Suddenly Tom was paying strict attention.

"Great Scott! D'you mean to say someone broke into my Chest of Secrets?

Tell me about it quickly!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tom Paid Strict Attention]

CHAPTER X

SUCCESS

"Me tell!" said Koku. "Hear bell, know bad mans hide in cave. I creep up an' watch!" His dramatic pause might have seemed funny at any other time but Tom was badly worried.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tom Swift Was Worried]

"Hurry up!" commanded the young inventor sharply, grabbing the giant's arm. "What happened?"

"Nothing happen US," answered Koku. "Plenty happen HIM! I catchum fella, crawl up fum cave, knock.u.m out, callum policemans."

"Good boy! You rate a new suit for that. You can tell the tailor to make it as loud as you like!"

Nothing could have pleased the simple giant more, for he loved to dress up in gaudy clothes, a trait left over from his savage life before the young inventor had brought him to America.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "I Catchum Fella!"]

Too excited to sleep, Tom Swift went straight to his office and called the police station. The desk sergeant verified what Koku had said and asked the young scientist to come down and prefer charges.

As he was about to leave he saw on top of his acc.u.mulated mail a letter from the Apex Gla.s.s Works. It was from Mr. Stern. The man advised Tom that he suspected two discharged workmen as the pair who had attempted to rob him. Photographs were enclosed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Photographs Were Enclosed]

"That he, Master!" suddenly boomed Koku, who had been gazing at the photos. "That man steal green gla.s.s thing I ketch back!"

"By Jove, I believe you're right!" declared Tom. "This picture most certainly resembles the fellow you dragged in here. Come on, you and I will go over to the jail and check up."

Late as the hour was, the two took out a car and hastened over to the county prison. No sooner had the sleepy officer on duty conducted them back to the prisoner's cell than Tom immediately recognized the man as the one Koku had captured with the green disk.

[Ill.u.s.tration: They Drove to the County Prison]

Eager to get off as lightly as possible, the fellow, who had been a confidential clerk in the main offices of the gla.s.s works, made a full confession.

"It was Hammer who got me into this, Mr. Swift," whined Anton. "He overheard Mr. Stern talking about your experiments with bendable gla.s.s. He said you'd surely succeed and that the invention would be worth a fortune. So we decided to steal your formula. I've got a sick wife, Mr. Swift--"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hammer Overheard Mr. Stern]

"A pack of lies!" roughly interrupted the policeman. "He's a single man, Mr. Swift, and has a police record to boot!"

"Well, hold him. And I hope you will catch his confederate."

"Don't worry. The boys'll bring him in!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "He Has a Police Record."]

Although the hour was late, Tom decided to return to the laboratory and inspect the vault. There had been a certain sly expression in Anton's eyes which had vaguely disturbed the inventor. It was as if the man were holding something back and grinning over it.

In a few minutes Tom's feeling was proven correct, for the formula dealing with the flexible gla.s.s was gone! Koku, when questioned, admitted that he had seen some papers drop from Anton's pocket when he had seized him just outside the laboratory, but the simple giant had paid no attention to them. There followed a frantic search with a flashlight by Tom but there was no trace of the missing doc.u.ments.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Formula Was Gone]

"They couldn't have blown away!" he declared. "They were clipped together by a special heavy binder. Somebody must have picked them up!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: He Made a Frantic Search]

When Tom visited Anton in jail the next day, the fellow denied loudly that he had taken anything. The police promised to redouble their efforts to capture Hammer. With that a.s.surance the inventor was forced to content himself.

The next few days Tom was so busy that he gave only an occasional thought to his loss. a.n.a.lysis of the sample cut from the meteorite showed that it was even richer than he had hoped in the new substance, X. Immediately he telegraphed a large science supply house for huge flasks, beakers, retorts and other paraphernalia necessary to extract and refine the material.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Sample Was Rich in X]

This done, he arranged for the loan of a large refracting telescope from a near-by observatory to be used in conjunction with the big green disk he proposed to make. Professor Standish of the college was so interested in the project that Tom invited him to the forthcoming test.

Work was begun on an improvised observatory to be erected on a mountain in the Adirondacks. This would place the telescope above most of the blurring effects of the dense, lower atmosphere, filled as it is with smoke and dust.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Work Was Begun on the Observatory]

Ned Newton wired that the meteorite had been safely placed on a fast freight train. He added that he was traveling in the caboose of the same train by special arrangement with the road officials. Tom met his chum at the station.

"How do you like riding in style?" he teased.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ned Traveled in the Caboose]

"Humph!" grunted Ned. "I'll take a plane next time."

A huge truck transported the planet stone to the shops of the Swift Construction Company. One of the buildings had been cleared of all other work, and in it a very large furnace had been erected to cast the green disk. Powerful mechanisms crushed the meteorite to a fine powder which was dissolved by strong acids, then separated into its various ingredients.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Meteorite Was Crushed]

"The furnace will have to be enlarged!" declared Tom. "I had planned to make a disk twenty feet long but there is so much X that we can easily make it thirty-five feet. There'll still be several hundred pounds left."

"Why not use it all and make the biggest 'scope you can?" suggested Ned Newton.

"I believe this will be large enough. Besides, I have an idea that the X has other and even more remarkable powers. I don't want to use it all up in this device."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "We Can Make a Larger Disk!"]

A gang of men had been employed to clear a trail up the side of the mountain in the Adirondacks and construct a road to the summit as none ever had been made to the spot Tom intended to use. A specially large motor truck was built to carry first the telescope, then the giant green disk.