exploded motor had buried in the dirt a short distance away from
the experiment building.

"Lucky none of us were standing over it when it went up," said
Tom, as he made an inspection of the broken machine. "We'd have
gone through the roof with it."

"She certainly went sailing!" commented Ned. "Must have been a
lot of power there, Tom."

And this was evidenced by the bent and twisted rods that had
held the motor to the testing block, and by the cylinders, some
of which were torn apart as though made of paper instead of heavy
steel. But for the fact that all the force of the explosion was
directly upward, instead of at the sides, none might have been
left alive in the shop. All had escaped most fortunately, and
they realized this.

"Well," queried Ned, as Tom gave orders to have the damaged
machine removed and the roof repaired, "does this end the
wonderful silent motor, Tom?"

"End it! What do you mean--"

"I mean are you going to experiment any further?"

"Why, of course! Just because I've had one failure doesn't mean
that I'm going to give up. Especially when I know what the matter
was--not leaving any vent for the escaping gases. Why this isn't
anything. When I was perfecting my giant cannon I was nearly