Tom Swift and his Electric Rifle

Table of

e to hunt elephants, we will take the opportunity to tell

a young American lad, full of grit and ginger, who lives with his aged father in the town of Shopton, in

individual, who was continually blessing himself, some one else, or something belonging to him. His motor-cycle tried to climb a

r and his chum, Ned Newton, did, was to rescue, from a burning balloon that had fallen into Lake Carlopa, an aeronaut named John Sharp

them, thus foiling the plans of Andy Foger, a town bully, and one of Tom

a submarine boat, invented by Mr. Swift, went under the

ar, which proved, to be the speediest of the road, and in it he won a great rac

a friend of Mr. Damon's had invented, Tom, the inventor and Mr. Damon were lost on an island in the middle of the ocean. There th

were hidden in the Rocky Mountains. He was accompanied by Mr. Barcoe Jenks, one of the castaways of Earthquak

ing for a valley of gold, and though he and his friends found it, they came to grief. The Fogers, father and son, tried to steal the gold from them, and, f

sed, crushing the gallant craft, and burying it out of

s new craft he called the Humming-Bird and it was a "sky racer" of terrific speed. In it, as we have said, Tom brought a specialist to operate on his father, when, because of a broken railroad bridge, the physician could not otherwise have gotten to Shopton. He and Tom tr

Bird, and, as told in the ninth book of this series, Tom Swif

ollowing the great race-that is, nothing save to work

sked his father at the supper table

s worrying

Are you afraid your electric rifle won't work as

ll you, I guess. I've been reading in the pap

rupted Mr. Swift. "I can see which way the wind is bl

not exactl

Swift laughed. "Well, I don't blame you a

the young inventor, "only I'd never

are gone, but don't let that stand in the way. If you want to go to

nt to take an airship along, and it will take me some little

Africa are likely to stay there for some time. If you want to go, why don't you

ld, Dad," excla

am going to resume work on my wireless motor. Perhaps I'll have it finish

or. "Well, Dad, I'll think of it. Bu

ll, and Mrs. Baggert, the housekeeper, who was alm

urmured Tom, and, a little la

" said Ned. "Haven't yo

ished. Come on out a

ded Mr. Swift with a laugh, as he men

at!" cried the bank cle

have more fun than we did in the caves of ic

apon was out there, and Eradicate Sampson, the colored man, who was a sort of servant and man-o

turn on a few more lights, will you, Mr. Jackson," and the engineer, who was emp

wing the beams on the big stuffed figure, which, save for a face, loo

it, while I shoot at it; do you, Rad?" asked Tom j

te. "Yo'-all will hab t' scuse me, M

e saw the colored man hastily prepar

ed fo' my mule Boomerang!" exclaimed Eradicate, as he

He doesn't like this gun. Well, i

ike an ordinary heavy rifle in appearance save that the barrel was a little longer, and the sto

electricity,"

s from a powerful curren

e storage batteri

t of wireless kind. It is stored in a cylinder, just as compre

s all gone, w

r by means of a

t shoot lea

There are no

w does i

if you concentrated a charge of electricity of five thousand volts into a small globule the size of a bullet. That flies through space, strikes

to place a section of steel armo

going to shoot through that, d

ly as the x-rays do. That's one valuable feature of my rifle. You don't have to see the obj

nk that would

of the range, and is not effective beyond that. Otherwise, if I did not limit it and if I fired at the scarecrow, through the piece of steel, and the bullet hit th

certainly is a d

e are other features of the gun which I'll explain later, particularly the power it ha

alves and levers. In spite of the fact that the gun was larger than an

ement on the rifle, he could tell exactly when he was po

s!" he sudden

he side of the rifle barrel, about where the trigger should have bee

e scarecrow figure seemed to fly all to pieces. There was a shower of straw,

for that fellow, all

th a note of pride in his voice

lp Mr. Jackson shift the steel plate ther

" asked Tom,

me one calling,

erhaps Eradicate's mule has got

increased in volume, and Tom and

What do you mean by trying to kill me? Where are you? Don't try to hide

ded on the do

claimed Tom. "I wonder