Roy Rockwood - On a Torn-Away World.pdf - Roy Rockwood - widez2

On a Torn-Away World

Rockwood, Roy

Published: 1913

Type(s): Novels, Young Readers, Science Fiction, Adventure

Source: http://gutenberg.org

About Rockwood:

Roy Rockwood is a pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate

(Tom Swift, Nancy Drew… ) for boy's adventure books.

Also available on Feedbooks for Rockwood:

• Five Thousand Miles Underground (1908)

• Lost on the Moon (1911)

• Under the Ocean to the South Pole (1907)

• Through Space to Mars (1910)

• Through the Air to the North Pole (1906)

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Chapter 1

SHOT INTO THE AIR

"Hurrah!" shouted Jack Darrow, flicking the final drops of lacquer from

the paintbrush he had been using. "That's the last stroke. She's finished!"

"I guess we've done all we can to her before her trial trip," admitted his

chum, Mark Sampson, but in a less confident tone.

"You don't see anything wrong with her, old croaker; do you?" deman-

ded Jack, laughing as usual.

"'The proof of the pudding is in the eating thereof; not in chewing the

pudding bag string'," quoted Mark, still with a serious countenance.

But like Jack he stood off from the great body of the wonderful airship,

and looked the completed task over with some satisfaction. Having

emergency wings, she was also a plane. She was white all over and her

name was the Snowbird . Jack and Mark had spent most of their time dur-

ing this vacation from their college in building this flying machine,

which was veritably an up-to-the-minute aerial vehicle, built for both

speed and carrying capacity.

The hangar in which the machine had been built was connected with

Professor Amos Henderson's laboratory and workshop, hidden away on

a lonely point on the seacoast, about ten miles from the town of Easton,

Maine. At this spot had been built many wonderful things—mainly the

inventions of the boys' friend and protector, Professor Henderson; but

the Snowbird , upon which Jack and Mark now gazed so proudly, was al-

together the boys' own work.

The sliding door of the hangar opened just behind the two boys and a

black face appeared.

"Is eeder ob you boys seen ma Shanghai rooster?" queried the black

man, plaintively. "I suah can't fin' him nowhars."

"What did you let him out of his coop for?" demanded Mark. "You're

always bothering us about that rooster, Washington. He is as elusive as

the Fourth Dimension."

"I dunno wot dat fourth condension is, Massa Mark; but dat rooster is

suah some conclusive. When I lets him out fo' an airin' he hikes right

straight fo' some farmer's hen-yard, an' den I haster hunt fo' him."

"When you see him starting on his rambles, Wash, why don't you call

him back?" demanded Jack Darrow, chuckling. "If I did, Massa Jack,

I'spect he wouldn't know I was a-hollerin' fo' him."

"How's that? Doesn't he know his name?"

"I don't fo' suah know wedder he does or not," returned the darkey,

scratching his head "Ye see, it's a suah 'nuff longitudinous name, an' I

dunno wedder he remembers it all, or not."

"He's got a bad memory; has he?" said Mark, turning to smile at Wash-

ington White, too, for Professor Henderson's old servant usually af-

forded the boys much amusement.

"Dunno 'bout his memory," grunted Wash; "he's gotter good forget-

tery, suah 'nuff. Leastways, when he starts off on one o' dese perambula-

tionaries ob his, he fergits ter come back."

"Let's see," said Jack, nudging his chum, "what is that longitudinous'

name which has been hitched onto that wonderful bird, Wash? I know it

begins with the discovery of America and wanders down through the

ages to the present day; but a part of it has slipped my memory—or, per-

haps I should say, 'forgettery'."

With a perfectly serious face the darkey declaimed:

"Christopher Columbus Amerigo Vespucci George Washington Abra-

ham Lincoln Ulysses Grant Garibaldi Thomas Edison Guglielmo Mar-

coni Butts."

"For goodness sake! Will you listen to that!" gasped Mark, while Jack

went off into a roar of laughter.

"Don't—don't it make your jaw ache to say it, Wash?" cried the older

lad when he could speak.

"Not a-tall! not a-tall!" rejoined the darkey, shaking his woolly head. "I

has practised all ma life speakin' de berry longest words in de English

language—"

"And mispronouncing them," giggled Jack.

"Mebbe, Massa Jack, mebbe!" agreed Washington, briskly. "But de

copy book say dat it is better to have tried an' failed dan nebber to have

tried at all."

"And did you ever try calling the rooster back, when he starts to play

truant, with all that mouthful of words?" queried the amused Mark.

"Yes, indeedy," said Washington, seriously.

"Don't he mind, then?"

"I should think he'd be struck motionless in his tracks," chuckled Jack.

"No, sah," said Washington. "Dat's de only fault I kin fin' with dat

name—it don't 'pear to stop him. An' befo' I kin git it all out he's giner-

ally out ob sight!"

That sent both boys off into another paroxysm of laughter. Meanwhile

the darkey had come into the great shed and was slowly walking around

the flying machine. "What do you think of her, Wash, now that she's fin-

ished?" asked Mark.

"Is she done done?" queried the darkey, wonderingly.

"She certainly is," agreed Jack.

"De chile is bawn and done named Nebbercudsneezer, heh? Well!

well!"

"No; it's named the Snowbird ," Mark retorted. "And to-morrow morn-

ing, bright and early, we shall sail on its trial trip. The professor is going

with us, Washington. Of course, you will come, too?"

"Lawsy me! don't see how I kin!" stammered Washington White, who

always wished to be considered very brave, but who was really as timid

as a hare. "Yo' see, Massa Mark, I'spect I shall be right busy."

"What will you be busy at?" demanded Jack.

"Well—well, sah," said Wash, "if dat Shanghai don't come back befo', I

shall hab ter go snoopin' aroun' de kentry a-huntin' fo' him. He'll be

crowin' 'bout sun-up, an' he suah can't disguise his crow."

"If Andy was here, he would surely want to go with us," declared Jack

to Mark. "Andy Sudds isn't afraid of anything."

"My! my!" cried Washington. "Yo' don't fo' one moment suppose,

Massa Jack, dat I's afeared; does yo'?" "No, you're not afraid, Wash," re-

turned Jack, chuckling. "You're only scared to death. But you go ahead

and hunt your rooster. See that you keep him from flying too high,

however, or we'll run him down in the Snowbird ."

Roy Rockwood - On a Torn-Away World.pdf

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