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Appleton, Victor [pseud.]

"Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle"

Baggert.
"Here we go!" suddenly cried Tom, and he yanked over the lever that
started the main motor and propellers. The Black Hawk trembled
throughout her entire length. She shivered and shook. Faster and
faster whirled the great wooden screws. The motor hummed and
throbbed.
Slowly the Black Hawk moved across the ground. Then she gathered
speed. Now she was fairly rushing over the level space. Tom Swift
tilted the elevation rudder, and with a suddenness that was
startling, at least to the old elephant hunter, the new airship shot
upward on a steep, slant.
"The Black Hawk flies!" yelled Ned Newton. "Now for elephant land
and the big tusks!"
"Yes, and perhaps for the red pygmies, too," added Tom in a low
voice. Then he gave his whole attention to the management of his new
machine, which was rapidly mounting upward, with a speed rivalling
that of his former big craft.


CHAPTER VIII
OFF FOR AFRICA

Higher and higher went the Black Hawk, far above the earth, until
the old elephant hunter, looking down, said in a voice which he
tried to make calm and collected, but which trembled in spite of
himself:
"Of course I'm not an expert at this game, Tom Swift, but it looks
to me as if we'd never get down.


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