwas mounted, to speak loudly to make one's self heard above the hum,the roar and rattle of the machinery in the interior of Tank A, andbelow and to the rear of the two young men.
"Well, that's part of the game," Tom answered. "I'm sending her alongover as smooth ground as I can pick out, but it's rough at best. Stillthis is nothing to what you'll get in Flanders."
"If I get there!" exclaimed Ned grimly. "Well, here goes!" and oncemore he tried to aim the machine gun at the middle of the brick wall ofthe ruined factory.
A moment later there was a rattle and a roar as the quick-firingmechanism started, and a veritable hail of bullets swept out at themasonry. Tom and Ned could see where they struck, knocking off bits ofstone, brick and cement.
"Sweep it, Ned! Sweep it!" cried Tom. "Imagine a crowd of Germans arecharging out at you, and sweep 'em out of the way!"
Obeying this command, the young man moved the barrel of the machine gunfrom side to side and slightly up and down. The effect was at onceapparent. The wall showed spatter-marks of the bullets over a widerarea, and had a body of Teutons been before the factory, or even insideit, many of them would have been accounted for, since there wereseveral holes in the wall through which Ned's bullets sped, carryingpotential death with them.
"That's better!" shouted Tom. "That'll do the business! Now I'm goingto open her up, Ned!"
"Open her up?" cried the young bank clerk, as he ceased firing.
"Yes; crack the wall of that factory as I would a nut! Watch me takeit on high--that is, if the old tank doesn't go back on me!"
"You mean you're going to ride right over that building, Tom?"
"I mean I'm going to try! If Tank A does as I expect her to, she'llbutt into that wall, crush it down by force and weight, and then waddleover the ruins. Watch!"
Tom sent some signals to the motor room. At once there was noticed anincrease in the vibrations of the ponderous machine.
"They're giving her more speed," said Tom. "And I guess we'll need it."
Straight for the old factory went Tank A. In spite of its ruinedcondition, some of the walls were still firm, and seemed to offer a bigobstacle to even so powerful an engine of war as this monstrous tank.
"Get ready now, Ned," Tom advised. "And when I crack her open for youcut loose with the machine gun again. This gun is supposed to firestraight ahead and a little to either side. There are other guns atleft and right, amidships, as I might say, and there's also one in thestern, to take care of any attack from that direction.
"The men in charge of them will fire at the same time you do, and itwill be as near like a real attack as we can make it--with theexception of not being fired back at. And I wouldn't mind if such werethe case, for I don't believe anything, outside of heavy artillery,will have any effect on this tank."
Tank A was now almost at her maximum speed as she approached closer tothe deserted factory. Ned and Tom, in the conning tower, saw thelargest of the remaining walls looming before them. Straight at itrushed the ponderous machine, and the next moment there came a shockwhich almost threw Ned away from his gun and back against the steelwall behind him.
"Hold fast!" cried Tom. "Here we go! Fire. Ned! Fire!"
There was a crash as the blunt nose of the great war tank hit the walland crumpled it up.
A great hole was made in the masonry, and what was not crushed underthe caterpillar belts of the tank fell in a shower of bricks, stone andcement on top of the machine.
Like a great hail storm the broken masonry pelted the steel sides andtop of the tank. But she felt them no more than does an alligator theattacks of a colony of ants. Right on through the dust the tankcrushed her way. Added to the noise of the falling walls was that ofthe machine guns, which were barking away like a kennel of angry houndseager to be unleashed at the quarry.
Ned kept his gun going until the heat of it warned him to stop and letthe barrel cool, or he knew he would jam some of the mechanism. Theother guns were firing, too, and the bullets sent up little spatterpoints of dust as they hit.
"Great jumping hoptoads!" yelled Ned above the riot of racket outsideand inside. "Feel her go, Tom!"
"Yes, she's just chewing it up, all right!" cried the young inventor,his eyes shining with delight.
The tank had actually burst her way through the solid wall of the oldfactory, permission to complete the demolition of which Tom had securedfrom the owners. Then the great machine kept right on. She fairly"walked" over the piles of masonry, dipped down into what had been abasement, now partly filled with debris, and kept on toward anotherwall.
"I'm going through that, too!" cried Tom.
And he did, knocking it down and sending his tank over the piled-upruins, while the machine guns barked, coughed and spluttered, as Nedand the others inside the tank held back the firing levers.
Right through the opposite wall, as through the one she had alreadydemolished, the tank careened on her way, to emerge, rather batteredand dust-covered, on the other side of what was left of the factory.And there was not much of it left. Tank A had well-nigh completed itsdemolition.
"If there'd been a nest of Germans in there," said Tom, as he broughtthe machine to a stop in a field beyond the factory, "they'd havegotten out in a hurry."
"Or taken the consequences," added Ned, as he wiped the sweat from hispowder-blackened and oil-smeared face. "I certainly kept my gun going."
"Yes, and so did the others," reported one of the mechanics, as heemerged from the "cubby hole," where the great motors had now ceasedtheir hum and roar.
"How'd she stand it?" asked Tom.
"All right inside," answered the man. "I was wondering how she looksfrom the outside."
"Oh, it would take more than that to damage her," said Tom, withpardonable pride. "That was pie for her! Solid concrete, which she mayhave to chew up on the Western front, may present another kind ofproblem, but I guess she'll be able to master that too. Well, let'shave a look."
He and Ned, with some of the crew and gunners, went outside the tank.She was a sorry-looking sight, very different from the trim appearanceshe had presented when she first left the shop. Bricks, bits of stone,and piles of broken cement in chunks and dust lay thick on her broadback. But no real damage had been done, as a hasty examination showed.
"Well, are you satisfied, Tom?" asked his chum.
"Yes, and more," was the answer. "Of course this wasn't the hardesttest to which she could have been submitted, but it will do to showwhat punishment she can stand. Being shot at from big guns is anothermatter. I'll have to wait until she gets to Flanders to see what effectthat will have. But I know the kind of armor skin she has, and thatdoesn't worry me. There's one thing more I want to do while I have herout now."
"What's that?" asked Ned.
"Take her for a long trip cross country, and then shove her throughsome extra heavy barbed wire. I'm certain she'll chew that up, but Iwant to see it actually done. So now, if you want to come along, Ned,we'll go cross country."
"I'm with you!"
"Get inside then. We'll let the dust and masonry blow and rattle off aswe go along."
The tank started off across the fields, which stretched for many mileson either side of the deserted factory, when suddenly Ned, who wasagain at his post in the observation tower, called:
"Look, Tom!"
"What at?"
"That corner of the factory which is still standing. Look at those mencoming out and running away!"
Ned pointed, and his chum, leaning over from the steering
wheel andcontrols, gave a start of surprise as he saw three figures clamberingdown over the broken debris and making their way out of what had oncebeen a doorway.
"Did they come out of the factory, Ned?"
"They surely did! And unless I miss my guess they were in it, or aroundit, when we went through like a fellow carrying the football over theline for a touchdown."
"In there when the tank broke open things?"
"I think so. I didn't see them before, but they certainly ran out as westarted away."
"This has got to be looked into!" decided Tom. "Come on, Ned! It may bemore of that spy business!"
Tom Swift stopped the tank and prepared to get out.