close as was safe to the blazing car, Mr. Damon
asked:

"Are you going to put out that fire for them, Tom?"

"I'm going to try," was the grim answer.

The young inventor was rapidly taking out of wrapping paper a metal
cylinder with a short nozzle on one end and a handle on the other. It
was, obviously, a hand fire extinguisher of a type familiar to all.

"Wait Tom, I'll slow up a little more," said Mr. Damon, as he applied
the brakes with more force. "Bless my court plaster! don't jump and
injure yourself."

But Tom Swift was sufficiently agile to leap from the automobile when
it was still making good speed. He did not want Mr. Damon to approach
too close to the burning car, for there might be an explosion. At the
same time, he rather discounted the risk to himself, for he ran right
in, while the two men, who had leaped from the blazing machine, hurried
to a safe distance.

Tom held in readiness a small hand extinguisher. It was one he had
constructed from an old one found in the shop, but it contained some of
his own chemicals, the original solution having been used at some time
or other. It was the intention of the young inventor to put on the
market a house-size extinguisher after he had disposed of his big
airship invention.

"Look out there! The gasoline tank may go up!" cried Field, the small
man with the big voice.

Tom did not answer, but ran in as close as was necessary and began to
play a small stream from his hand extinguisher on the blazing car. He
was thus able to direct the white, frothy chemical better than when he
had shot it from the airship, and in a few seconds only some wisps of
curling smoke remained to tell of the presence of the fire. The
automobile was badly charred, but the damage was not past redemption.

"Bless my check book! you did the trick, Tom," cried Mr. Damon, as he
alighted and came up to congratulate his companion.

"Yes. But this wasn't much," Tom said. "I didn't use half the charge.
Short circuit?" he asked Field and Melling who were now returning,
having seen that the danger was passed.

"I--I guess so," replied Melling, in his squeaky voice. "We--we are
much obliged to you."

"No thanks necessary," said Tom, a bit shortly, as he turned to go back
with Mr. Damon to their car. "It's what any one would do under like
circumstances."

"Only you did it very effectively," observed Field.

Tom was wondering if they knew who he was and of his association with
Josephus