One by one, beginning with Tom, the prisoners were taken up and placed in a recumbent position on the floor of the storeroom.  Then were brought in the engineer and assistant pilot, as well as Koku and a machinist whom Tom had brought along to help him.  Now the young inventor and all his friends were together.  It took four men to carry Koku in, the giant being covered with a network of ropes.

“On second thought,” said La Foy, as he saw Koku being placed with his friends, “I think we will keep the big man with us.  We had trouble enough to subdue him.  Carry him back to the engine-room.”

So Koku, trussed up like some roped steer, was taken out again.

“Now then,” said La Foy to his prisoners, as he stood in the door of the room, “I will unbind one of you, and he may loose the bonds of the others.”

As he spoke, he took the rope from Tom’s hands, and then, quickly slipping out, locked and barred the door.

CHAPTER XXII APPREHENSIONS

For a moment or two, after the ropes binding his hands were loosed, Tom Swift did nothing.  He was not only stunned mentally, but the bonds had been pulled so tightly about his wrists that the circulation was impeded, and his cramped muscles required a little time in which to respond.

But presently he felt the tingle of the coursing blood, and he found he could move his arms.  He raised them to his head, and then his first care was to remove the pad of cloth that formed a gag over his mouth.  Now he could talk.

“I—­I’ll loosen you all in lust a second,” he said, as he bent over to pick at the knot of the rope around his legs.  His own voice sounded strange to him.

“I don’t know what it’s all about, any more than you do,” he went on, speaking to the others.  “It’s a fierce game we’re up against, and we’ve got to make the best of it.  As soon as we can move, and talk, we’ll decide what’s best to do.  Whoever these fellows are, and I believe they are the foreign spies I’ve been warned about, they are in complete possession of the airship.”

Tom found it no easy matter to loosen the bonds on his feet.  The ropes were well tied, and Tom’s fingers were stiff from the lack of circulation of blood.  But finally he managed to free himself.  When he stood up in the dim storeroom, that was now a prison for all save Koku, he found that he could not walk.  He almost toppled over, so weak were his legs from the tightness of the ropes.  He sat down and worked his muscles until they felt normal again.

A few minutes later, weak and rather tottery, he managed to reach Mr. Damon, whom he first unbound.  He realized that Mr. Damon was the oldest of his friends, and, consequently, would suffer most.  And it was characteristic of the eccentric gentleman that, as soon as his gag was removed he burst out with: 

“Bless my wristlets, Tom!  What does it all mean?”