"
"And will yours do that?" asked Ned. "I mean will it do
ten miles an hour, and straddle over a wider ditch than
twelve feet?"
"It'll do both," promptly answered Tom. "We did a little
better than eleven miles an hour a while ago when I yelled
to you to get out of the way just now. It's true we weren't
under good control, but the speed had nothing to do with
that. And as for going over a big ditch, I think we
straddled one about fourteen feet across back there, and we
can do better when I get my grippers to working."
"Grippers!" exclaimed Mary.
"What kind of trench slang is that, Tom Swift?" asked Mr.
Damon.
"Well, that's a new idea I'm going to try out It's
something like this," and while from a distant part of the
interior of Tank A came the sound of hammering, the young
inventor rapidly drew a rough pencil sketch.
It showed the tank in outline, much as appear the pictures
of tanks already in service--the former simile of two wedge-shaped
pieces of metal put together broad end to broad end,
still holding good. From one end of the tank, as Tom drew
it, there extended two long arms of latticed steel
construction.
Pages:
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101