第12章

"Besides, Rad," he said, "it's dangerous in those Andes Mountains.Why, they have birds there, as big as cows, and they can swoop down and carry off a man your size.""Am dat shorely so, Massa Tom?"

"Of course it is! You get the dictionary and read about the condors of the Andes Mountains.""Dat's what I'll do, Massa Tom.Birds as big as cows what kin pick up a man in dere beaks, an' carry him off! Oh, my! No, sah, Massa Tom! I don't want t' go.I'll stay right yeah!"Shortly before Tom and Koku departed for the railroad station, where they were to take a train for New York, Mary Nestor returned home.

"Tom called you on the telephone to say good-bye," her mother informed her, "and said he was sorry he could not see you.But he sent some sort of gift.""Oh, how sweet of him!" Mary exclaimed."Where is it?" "On the dining room table.Eradicate brought it with a note." Mary read the note first.

In it Tom begged Mary to accept the little token, and to think of him when she used it.

"Oh! I wonder what it can be," she cried in delight.

"Better open it and see," advised Mr.Nestor, who had come in at that moment.

Mary cut the string of the outside paper, and folded back the wrapper.A wooden box was exposed to view, a solid, oblong, wooden box, and on the top, in bold, red letters Mary, her father and her mother read:

DYNAMITE! HANDLE WITH CARE!

"Oh! Oh!" murmured Mrs.Nestor.

"Dynamite! Handle with care!" repeated Mr.Nestor, in a sort of dazed voice."Quick! Get a pail of water! Dump it in the bathtub! Soak it good, and then telephone for the police.Dynamite! What does this mean?"He rushed toward the kitchen, evidently with the intention of getting a pail of water, but Mary clasped him by the arm.

"Father!" she exclaimed."Don't get so excited!""Excited!" he cried."Who's excited? Dynamite! We'll all be blown up! This is some plot! I don't believe Tom sent this at all! Look out! Call the police! Excited! Who's getting excited?""You are, Daddy dear!" said Mary calmly."This is some mistake.Tom did send this--I know his writing.And wasn't it Eradicate who brought this package, Mother?""Yes, my dear.But your father is right.Let him put it in water, then it will be safe.Oh, we'll all be blown up.Get the water!""No!" cried Mary."There is some mistake.Tom wouldn't send me dynamite, There must be a present for me in there.Tom must have put it in the wrong box by mistake.I'm going to open it."Mary's calmness had its effect on her parents.Mr.Nestor cooled down, as did his wife, and a closer examination of the outer box did not seem to show that it was an infernal machine of any kind.

"It's all a mistake, Daddy," Mary said."I'll show you.Get me a screw driver."After some delay one was found, and Mr.Nestor himself opened the box.When the tissue paper wrappings of the mahogany gift were revealedhe gave a sigh of relief, and when Mary undid the wrappings, and saw what Tom had sent her, she cried:

"Oh, how perfectly dear! Just what I wanted! I wonder how he knew? Oh, I just love it!" and she hugged the beautiful box in her arms.

"Humph!" exclaimed Mr.Nestor, a slowly gathering light of anger showing in his eyes."It is a nice present, but that is a very poor sort of joke to play, in my estimation.""Joke! What joke?" asked Mary.

"Putting a present in a box labeled Dynamite, and giving us such a scare," went on her father.

"Oh, Father, I'm sure he didn't mean to do it!" Mary said, earnestly."Well, maybe he didn't! He may have thought it a joke, and he may nothave! But, at any rate, it was a piece of gross carelessness on his part, and I don't care to consider for a son-in-law a young man as careless as that!""Oh, Daddy!" expostulated Mary.

"Now, now! Tut, tut!" exclaimed Mr.Nestor."It isn't your fault, Mary, but this Tom Swift must be taught a lesson.He was careless, if nothing worse, and, for all he knew, there might have been some stray bits of dynamite in that packing box.It won't do! It won't do! I'll write him a letter, and give him a piece of my mind!"And in spite of all his wife and his daughter could say, Mr.Nestor did write Tom a scathing letter.He accused him of either perpetrating a joke, or of being careless, or both, and he intimated that the less he saw of Tom at the Nestor home hereafter the better pleased he would be.

"There! I guess that will make him wish he hadn't done it!" exclaimed Mr.Nestor, as he called a messenger and sent the letter to Tom's house.

Mary and her mother did not know the con tents of the note, but Mary tried to get Tom on the wire and explain.However, she was unable to reach him, as Tom was on the point of leaving.

The messenger, with Mr.Nestor's letter, arrived just as our hero was receiving the late afternoon mail from the postman, and just as Tom and Koku were getting in an automobile to leave for the depot.

"Good-bye, Dad!" Tom called."Good-bye, Mrs.Baggert!" He thrust Mr.Nestor's letter, unopened, together with some other mail matter, whichhe took to be merely circulars, into an inner pocket, and jumped into the car.

Tom and Koku were off on the first stage of their journey.