CHAPTER V
RUSH WORK
Mr. Swift made the African hunter warmly welcome, and listened withpride to the words of praise Mr. Durban bestowed on Tom regardingthe rifle.
"Yes, my boy has certainly done wonders along the inventive line,"said Mr. Swift.
"Not half as much as you have, Dad," interrupted the lad, for Tomwas a modest youth.
"You should see his sky racer," went on the old inventor.
"Sky racer? What's that?" asked Mr. Durban. "Is it another kind ofgun or cannon?"
"It's an aeroplane--an airship," explained Mr. Swift.
"An airship!" exclaimed the old elephant hunter. "Say, you don'tmean that you make balloons, do you?"
"Well, they're not exactly balloons," replied Tom, as he brieflyexplained what an aeroplane was, for Mr. Durban, having been in thewilds of the jungle so much, had had very little chance to see thewonders and progress of civilization.
"They are better than balloons," went on Tom, "for they can go whereyou want them to."
"Say! That's the very thing!" cried the old hunter enthusiastically."If there's one thing more than another that is needed in hunting inAfrica it's an airship. The travel through the jungle is somethingfierce, and that, more than anything else, interferes with my work.I can't cover ground enough, and when I do get on the track of aherd of elephants, and they get away, it's sometimes a week before Ican catch up to them again."
"For, in spite of their size, elephants can travel very fast, andonce they get on the go, nothing can stop them. An airship would bethe very thing to hunt elephants with in Africa--an airship and thiselectric rifle. I wonder why you haven't thought of going, TomSwift."
"I have thought of it," answered the young inventor, "and that's whyI asked you in. I want to talk about it."
"Do you mean you want to go?" demanded the old man eagerly.
"I certainly do!"
"Then I'm your man! Say, Tom Swift, I'd be proud to have you go toAfrica with me. I'd be proud to have you a member of my huntingparty, and, though I don't like to boast, still if you'll ask any ofthe big-game people they'll tell you that not every one canaccompany Aleck Durban."
Tom realized that he was speaking to an authority and a mostdesirable companion, should he go to Africa, and he was very glad ofthe chance that had made him acquainted with the veteran hunter.
"Will you go with me?" asked Mr. Durban. "You and your electric gunand your airship? Will you come to Africa to hunt elephants, andhelp me get the big tusks I'm after?"
"I will!" exclaimed Tom.
"Then we'll start at once. There's no need of delaying here anylonger."
"Oh, but I haven't an airship ready," said the young inventor. Theface of the old hunter expressed his disappointment.
"Then we'll have to give up the scheme," he said ruefully.
"Not at all," Tom told him. "I have all the material on hand forbuilding a new airship. I have had it in mind for some time, and Ihave done some work on it. I stopped it to perfect my electricrifle, but, now that is done, I'll tackle the Black Hawk again, andrush that to completion."
"The Black Hawk?" repeated Mr. Durban, wonderingly.
"Yes, that's what I will name my new craft. The RED CLOUD wasdestroyed, and so I thought I'd change the color this time, andavoid bad luck."
"Good!" exclaimed the hunter. "When do you think you can have itfinished?"
"Oh, possibly in a month--perhaps sooner, and then we will go toAfrica and hunt elephants!"
"Bless my ivory paper cutter!" exclaimed a voice in the hall justoutside the library. "Bless my fingernails! But who's talking aboutgoing to Africa?"
The old hunter looked at Tom and his father in surprise, but theyoung inventor laughing and going to the door, called out:
"Come on in, Mr. Damon. I didn't hear you ring. There is some onehere from your town."
"Is it my wife?" asked the odd gentleman who was always blessingsomething. "She said she was going to her mother's to spend a fewweeks, and so I thought I'd come over here and see if you hadanything new on the program. The first thing I hear is that you aregoing to Africa. And so there's some one from Waterford in there,eh? Is it my wife?"
"No," answered Tom with another laugh. "Come on in Mr. Damon."
"Bless my toothpick!" exclaimed the odd gentleman, as he saw thegrizzled elephant hunter sitting between Tom and Mr. Swift. "I haveseen you somewhere before, my dear sir."
"Yes," admitted Mr. Durban, "if you're from Waterford you haveprobably seen me traveling about the streets there. I'm stoppingwith my sister, Mrs. Douglass, but I can't stand it to be in thehouse much, so I'm out of doors, wandering about a good bit of thetime. I miss my jungle. But we'll soon be in Africa, Tom Swift andme."
"Is it possible, Tom?" asked Mr. Damon. "Bless my diamond mines! butwhat are you going to do next?"
"It's hard to say," was the answer. "But you came just in time. Mr.Damon. I'm going to rush work on the Black Hawk, my newest airship,and we'll leave for elephant land inside of a month, taking my newelectric rifle along. Will you come?"
"Bless my penknife! I never thought of such a thing. I--I--guess--no,I don't know about it--yes, I'll go!" he suddenly exclaimed."I'll go! Hurrah for the elephants!" and he jumped up and shookhands in turn with Mr. Durban, to whom he had been formallyintroduced, and with Tom and Mr. Swift.
"Then it's all settled but the details," declared the youth, "andnow I'll call in Mr. Jackson, and we'll talk about how soon we canhave the airship ready."
"My, but you folks are almost as speedy as a herd of the bigelephants themselves!" exclaimed Mr. Durban, and with the advent ofthe engineer the talk turned to things mechanical among Tom and Mr.Jackson and Mr. Damon, while Mr. Durban told Mr. Swift huntingstories which the old inventor greatly enjoyed.
The next day Tom engaged two machinists who had worked for himbuilding airships before, and in the next week rush work began onthe new Black Hawk. Meanwhile Mr. Durban was a frequent visitor atTom's home, where he learned to use the new rifle, declaring it waseven more wonderful than he had at first supposed.
"That will get the elephants!" he exclaimed. It did, as you shallsoon learn, and it also was the means of saving several lives in thewilds of the African jungle.