door.



CHAPTER IV

KOKU'S BRAVE ACT


"Tom! Tom!" cried Ned, as he watched the disappearing figure of
his chum. "Come back here! If there's going to be an explosion we
ought to run out of the back door!"

"I'm not running away!" flashed back Tom. "I'm going to get
that powder out of the auto before it goes up! If it does we'll
be blown to kingdom come, back door or front door! Come on!"

"Bacon and eggs!" yelled Ned. "He's running an awful risk! But
I can't let him go alone! I guess we're in for it!"

Then he, too, rushed from the office toward the front of the
shop, before which, in a sort of private road, stood the blazing
auto. And Ned, who had now lost sight of Tom, because of our hero
having turned a corner in the corridor, heard excited shouts
coming from the seat of trouble.

"If that's some new kind of powder Tom's sent for, to test for
his new big gun, and it goes up," Ned said to himself, as he
rushed on, "this place will be blown to smithereens. All Tom's
valuable machinery and patents will be ruined!"