been let off in the shop.

Tom and Eradicate were tossed backward, head over heels, as
though by the giant hands of Koku himself, and Mr. Damon, Ned,
and Tom's father saw the motor fly from the testing block and
shoot through the roof of the building with a rending, crashing,
and splintering sound that could be heard for a mile.



CHAPTER IX
AFTER A SPY


Curious as it may seem, Eradicate, the oldest and certainly not
the most energetic of the party assembled in the experiment room,
was the first to recover himself and arise. Tottering to his feet
he gave one look at the testing block, whence the motor had torn
itself. Then he looked at the prostrate figures around him, none
of them hurt, but all stunned and very much startled. Then the
gaze of Eradicate traveled to the hole in the roof. It was a
gaping, ragged hole, for the motor was heavy and the roof of
flimsy material. And then the colored man exclaimed:

"Good land ob massy! Did I do dat?"

His tone was one of such startled contrition, and so tragic,
that Tom Swift, rueful as he felt over the failure of his
experiment and the danger they had all been in, could not help
laughing.