"Appleton, Victor - Tom Swift Sr 020 - Tom Swift in the Land of Wonders" - читать интересную книгу автора (Appleton Victor)

that isn't saying such a machine couldn't be invented.''

``I believe you -- that is if you got on its trail,'' returned Ned,
and there was warm admiration in his voice.

``As for inside baseball, or outside, for that matter, I hardly
believe I'd be able to tell third base from the second base, it's so long
since I went to a game,'' proceeded Tom. ``I've been too busy on that new
airship stabilizer dad gave me an idea for. I've been working too hard,
that's a fact. I need a vacation, and maybe a good baseball game -- -- ''

He stopped and looked at the magazine he had so hastily slapped down.
Something he had read in it seemed to fascinate him.

``I wonder if it can possibly be true,'' he went on. ``It sounds like
the wildest dream of a professional sleep-walker; and yet, when I stop to
think, it isn't much worse than some of the things we've gone through with,
Ned.''

``Say, for the love of rice-pudding! will you get down to brass tacks
and strike a trial balance? What are you talking of, anyhow? Is it a
joke?''

``A joke?''

``Yes. What you just read in that magazine which seems to cause you so
much excitement.''

---------------------------------------------------------
-3-

``Well, it may be a joke; and yet the professor seems very much in
earnest about it,'' replied Tom. ``It certainly is one wonderful story!''

``So you said before. Come on -- the `fillium' is busted. Splice it,
or else put in a new reel and on with the show. I'd like to know what's
doing. What professor are you talking of?''

``Professor Swyington Bumper.''

``Swyington Bumper?'' and Ned's voice showed that his memory was a bit
hazy.

``Yes. You ought to remember him. He was on the steamer when I went
down to Peru to help the Titus Brothers dig the big tunnel. That plotter
Waddington, or some of his tools, dropped a bomb where it might have done
us some injury, but Professor Bumper, who was a fellow passenger, on his
way to South America to look for the lost city of Pelone, calmly picked up
the bomb, plucked out the fuse, and saved us from bad injuries, if not