d out!"

Though the fumes from the chemicals that had exploded were choking,
causing both Tom and Koku to gasp for breath, they never hesitated. In
they rushed and picked up the limp figure of the helpless colored man.

"Poor Rad!" murmured the giant Koku tenderly. "Him bad hurt! I carry
him, Master Tom! I take him bed, an' I go for doctor! I run like
painted pig!"

Probably Koku meant "greased pig," but Tom never thought of that. All
his concern was for his faithful Eradicate.

"Me carry him, Master Tom!" cried Koku, all the petty jealousy of his
rival passing away now. "Me take care ob Rad. Him no see, me see for
him. Anybody hurt Rad now, got to hurt Koku first!"

It was a fine and generous spirit that the giant was showing, though
Tom had no time to speculate on it just then.

"We must get him into the house, Koku," said the young inventor. "And
two of us can carry him better than one. After we get him to a bed you
can go for the doctor, though I fancy the telephone can run even
quicker than you can, Koku."

"Whatever Master Tom say," returned the giant humbly, as he looked with
pity at the suffering form of his rival--a rival no longer. It seemed
that Rad's working days were over.

Tenderly the aged colored man was laid on a lounge in the living room,
Mr. Swift and Mrs. Baggert hovering over him.

"Where are you worst hurt, Rad?" asked Tom, with a view to getting a
line on which physician would be the best one to summon.

"It's all in mah face, Massa Tom," moaned the colored man. "It's mah
eyes. Dat stuff done sploded right in 'em! I can't see--nevah no mo'!"

"Oh, I guess it isn't as bad as that," said Tom. But when he had a
glimpse of the seared and wounded face of his faithful servant he could
not repress a shudder.

A physician was summoned by telephone, and he arrived in his automobile
at the same time that Mr. Damon reached Tom's house.

"Bless my bottle of arnica, Tom!" exclaimed the eccentric man, with
sympathy in his voice. "What's this I hear? One of your men tells me
old Eradicate is killed!"

"Not as bad as that, yet," replied Tom, as he came out, leaving the
doctor to make his first examination. "It was an explosion of my new
aerial fire-fighting chemicals that I left Rad to mix for me. If
anything serious results to him from this I'll drop the whole business!
I'll never forgive myself!"

"It wasn't your fault, Tom. Perhaps he did something wrong," said Mr.
Damon.

"Yes, it was my