And,
before I, or any of the other men, could do anything, they all
swarmed down on us.
"There must have been a dozen of them, and they simply
overwhelmed us. One of them hit Koku on the head with an iron
bar, and that took all the fight out of the giant, or the story
might have been a different one. As it was, we were overpowered,
and that's all I know until we were carried in here, and saw you
folks all tied up as we were."
"They burst in on us in the same way," Tom explained. "But
where did they come from? Where were they hiding?"
"In the oil and gasoline storeroom that opens out of the motor
compartment," answered Mound, the engineer. "It isn't half full,
you know, and there's room for more than a dozen men in it. They
must have gone in some time last night, when the airship was in
the hangar, and remained hidden among the boxes and barrels until
they got ready to come out and overpower us."
"That's it," decided Tom. "But I don't understand how they got
in. The hangar was well guarded all night."
"Some of your men might have been bribed,"
suggested Ned.
"Yes, that is so," admitted Tom, and, later, he learned that
such had been the case.
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