Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout; Or, The Speediest Car on the RoadAppleton, Victor
Science
Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout; Or, The Speediest Car on the Road
Appleton, Victor
Electric automobiles -- Juvenile fiction; Swift, Tom (Fictitious character) -- Juvenile fiction
"Oh, I'm all right," the youth insisted, when Miss Whiteside told him
it was time for his medicine. "I'm all right."
"You're not!" she declared. "I ought to know, for I'm going to be a
nurse, some day, and help papa. Now take this or I'll have to hold your
nose, as they do the baby's," and she held out a spoonful of unpleasant
looking mixture, extending her dainty forefinger and thumb of her other
hand, as if to administer dire punishment to Tom, if he did not obey.
"Well, I give in to superior strength," he said with a laugh, as he
noted, with approval, the laughing face of his nurse.
Then he fell into a deep sleep, and was so much better the next morning
that he could be taken home in Mr. Damon's auto.
"But mind, no hard work for three or four days," insisted the
physician. "I want your heart to get in shape for that big race you
were telling me about. The shock was a severe strain to it."
Tom promised, reluctantly, and, though he did no work, his first act,
on reaching home, was to go out to the shop, to inspect the battery and
motor. To his surprise the motor was running for the lad had
established the connection, in spite of his shock and his father and
Mr. Sharp had decided to let the machinery run until he came back.
"And look at the record it's made!" cried Tom delightedly as he glanced
at the gauge. "Better than I figured on. That battery is a wonder. I'll
have the fastest electric runabout you ever saw."
"If the wires don't get crossed again," put in Mr. Sharp. "You'd
better make an examination, Tom," and, for the first time, the young
inventor learned how he had been shocked.
"Crossed wires! I should say they were crossed!" he exclaimed as he
looked at the switches and copper conductors. "Somebody has been
tampering with them. No wonder I was shocked!"
"Who did it?" asked Mr. Sharp.
Tom considered for a moment, before answering. Then he said:
"I believe it was Addison Berg. He must have wanted to do some damage,
to get even with us for getting that treasure away from him."
"Berg?" questioned the balloonist, and Tom told of the night he had
been tripped into the brook, and exhibited the watch charm he had
secured. Mr. Sharp recognized it at once. A further examination
confirmed the belief that the submarine agent had sneaked into Tom's
workshop, and had altered the wires.
"They were all right when I came out of the shop that night," declared
Tom. "I left the old connections just as I thought I had arranged them,
and only added the new ones, when I went to try my battery. The old
connections were crossed, but I didn't notice it. Then when I turned on
the current I got the shock. I don't s'pose Berg thought I'd be so
nearly killed. Probably he wanted to burn out my motor, and spoil it.
If it was Andy Foger I could understand it, but a man like Berg--"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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