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"We have a German gardener," went on Tom, "and Koku now recalls that our mysterious visitor had the same sort of speech. This ought to give us a clue." "Let me see," murmured General Waller.
He found them in the idea of a photo telephone, and he and his father were just talking of this when interrupted by the accident to the birdman on the roof of the Swift home. "Have you got that ladder, Rad?" cried the young inventor, anxiously, as he saw the dangerous position of the man from the airship. "Yas, sah, Massa Tom! I'se a-camin' wif it!" "And where's Koku? We'll need him!"
"Oh, dat big foolish giant, Koku, done got his se'f into trouble!" chuckled the colored man. "He done got holt ob one ob dem air contraptions, Massa Tom, an' he cain't let go! Ha! Ha! Golly! Look at him squirm!" and Rad laughed shrilly, which accounted for some of the sounds Tom had heard.
Come on up to the rooms I have engaged. Hello, what's all the crowd here for?" asked the contractor in some surprise, for a throng had gathered at the hotel entrance. "I expect it's Koku they're staring at," announced Tom, and the giant it was who had attracted the attention.
"No more come here!" said the giant, pointing to the building and speaking English with an evident effort. "Master say no one come too close." "Huh! He didn't go fo' t' mean me!" exclaimed Eradicate. "I kin go anywheres; I kin!" "Not here!" and Koku interposed his giant frame between the old man and the first step leading into the secret building. "You no come in here." "Who say so?"
The question of maritime transport presented some difficulty, but was solved by the expedient of ordering each maritime feudatory to furnish two large ships for every hundred thousand koku of the fief's assessment, and their crews were obtained by compelling each fishing village to furnish ten sailors for every hundred houses it contained. These were not fighting vessels but mere transports.
"Yo' done gone an' knocked de breff outen me, dat's whut yo' all done! I'll bash yo' wif a rock, dat's what I'll do!" Koku, laughing, tried to explain that it was all an accident, but Eradicate would not listen. He looked about for a stone to throw at the giant, though it was doubtful, with his feeble strength, and considering the great frame of the big man, if any damage would have been done.
Eradicate had served Tom and his father long before Koku, the giant, had been brought back from one of the young inventor's many strange trips, and ever since then there had been a jealous rivalry between the twain as to who should best serve Tom. "No trouble, Master," said Koku. "Eradicate he start to come and tell you strange man want to have talk, but Eradicate he no come fast enough.
"Bless my gasoline tank!" exclaimed Tom, with a laugh, in imitation of the gentleman Ned Newton had mentioned, "I know that! I'm not worrying over the loss of any friends." "And there are Eradicate, and Koku, the giant, just to mention a couple of others," went on Ned, with a smile. "That's enough!" exclaimed Tom. "It isn't that, I tell you." "Well, what is it then?
Damon and Koku, who would follow his young master anywhere. Tom saw that the tunnel was lighted with incandescent lamps, suspended here and there from the rocky roof or sides. The electric lights were supplied with current from a dynamo run by a gasoline engine. "Where is it, Serato? Where was the blast?" asked Walter Titus, of a tall Indian, who seemed to be in some authority.
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