e evening, that he
believed he had everything in readiness for an exhaustive test the next
day.

"There's the stuff!" exclaimed Tom, not a little proudly, as he waved
his hand toward an immense carboy in the main shop. "That's what I hope
will do the trick. Just take a--"

"Hold on! Stop! That's enough! Bless my hair brush!" cried Mr. Damon,
holding up a protesting hand. "If you take that cork out, Tom Swift,
you and I will cease to be friends!"

"I wasn't going to open it," laughed the young inventor. "It has a
worse odor and seems to choke you more in a big quantity than when
there's only a little. I was just going to shake the carboy to let you
realize how full it was."

"We'll take your word for it!" laughed Ned. "Now about your test. How
are you going to work it?"

"There are to be two tests," answered Tom. "The first, and the smaller,
will be in the pit, as before, only this time we shall have what, I
believe, will be the successful combination of chemicals to drop on it.

"The second test will be the main one. In that I plan to have an old
barn which I have bought set ablaze. Then Ned and I will sail over it
in the airship and drop chemicals on it. The barn will be filled with
empty boxes and barrels, to make as hot a fire as possible. You are
invited to accompany us, Mr. Damon."

"Will there be any smell?" asked the eccentric man, who seemed to have
a dislike for anything that was not as agreeable as perfume.

"No, the chemicals will be sealed in containers, which will be dropped
from my airship as bombs were dropped in the war," said Tom.

"On those conditions I'll go along," agreed Mr. Damon. "But bless my
wedding certificate, Tom! don't tell my wife. She thinks I'm crazy
enough now, associating with you and flying occasionally. If she
thought I would help you battle with flames from the air she'd likely
never speak to me again."

"I'll not tell," promised Tom, laughing.

Preparations for the test went on rapidly. In the morning a fire was to
be started in the same pit where the experiment had partly failed
before.

From the platform over the blazing hole some of the new combination of
chemicals was to be dropped. If it acted with success, as Tom believed
it would, he proposed to go on with the more important test in the
afternoon.

To this end he had purchased from a farmer the right to set on fire an
old ramshackle barn, standing in the midst of a field about three miles
outside of Shopton.