en to the descent of a tank,
and Tom's big machine soon stopped rolling, sliding, and turning
improvised somersaults, and rested in a pile of soft shale at the
bottom of the gully. And the tank was resting on her back!

"We've turned turtle!" cried Ned, as he noted that he was standing on
what, before, had been the ceiling of the observation tower. But as
everything was of steel, and as there was no movable furniture, no
great harm was done. In fact, one could as well walk on the ceiling of
the tank as on the floor.

"But how are you going to get her right side up?" asked Mr. Damon.

"Oh, turning upside down is only one of the stunts of the game. I can
right her," was the answer.

"How?" asked Ned.

"Well, she'll right herself if there's ground enough for the steel
belts to get a grip on.

"But can the motors work upside down?"

"They surely can!" responded Tom. "I made 'em that way on purpose. The
gasolene feeds by air pressure, and that works standing on its head, as
well as any other way. It's going to be a bit awkward for the men to
operate the controls, but we won't be this way long. Before I start to
right her, though, I want to make sure nothing is broken."

Tom signaled to the engine room, and, as the power was off and the
speaking tube could be used, he called through it:

"How are you down there?"

"Right-o!" came back the answer from a little Englishman Tom had hired
because he knew something about the British tanks. "'Twas a bit of
nastiness for a while, but it won't take us long to get up ag'in."

"That's good!" commented Tom. "I'll come down and have a look at you."

It was no easy matter, with the tank capsized, to get to the main
engine room, but Tom Swift managed it. To his delight, aside from a
small break in one of the minor machines, which would not interfere
with the operation or motive force of the monster war engine,
everything was in good shape. There was no leak from the gasolene
tanks, which was one of the contingencies Tom feared, and, as he had
said, the motors would work upside down as well as right side up, a
fact he had proved more than once in his Hawk.

"Well, we'll make a start," he told his chief engineer. "Stand by when
I give the signal, and we'll try to crawl out of this right side up."

"How are you going to do it?" asked Ned, as his chum crawled back into
the observation tower.

"Well, I'm going to run her part way up the very steepest part of the
ravine I can